We use plot-level data from the National Panel Survey to estimate maize - N respon se rates and the profitability of inorganic fertilizer use. We find that average smallholder maize-N response rates are not even 50% of those from zonal center trials, implying that there is a considerable gap between actual and potential returns from fertilizer use. Fertilizer use on maize is only marginally profitable for farmers with average response rates, even in higher potential zones. Farmers who used improved maize seed, fallowed a plot more recently and/or received an extension visit have higher response rates and more profitable fertilizer use, yet fallowing is infrequent and extension does not reach most farmers.
Over the period 2014-16, the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, through its SRAI 2 project with Michigan State University, commissioned seven sets of case studies.1 These examined innovative models of linking small farmers in West Africa to growing markets for valued-added agricultural products, including processed food products and high-value exports. The models, termed “partnership models” here, involved various forms of contracting with farmers, either through farmer organizations or directly with private firms. The studies aimed at identifying factors that contributed to both inclusion of small farmers and sustainability of the approaches used. This paper synthesizes key results and crosscutting lessons from those studies.
* Livestock production and marketing has the potential of improving the smallholder farmer’s livelihood, but small herd size limits smallholder livestock commercialization. Thus understanding the herd dynamics is a pragmatic initial step in addressing this problem and providing solutions to building and maintaining the herd size. Births are the primary source of building the herd size while deaths as reflected by high mortality rates are the major outflow channel. It is encouraging that cattle mortality rates have reduced and the population growth rates increased between 2012 and 2015 though more still needs to be done.
A Dynamic incentive model is used to develop conditions that minimize strategic default in agricultural inputs on credit to rural smallholder farmers. Hypotheses from the model are tested using data collected through a framed field experiment that simulates a market for input on credit
Increasing the use of modern inputs including fertilizer is key for raising agricultural productivity and reducing poverty in Nigeria, particularly and Africa more generally. However, based on recent empirical evidence from Nigeria, simply increasing the quantity of fertilizer used by smallholders is not likely to successfully drive this process. A more holistic approach that addresses the constraints to fertilizer profitability in Nigeria with appropriate consideration of the factors which will increase the efficiency of fertilizer use is necessary.
This brief presents empirical results that revisit a conventional wisdom that inorganic fertilizer use across sub-Saharan Africa is too low. This expectation that more farmers should be using inorganic fertilizer and at higher rates implies it is profitable to use rates higher than observed if farmers are rational expected profit maximizers. This study exploits the political economy of fertilizer access in Nigeria to get consistent estimates of the effects of applied nitrogen on rice production.
Rice is at the center of food policy debates in West Africa.1 Driven by its convenience in preparation and consumption and higher consumer incomes, per capita consumption grew from just under 15 kg/year in 1970 to 40 kg/year in 2011 while population tripled during the same period.
Initial contacts between investor and community are important and prior information of the local population is crucial for laying a foundation for a good relationship. However, remaining realistic about what the investment can achieve and regular contacts to the community are equally important. Land issues in Zambia are highly contentious. Even if investors target state land, this may lead to dissatisfaction of the local population.
Climate smart agriculture (CSA) has emerged as an approach to enhance the resilience of farming systems to the effects of climate change. CSA is defined by three principle objectives: 1) sustainably increasing agricultural productivity and incomes; 2) adapting and building resilience to climate change; and 3) reducing and/or removing greenhouse gases emissions, where possible.
Forest foods can play a vital role in maintaining balance and variety in people’s diets by providing foods of different food groups and supplying diverse foods within a food group. - A study in Eastern province found that not all food groups are supplied by the forests. - Food groups provided by the forests in the area are non-starchy vegetables, non-starchy fruits and proteins. There is at least one forest food in each meal in addition to the wild fruits consumed as snacks.
Inorganic fertilizer use across sub Saharan Africa is generally considered to be low. Yet, the notion that fertilizer use is too low is predicated on the assumption that it is profitable to use rates higher than currently observed if indeed we consider rural farmers to be rationale expected profit maximizes. As a result of this assumption, the literature generally looks to other constraints to its adoption (financial market imperfections (credit/insurance/savings), knowledge, or lack of demand and thus the realization of economies of scale on the supply side (agro-dealer network), or lack of access to markets to sell the produce, but these all link again to profitability issues. Consequently this brief summarizes a study that focuses on the profitability of fertilizer use as a likely explanatory factor for observed fertilizer use rates in Nigeria.
Beef markets are highly seasonal, thinly traded, and extremely concentrated. The combination of these factors limits the effectiveness of cattle markets to achieve transformation impacts on rural poverty reduction.
