Africa

The documentary Ethiopia Rising, tells the story of how Ethiopia’s people restored vast areas of degraded land to productivity. Thousands of hectares of degraded land were transformed into vast hillside forests and fertile valleys. »

This report (PDF) by IDS and Oxfam highlights the third year results of the study Life in a Time of Food Price Volatility, with a focus on changes in diets. The report explores what people on low and precarious incomes are eating now and how they are responding to the increasing commodification of food. Furthermore, the paper uncovers how these changes are linked to adjustments in work, residence and home life. »

This briefing note by Oxfam highlights lessons learned from the three-year global programme ‘Putting lessons into practice: Scaling up People’s Biodiversity Management for Food Security’. Findings on innovation and learning from the three partner countries have been consolidated into a global framework, and further conceptualised into six scaling up pathways, to ensure widespread impact—in such a way that social, environmental, or economic conditions can be enhanced beyond the context of this programme. »

This brief (PDF) of the International Livestock Research Institute elaborates solutions for the dairy value chain in Tanzania. Since demand for milk in Tanzania increases, there is a need for new mechanisms to increase productivity and market orientation. »

This paper in the Food Policy Journal identifies four common misconceptions regarding the nature and importance of farmer seed networks today. (1) Farmer seed networks are inefficient for seed dissemination. (2) Farmer seed networks are closed, conservative systems. (3) Farmer seed networks provide ready, egalitarian access to seed. (4) Farmer seed networks are destined to weaken and disappear. »

This article in Food Policy Journal examined the relationship between household-specific producer–consumer food price differentials and rural household cropland allocation between food and high-value crops. The authors tested the hypothesis that cereal price bands induce a shift of resources away from high-value crop production, making smallholders appear unresponsive to price incentives. »