Africa

The authors provide evidence for a “conceptual lock in” in rural advisory services, one that constructs farmers as male regardless of the reality of female farmers on the ground. They show that this not only hampers access by women to advisory services, it also fails to tackle the underlying gender inequalities that prevent both women and men from maximizing their decision-making capacity and economic potential. »

This working paper discusses emerging policy implications for economic diversification in rural sub-Saharan Africa. While continuing to prioritize rural investments in the economic and social sectors, governments should mainstream rural development within national strategies and commit to the long term. »

This report (PDF) by Grow Africa and IDH, offers a first set of insights, distilled from the knowledge of leading practitioners, on how to successfully integrate smallholders into value chains through effective service delivery and smallholder aggregation models. »

This paper by Future Agricultures aimed to explore in a systematic way the perspectives of rural young people, their parents and development officials on a series of questions relating to work in general and agriculture in particular. The study presents the results of a series of Q Methodology studies with secondary students and parents in Ghana, and with development officials. »

This explorative study looked at the potential of the fruit & vegetable sector for Food and Nutrition Security (FNS). The methodology consisted of a focused literature review mainly concentrated on the following countries: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Ghana, Uganda, Kenya, Indonesia and Vietnam; and semi-structured interviews amongst different growers, traders and workers in the Ethiopian fruit and vegetable sector. The development of the fruits & vegetables sector in developing countries has a positive impact on the FNS of the people engaged in the sector and for urban and rural consumers. »

These reports by CGIAR review capacity building training of dairy innovation platforms in Tanga (PDF) and Morogoro (PDF) in Tanzania and highlight key opportunities and challenges in improving dairy production in the country. The outcomes of training programs held in December 2014 and January 2015 are highlighted, targeting dairy innovation platform leaders in the two regions to enhance their capacity and understanding of the functioning and usefulness of innovation platforms established by MilkIT dairy development program. »