Africa

This article, published by the PNAS Journal, presents a study that provides insight about the challenge in meeting the projected tripled cereal demand by 2050 due to expected population growth and modest changes in diets in 10 SSA countries, through scenarios of yield gap closure. Recent studies indicate that the global increase in food demand by 2050 can be met through closing the gap between current farm yield and yield potential on existing cropland. Here, however, we estimate it will not be feasible to meet future SSA cereal demand on existing production area by yield gap closure alone. »

This report by RAF Learning is exploring the business case for smallholder finance, in particular the role of digital approaches in making it possible to profitably serve this market at scale. New digital technologies and innovative business models are making it possible to provide credit to smallholder farmers in Africa. The report looks at where and how innovations in digital technology promise to enable financial service providers to serve smallholders at scale. »

These four reports by the KIT are analysis of four maize seed systems in Malawi, Zambia, Bihar in India and Chiapas in Mexico. The four documents describe the adoption and impact of improved maize germplasm at small scale farmer level in these four areas. The objective is to understand whether smallholder farmers have access to seed of improved maize varieties, and if so, how the seed sector supports this. »

This “Lessons Learned” document reviews experiences over the last two decades in conservation agriculture and provides practical guidelines for the adoption of CA on program level and more technicallu. The three principles of conservation agriculture are: continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; permanent organic soil cover; and diversification. While CA took off in Latin America, adoption in sub-Saharan Africa has been limited due to different contexts and challenges. »

This briefing by The Initiative For Smallholder Finance explores the causes of low uptake in digital credit for smallholders in Tanzania. Dalberg’s Design Impact Group (DIG) explores these causes to better understand how concrete product solutions to jump-start adoption of digital credit products can be developed. Digital credit products represent an important financial inclusion opportunity for smallholder farmers in Tanzania, where close to 80% of the workforce is engaged in farming. Uptake of these products by smallholder farmers, however, remains limited. »

This article describes the reasons why women in Ethiopian communities did not take up training opportunities. In order to encourage gender equality in delivery of varietal knowledge to male and female farmers in Ada’a and Ensaro districts of Ethiopia, chickpea breeders set a policy that each male farmer would bring along his wife to participatory varietal selection sessions. »