Farmers ‘shamefully neglected’ in fight against hunger

Governments in Africa spend less than seven per cent of their national budgets on agriculture despite 75 per cent of poor people living in rural areas. ActionAid’s report confirms evidence that investment and growth in agriculture can make twice the impact on poverty as growth in other sectors. Donor aid to agriculture has fallen to [...]

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Agricultural Innovation for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in the 21st Century: Issues for Africa and the World

Many voices are questioning how the world can feed 9 billion people in 2050. Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2011 (SOW11) report, seeks to highlight innovations that can address the challenges: innovations that will reduce hunger, improve environment and agriculture, improve the lives of women, and be economically feasible for farmers and the donors/investors. [...]

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Agribusiness must take the lead in alleviating Africa’s poverty

The Africa’s geographical location and tropical weather, as well as its diversely rich soil content, give it added advantage for massive agricultural activities. However, a majority of Africans engage in one form of farming or the other, albeit at subsistence scale. African Agribusiness and Agro-industries initiative (3ADI), which builds on the CAADP commitment of the [...]

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Governance and Small-scale Agriculture in West Africa

Lack of concrete proposals for transforming small-scale agriculture across Africa has undermined efforts to overcome constraints and take advantage of opportunities in the sector. From 8th to 10th November 2010, Idasa’s Economic Governance Programme will host a conference on ‘Governance and Small-scale Agriculture in West Africa’. The aim is to discuss governance and public investment [...]

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Make Decentralization Integral to Development

Local government functionaries are important to pursue socio-economic development agenda through effective decentralization. Government of Ghana is focusing on improving the revenue ability of local government authority and pursuing the socio-economic development agenda through effective decentralization. Allocation of resources, transferred from the central administration to the districts, is important to improve the agriculture sector of [...]

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The 6TH comprehensive Africa agriculture development program (CAADP) partnership platform meeting

Agriculture is the cornerstone of the African economy and it is crucial for African governments to step up their investment in this sector if hunger, food insecurity and poverty are to be eliminated. Delegates at the 6th Partnership Platform Meeting of the CAADP, which took place in Johannesburg, placed strong emphasis on this increased investment. [...]

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Green Agriculture Growing in Leaps and Bounds

Africa needs to triple agricultural productivity by 2050 to keep pace with population growth. According to Food and Agriculture Organization research by 400 scientists, small farmers and organic agriculture are the best way to ensure the continent’s food security. Some 52 countries were in agreement and adopted the report, called the International Assessment of Agricultural [...]

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Putting Poverty and Hunger Solutions to the Test

Can new approaches help point the way to more effective policies and programs in agriculture? To help answer these questions, IFPRI researchers are drawing on the tenets of experimental economics. Field experiments are being used in Ethiopia, Tanzania and in other countries to capture the salient aspects of the decision-making environment in a somewhat simplified [...]

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Africa urged to adopt new poverty model

African countries should include disaster risk reduction in their national development plans if efforts to reduce poverty are to succeed. African governments have to take more proactive steps to minimize on the damage and cost of disasters, such as droughts and floods, which have been on a steady rise. According to the Centre for Research [...]

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Study says drought tolerant maize will greatly profit African farmers

Maize is life to more than 300 million of Africa’s most vulnerable inhabitants, and the most important food staple on the continent. A new study evaluates the potential impacts of drought tolerant maize for Africa. A project led by CIMMYT in 13 African countries: Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, [...]

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