Academic article

Lack of dietary diversity is a key causal factor of malnutrition in Burkina Faso because the population consumes mostly cereals crops. Nutrient‐dense traditional African vegetables provide an excellent means to complement cereal staples for better nutrition, in particular for women and children, as well as for income generation. This study in the Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development characterized the production of traditional African vegetables in Burkina Faso based on a questionnaire administered to 250 respondents. »

This study in the World Development Journal, extends existing knowledge on household food (in)security by assessing gender inequality among small-holder farm households in urban and rural areas of South Africa. In doing-so, the authors use the gender of the head of household and treatment effects framework. With the ongoing changes in climate, household food insecurity is likely to be more widespread in most smallholder and subsistence farm households in sub-Saharan Africa. »

This article, published in the Environmental Modeling & Assessment journal, models the supply and demand for agricultural goods and assess and compares how welfare, land use, and biodiversity are affected under intensive and extensive farming systems at market equilibrium instead of at exogenous production levels. »

This article in the Global Food Security Journal, reviews the channels through which horticultural exports affect food security in developing countries. The authors describe the trends in horticultural export chains and investigate the macro- and micro-level effects on the different components of food security, including availability, access, utilization and stability. »

This paper by Nature.com assesses the role of trees on agricultural land and their significance for carbon sequestration at a global level, along with recent change trends. Agroforestry systems and tree cover on agricultural land make an important contribution to climate change mitigation, but are not systematically accounted for in either global carbon budgets or national carbon accounting. Remote sensing data show that in 2010, 43% of all agricultural land globally had at least 10% tree cover and that this has increased by 2% over the previous ten years. »

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. »