INTRODUCTION: Zambia has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. The most vulnerable are the rural households that highly depend on seasonal food production and survive on diets that are deficient in a variety of micronutrients. Prolonged malnutrition during childhood leads to devastating effects on the wellbeing of an individual and on the performance of a country’s economy. Studies have shown that children that suffer from chronic malnutrition during the first two years of life tend to suffer from irreversible negative effects on brain and cognitive development, as well as stunting (UNICEF 1992). As prevalence of stunting and wasting among small children was still twice as high in 2014 than the target values of the Millennium Development Goals, Zambia is likely to fail the MDG of halving the rates of malnutrition in 2015.
INTRODUCTION: There has been a continued outcry that mealie meal prices in Zambia have continued to rise despite the country having consecutive maize bumper harvests. However, if the general inflation is taken into account, prices of mealie meal have actually been dropping in real terms (Kuteya and Jayne 2011). Also, using the JCTR food basket price data, maize meal purchases as a proportion of the total food basket have been declining, thus, prices of other goods have risen faster than that of maize meal. Nevertheless, the nominal maize meal prices have been increasing leading to the outcry of ‘high prices amidst abundance’.
Nearly 500 processed food products across five product categories (milled grains, packaged rice, dairy, fruit juices, and poultry) were identified in Dar es Salaam retail outlets; Contrary to common views, local and regional processing – not imports from outside the continent - dominate this market; Branding has expanded dramatically in the city in recent years. Branded maize meal now dominates in all retail outlet types; over 50 branded blended flour products can be found; even 20 brands of packaged rice can now be found, though currently limited to supermarket chains;
Over the past ten years, there have been several initiatives in Malawi to strengthen the processes through which national policies, strategies, and programs in the agriculture sector are designed and approved. These processes define how the nation assures the food security and nutrition of its citizens. As a consequence, in addition to the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation, and Water Development (MoAIWD), which continues to coordinate these policy processes, a broader and more diverse range of civil society and non-governmental organizations, firms or representatives of sub-sectoral umbrella organization from the private sector, and agricultural and food policy researchers from various institutions all now engage in the policy processes more regularly. Development partners remain engaged, although more so than in the past their perspectives are now more harmonized through the Donor Committee on Agriculture and Food Security.
Zambia is one of the most forested countries in Africa, with about 50 million out of the 75 million hectares total land area under some form of forest cover. However, the country also has one of the highest rates of deforestation and degradation in the world, estimated at 250,000-300,000 hectares of forest loss per annum. Reversing/slowing this high deforestation and degradation trend will require the country to design and implement programs and strategies that will effectively deal with both the proximate and underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation.
Kenya joined the ranks of sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries implementing a targeted input subsidy program for inorganic fertilizer and improved seed in 2007 with the establishment of the National Accelerated Agricultural Inputs Access Program’s “Kilimo Plus” initiative. Implemented from 2007/08, Kilimo Plus aimed to provide 50 kg each of basal and top dressing fertiliser, and 10 kg of improved maize seed to resource poor smallholder farmers with the goals of increasing access to inputs,raising yields and incomes, improving food security, and reducing poverty. But did the program achieve its goals, and what are the lessons learned from Kilimo Plus and other targeted input subsidy programs (ISPs) in SSA for the design and implementation of future county-level input policies and programs in Kenya? Results suggest that, despite replacing what would have been commercial fertilizer purchases by farmers, Kilimo Plus did substantially increase maize production and reduce poverty depth and severity of recipient households. Moreover, the program’s positive effects are somewhat larger than those of targeted ISPs in Malawi and Zambia. Much of Kilimo Plus’s relative success vis-a-vis the Malawi and Zambia programs is likely due to its effective targeting of relatively resource-poor farmers and its implementation through vouchers redeemable at private agro-dealer shops. Kenyan counties considering implementing ISPs should bear in mind these findings, but also carefully weigh the cost effectiveness of ISPs relative to other much-needed investments, including rural roads and agricultural research, development, and extension. Indeed, since Kilimo Plus alone is not sufficient to bring households out of poverty, a more holistic approach to improving production and sustainable intensification is required. This may imply use of vouchers for other crops and inputs, particularly those which enhance soil health such as lime, as well as an increase in complementary public/private investments in research, extension, irrigation, transport infrastructure, information, and affordable and appropriate innovations.
Rapid changes in the social and economic environment in West Africa (WA) are resulting in shifts in food consumption patterns. 1 These changes include growing total and urban population, increases in per capita incomes, demographic transition towards smaller family sizes in a few countries, migration within the zone towards the coastal states, and the adoption of more western lifestyles (Lopriore and Muehlhof, 2003, Hollinger and Staatz, 2015). In addition, policy shifts that constituted major changes in the conditions that determine
