Zimbabwe

This article reports findings on the steps and pathways thorugh with young people construct livelihoods in hotspots of agricultural commercialisation. Findings draw attention to a new potential area for intervention: the use of social protection measures to help minimise downside risks associated with hazards, so that the young people’s hard-earned assets are less vulnerable to loss. »

This study was conducted on informal savings mechanisms (ISMS), their users, and how they percieve their groups and formal financial service providers (FSPs) in three provinces in Zambia. »

This magazine shares a collection of articles with lessons learned of the N2Africa project. The N2Africa project is a research project that aims to improve the quality and yields of grain legume crops and thereby strengthening the economic position of smallholder farmers. It does so by putting nitrogen fixation to work. »

This technical brief aims to examine the quality of farmer-produced seeds that smallholder farmers use for planting in Zimbabwe. Smallholder farmers in eastern Zimbabwe have the capacity to produce sorghum seed that matches formal seed certification standards. This emphasises the need for relevant stakeholders to recognise and promote the resilience of farmer-led seed systems »

This paper examines the state, drivers and, consequently, the impacts of agricutural mechanization in eleven countries in Africa. Significant drivers of agricultural mechanization include the size of the household and gender of the household head. Agricultural mechanization, significantly increases the amount of cropland cultivated (extensification) and is also accompanied by input intensification especially in countries where land expansion is limited. The findings point to the importance of developing favorable arrangements that would avail mechanization to small and medium scale farmers. »

Globally, governments, development agencies, and inter-governmental institutions have invested heavily in skills-building interventions seeking to enhance the employability of youths. However, policy actors are becoming more aware of the shortcomings of skills-building interventions, and attention is shifting to focus on how to promote productivity, boost the private sector, and generate the kind of growth that could create jobs. Empirical research on youth employment in the private sector is sparse. This IDS Bulletin begins to fill that gap. »