Download or read book Agricultural Prosperity in Dry Africa written by Prof Dov Pasternak and published by Contentonow. This book was released on 2016-01-24 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Prof. Dov Pasternak working in Israel, was among the pioneers of drip irrigation. He researched irrigation with saline water and conducted domestication of arid land crops. He received a UNESCO Chair for his work on desert research. For over 10 years Prof. Pasternak worked as Principal Scientist for Crops Diversification at ICRISAT-Niger and then continued as advisor on development projects in Africa. This book describes his experience in Africa. The book is written for both laymen and scientists. It is a must for anyone interested in or dealing with Africa's agricultural development. It starts by explaining how development projects fail and what can be done. It offers many systems, technologies and crops for a more profitable agriculture. The book emphasizes irrigation of vegetables, fruit trees and profitable field crops as a solution to current conditions and ends by suggesting how to carry out development programs. Forty four photos and many anecdotes of the author's life experience, make this book easy and a pleasure to read.

Download or read book Agribusiness for Africa s Prosperity written by United Nations Industrial Development Organization and published by UN. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent years, a renewed focus on agriculture has been evident in policy and development agendas for the African continent, yet little knowledge has been generated on the interlinkages of production, agroindustry and markets, as well as the potentials and challenges for developing these. This publication analyzes the challenges, the potential and opportunities of African agribusiness in the current period of dramatic changes in global agro-industrial markets, and builds a case for agribusiness development as a path to Africa's prosperity. Written by international experts, from agribusiness practitioners, to academic experts and UN technical agencies, this volume fills what the United Nations Industrial Development Organization perceived as a significant gap in knowledge concerning these issues.

Download or read book Lost Crops of Africa written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-10-27 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report is the second in a series of three evaluating underexploited African plant resources that could help broaden and secure Africa's food supply. The volume describes the characteristics of 18 little-known indigenous African vegetables (including tubers and legumes) that have potential as food- and cash-crops but are typically overlooked by scientists and policymakers and in the world at large. The book assesses the potential of each vegetable to help overcome malnutrition, boost food security, foster rural development, and create sustainable landcare in Africa. Each species is described in a separate chapter, based on information gathered from and verified by a pool of experts throughout the world. Volume I describes African grains and Volume III African fruits.

Download or read book Successes in African Agriculture written by Haggblade, Steven and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sub—Saharan Africa is one of the poorest regions of the world. Because most Africans work in agriculture, escaping such dire poverty depends on increased agricultural productivity to raise rural incomes, lower food prices, and stimulate growth in other economic sectors. Per capita agricultural production in sub—Saharan Africa has fallen, however, for much of the past half—century. Successes in African Agriculture investigates how to reverse this decline. Instead of cataloging failures, as many past studies have done, this book identifies episodes of successful agricultural growth in Africa and identifies processes, practices, and policies for accelerated growth in the future. The individual studies follow developments in, among other areas, the farming of maize in East and Southern Africa, cassava across the middle belt of Africa, cotton in West Africa, horticulture in Kenya, and dairying in East Africa. Drawing on these case studies and on consultations with agricultural specialists and politicians from across sub—Saharan Africa -- undertaken in collaboration with the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development -- the contributors identify two key determinants of positive agricultural performance: agricultural research to provide more productive and sustainable technologies to farmers and a policy framework that fosters market incentives for increasing production. The contributors discuss how the public and private sectors can best coordinate the convergence of both factors. Given current concerns about global food security, this book provides timely and important resources to policymakers and development specialists concerned with reversing the negative trends in food insecurity and poverty in Africa.

Download or read book Increasing Production from the Land written by Andrew Coulson and published by African Books Collective. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African agriculture faces major challenges with growing population pressure and the impact of climate change. Until now food production overall has broadly kept pace with demand. To maintain this impressive achievement, production from the land needs to be intensified, soil fertility must be enhanced, forests and water resources must be conserved, and land use practices must be sustainable over the long term. This book shows what needs to be done, and points to how best to achieve this. The book starts with a brief guide to what plants and animals need to grow well, how farmers currently use the land, and the research that is being conducted on new agricultural technologies. A comparison is made of productivity on small and large farms, which demonstrates that, contrary to some suggestions, small farmers, properly serviced, can be as productive or even more productive than larger farms. Subsequent chapters discuss issues of land tenure, pastoralism, training, the importance of women farmers, access to finance, markets, value chains, and contract farming as a partnership between small-scale producers, processors and traders in agricultural products. The final section of the book discusses whether a new green revolution is feasible or desirable for Africa. The potential risks and benefits of dependence on purchased agrochemicals, genetically modified varieties, and multinational seed and chemical companies are examined. A series of twelve broad policy proposals for achieving a sustainable agriculture sector is presented for consideration. Fifteen case studies illustrate the issues discussed in the book. Most of the examples are from East Africa, particularly Tanzania, but the principles addressed are relevant across the African continent. Each chapter of the book includes references and suggestions for further reading, most of them freely available to anyone with internet access. A set of essay questions exploring the issues covered in each chapter is included, to provide practical help for students of agriculture and their teachers.

