In the early 1980s, Germany’s KfW Development Bank financed the first irrigation project around Mount Kenya. A reliable supply of water was expected to enable farmers to achieve stable yields. In this way, they could not only safeguard their own food supply but also supply new markets and earn themselves an income. The following article takes stock of progress and benefits.

Agriculture is the basis for the livelihoods of the rural Congolese population. Yet despite its considerable potential, the sector and its many smallscale producers are barely served by microfinance institutions. The lack of adapted financial products for development of the farming sector is one of the reasons for the country’s continuing dependence on food imports.

Despite good potential for food production, South Sudan’s agriculture is not feeding its population. The impacts of decades of armed conflict are posing enormous challenges for the sector. Farmer Field Schools seem to be a promising instrument to improve food security and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in the country.

Improving watershed conservation and household food security has been one of the major development challenges in the semi-arid areas of northern Ethiopia. The initial survey by ILRI’s Improving Productivity and Marketing Success project has revealed that physical conservation measures alone do not result in higher farmers’ income. However, the introduction of market-oriented commodity development such as beekeeping, sheep-fattening, and high value crops resulted in farmers’ income rising fivefold from 2005 to 2009.

In October 2011, the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested the High Level Panel of Experts (HLPE) to prepare "a comparative study of constraints to smallholder investment in agriculture in different contexts with policy options for addressing these constraints, taking into consideration the work done on this topic by IFAD, and by FAO in the context of COAG, and the work of other key partners.

The coastal zone of Bangladesh is the most vulnerable region of the eastern Ganges basin, occupies about 30% (46,000 km2) of the country’s land area and is home to some of the world’s poorest and most food insecure 39 million people, whose livelihoods depend primarily on agriculture and aquaculture. Key challenges to both agricultural and aquacultural productivity include excessive flooding during the rainy season, lack of access to fresh water and soil salinity during the dry season, and severe cyclonic storms and tidal surges throughout the year.

Farmers in Boyolali District in Central Java, Indonesia are producing and marketing organic rice through their organization APPOLI (Organic Farmers Alliance Boyolali). The organizatino is doing consumer awareness activities and implementing an Internal Control System (ICS) to guarantee quality, traceability, and organic certification of rice.

The increasing resilience to climate
change in the agricultural sector report presents
local-level priorities, informed by stakeholder input, to
build agricultural resilience in both countries. The
objectives of this study were threefold: (1) to improve the
understanding of climate change projections and impacts on
rural communities and livelihoods in selected regions of
Jordan and Lebanon, specifically the Jordan River Valley and

The objective of the Agricultural
Insurance pre-feasibility study is to identify the
institutional, operational, technical and financial
challenges for the development of agricultural risk transfer
solutions and insurance for rice, fruit and vegetables,
livestock, and the aquaculture sector in Guyana. The
specific objectives of the study include: (i) to identify
the production systems, constraints and risks faced by