Africa

This report by the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and CCAFS-CGIAR provides lessons learned on a project on “Developing community-based climate smart agriculture through participatory action research in CCAFS benchmark sites in West Africa”. After three years of implementation, the document is describing the approach used and the lessons learnt. An evaluation of the project through two consultants reported that the project was well designed and was very relevant in the context of climate change as its objectives are in line with local needs especially national research/ development goals. »

This paper applies a historical analysis of the progressive development and complexity of Malawi’s diary innovation system through phased emphasis on technological, organizational and institutional development to illustrate the centrality of smallholder dairy farmers in the innovation system. A social network analysis is applied to assess the influence of smallholder farmers on other actors. »

This study in the International Journal of Agricultural Extension examined the perception of rural youths toward Agriculture as a profession in Nigeria. Data for the study were obtained through interview and structured questionnaires administered to one hundred and twenty respondents. »

This report addresses various recommendations to deal with the current El Nino and the forecast of La Nina. According to Oxfam, El Nino was a broadly preventable crisis and the severity of El Nino’s impacts is a reflection of the world’s failure to provide comprehensive and long-term strategies to anticipate, prepare and adapt. To end this cycle of failure, there is an urgent need for humanitarian action where the situation is already dire, to prepare for La Niña later this year, to commit to comprehensive new measures to build communities’ resilience, and to mobilize global action to address climate change. »

In this article, country comparisons reveal that dietary diversity is higher in situations with more commercialized agriculture than in subsistence-oriented settings. This suggests that specialization and low on-farm production diversity are not necessarily associated with lower dietary diversity, when diverse types of foods can be purchased from the market. The results show that production diversity has a positive but marginal effect on dietary diversity. »

This review of literature reveals that there are many opportunities to increase women’s economic empowerment beyond interventions focused on production. While there is a wealth of information related to women’s economic empowerment through production, there is limited available data related to best practices and promising approaches for women’s empowerment at other value chain levels. This literature review aims to fill this knowledge gap by examining approaches to empower women or increase their incomes in the value chain outside of production. »