A great deal of research on agriculture in Africa is organised around the premise that intensification can take smallholder farmers out of poverty. The emphasis in programming often focuses on technologies that increase farm productivity and management practices that go along with them.
Yet the returns of such technologies are not …
With more than 90 percent of the world’s food grown from soil, it’s a problem that impacts the health, incomes and livelihoods of billions of people on the planet.
Soil erosion – when the uppermost layer of soil is shifted or worn away – is a growing threat and one that has the potential …
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change estimates that temperatures in Africa are set to rise significantly in coming years, with devastating results for farmers. Some regions could experience two droughts every five years, and see drastic reductions in maize yields over the next three decades.
Research demonstrates that climate-smart …
Farmers in Kenya report increased yields after signing up to microloan scheme.Groups such as One Acre Fund and myAgro give smallholders access to finance and farming inputs.More investment is essential to help small-scale farmers reach their potential. Read more …
Brazil and Africa share similar environmental, climate and social conditions, and both face similar development challenges. This creates interesting opportunities for South-South collaboration through technology transfer in several areas, including agriculture, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and value chains development.
Drawing on its fundamental goal of promoting rural development, as well …
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the most food-insecure region in the world, with an estimated 237 million throughout the region suffering from chronic undernutrition.
Frequent droughts are partially to blame for the persistent food shortages and the dry conditions make farming particularly challenging for the region’s smallholders. The TELA Maize Project has been working …
Precision farming techniques are being scaled down to be usable and affordable.
In Africa, a start-up scene is taking shape, capable of lifting millions out of poverty by transforming the continent’s largest industry: agriculture. The African continent contains more than a quarter of the world’s arable land, and farming contributes 15 …
A group of 25 women from eastern and western Africa have joined the list of young researchers racing to bridge the shortage of women agriculture scientists in Africa.
The women will build the next generation of scientists working with smallholder farmers to battle climate change in Africa’s troubled agriculture sector, according …
The world’s sustainable future cannot be achieved without the involvement of rural women and girls. Read more …
B4FA Fellow Michael Ssali writes:
Good farmers should continuously seek new knowledge about their work. Farming is dynamic and agricultural practices keep changing. New markets for agricultural products often come with new conditions that have to be met.
Time and again challenges crop up and a farmer will need guidance on how …