Smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is largely exposed to pervasive market failures, translating into missed opportunities and sub-optimal economic behavior.
Ethiopia has made efforts to tackle the challenges of low crop and livestock productivity and degradation of land resources through various rural development strategies.
Several factors contribute to the low level of improved variety use in Ethiopia.
A well-measured experiment of multiple yield estimation methods on 237 smallholder maize plots on farms in the Amhara region, Ethiopia.
Many smallholder farmers, especially women and other marginalized groups, face difficulty in accessing loans and other forms of credit.
A relatively large body of literature has documented the welfare effects of smallholder farmers’ participation in single-commodity output markets.
Potato ranks second staple food crop in Kenya. The Government seeks rapid yield growth in the potato subsector, however with only 2% of potato seed planted currently certified there is a persistent shortage of quality seed.
We study production practices of larger and more capital-intensive farmers (“horti-preneurs”) in horticultural commercial clusters in the central Rift Valley of Ethiopia.
Several factors contribute to the low level of improved variety use in Ethiopia.
Agricultural advisory services generally rely on interpersonal knowledge transfers by agricultural extension agents who visit farmers to provide information.
In recent decades the agricultural sector in Ethiopia has seen a sustained period of growth, which is believed to have contributed in turn to economic growth and poverty reduction.
Advances in plant breeding and biotechnology have the potential to transform agriculture in Africa, but sustainable and inclusive distribution and marketing of quality seeds remains a significant challenge.
Many developing economies suffer from a lack of reliable rainfall measurements due to a lack of funds and a shortage of equipment – such as gauges and radars.
In the third of a four-part blog series following the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Foresight4Food, IFAD and APRA eDialogue session on the future of small-scale farming, Jemimah Njuki, the International Food Policy Research Institu
Credit constraint is considered by many as one of the key barriers to adoption of modern agricultural technologies, such as chemical fertilizer, improved seeds, and irrigation technologies, among smallholders.