Contract farming is emerging as an important governance structure in certain agricultural value chains. This study was done with the objectives of understanding the contractual relations between buyers and small-scale growers in the tobacco industry in Malawi and the impact of contract farming…
Agricultural productivity in the highlands of Ethiopia is threatened by severe land degradation, resulting in significant reductions in agricultural GDP. In order to mitigate ongoing erosion and soil nutrient loss in the productive agricultural highlands of the country, the government of…
The focus in this paper is on two relatively large maize-based contract farming (CF) schemes with fixed input packages (Masara and Akate) and a number of smaller and more flexible CF schemes in a remote region in Ghana (Upper West). Results show that these schemes led to improved technology…
Health-related incentives to reward effort or commitment are commonplace in many professional contracts throughout the world. Typically absent from small-scale agriculture in poor countries, such incentives may help overcome both health issues for remote rural families and supply issues for…
Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with…
Development partners and public investors assume that spate irrigation reduces household poverty and malnutrition. This article examines whether the poverty profiles of smallholder farmers and the nutritional outcomes of their children have improved as a result of using spate irrigation. The…
The agriculture sector is the backbone of Ethiopia’s economy and livelihoods. Yet, heavy reliance on rain-fed systems has made the sector particularly vulnerable to variability in rainfall and temperature. Climate change may decrease national gross domestic product (GDP) by 8–10% by 2050, but…
Our goal is to provide the scientific basis for development investments and policies that promote more productive, profitable agriculture, and healthier diets at no environmental cost. Low-income, smallholder farmers face significant challenges across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). High population…
Les principaux résultats produits au cours de la période considérée dans le présent compte rendu ont inclus la prestation de services dans le cadre du dialogue politique de haut niveau et l’organisation de manifestations parallèles et de séances d’apprentissage sur les questions foncières et les…
The Guidelines for the Development of Curricula on Land Governance in Africa support the implementation of the AU Declaration on land issues and Challenges in Africa, in particular the call for Member States to, “Build adequate human, financial, technical capacities to support land policy…
In dryland Africa, access to land and water resources are central to pastoral livelihood activities. Policy intervention in these regions represents the outcome of concerted post-independence processes in which countries have committed to land tenure transformation as a policy objective. This…