Download or read book Improved Crop Productivity for Africa s Drylands written by Tom Walker and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2016-08-17 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than 200 million people living in dryland regions of Sub-Saharan Africa make their living from agriculture. Most are exposed to weather shocks, especially drought, that can decimate their incomes, destroy their assets, and plunge them into a poverty trap from which it is diffi cult to emerge. Their lack of resilience in the face of these shocks can be attributed in large part to the poor performance of agriculture on which their livelihood depends. Opportunities exist to improve the fortunes of farming households in the drylands. Improved farming technologies that can increase and stabilize the production of millet, sorghum, maize, and other leading staples are available. Irrigation is technically and economically feasible in some areas and offers additional opportunities to increase and stabilize crop production, especially small-scale irrigation, which tends to be more affordable and easier to manage. Yet many of these opportunities have not been exploited on a large scale, for reasons that include lack of farmer knowledge, nonavailability of inputs, unfavorable price incentives, high levels of production risk, and high cost. Future production growth in drylands agriculture is expected to come mainly from raising yields and increasing the number of crop rotations on land that is already being cultivated (intensifi cation), rather than from bringing new land into cultivation (extensifi cation). Controlling for rainfall, average yields in rainfed cropping systems in Sub-Saharan Africa are still much lower than yields in rainfed cropping systems in other regions, suggesting that there is considerable scope to intensify production in these systems. Furthermore, unlike in other regions, production of low-value cereals under irrigation is generally not economic in Sub-Saharan Africa unless the cereals can be grown in rotation with one or more high-value cash crops. The long-run strategy for drylands agriculture, therefore, must be to promote production of staples in rainfed systems and production of high-value cereals (for example, rice), horticultural cops, and industrial crops in irrigated systems. Based on a detailed review of currently available technologies, Improved Crop Productivity for Africa’s Drylands argues that improving the productivity and stability of agriculture in the drylands has the potential to make a signifi cant contribution to reducing vulnerability and increasing resilience. At the same time, it is important to keep in mind that in an environment characterized by limited agro-climatic potential and subject to repeated shocks, farming on small land holdings may not generate suffi cient income to bring people out of poverty.

Download or read book Dryland Farming in Africa written by Jim R. J. Rowland and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crop production in the drought-prone tropics has been relatively neglected by research and development workers, largely due to its poor potential for commercial exploitation. Despite this, a considerable amount of information is available on this subject, but there have been few attempts to draw it together and to relate it to the needs of subsistence and small farmers, and to the particular set of constraints under which they labour.

Download or read book Adapting to Drought written by Michael Mortimore and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1989-03-30 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book embodies the results of thirteen years of research in drought-prone rural areas in the semi-arid zone of northern Nigeria. It describes the patterns of adaptive behaviour observed among Hausa, Ful'be and Manga communities in response to recurrent drought in the 1970s and 1980s. The question of desertification is explored in an area where the visible evidence of moving sand dunes is dramatic blame are examined in relation to the field evidence. A critique is offered of deterministic theories and authoritarian solutions. Professor Mortimore demonstrates a parallel between the observable resilience of semi-arid ecosystems and the adaptive strategies of the human communities that inhabit them and suggests policy directions for strengthening that resilience.

Download or read book The African Husbandman written by William Allan and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2004 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The African Husbandman helped a generation of scholars and officials to appreciate that Africans' agricultural practices were both more complex and more malleable than was often thought. Allan's work also pioneered research methods that wedded ethnographic and ecological fieldwork in ways that demonstrated the inextricable links between social arrangements, environmental conditions, and land use patterns. If certain facets of Allan's analysis have now come under scrutiny, his general tenet that to improve agricultural prospects in Africa one first has to understand it from the cultivators' point of view has only been strengthened with time. As long as there are individuals struggling to make sense of African agricultural productivity, The African Husbandman will remain a classic.

Download or read book Agricultural Development in Drought prone Africa written by L. J. Foster and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Challenges Of Agricultural Production And Food Security In Africa written by Olusegun Obasanjo and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The agricultural and rural crisis besetting Africa is the result of both policy failures and inadequacies and the product of structural rigidities inhibiting access to and control of vital resources. The challenge of leadership in the agricultural sector is how to design and implement policies which would help induce growth and development in this sector. It is against this background that the Africa Leadership Forum convened in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria in July of 1989 to explore a broad range of parameters to be addressed in the formulation of successful policies. This volume is derived from papers submitted and presentations made. The book provides the main conclusions and recommendations which emanated from the conference. They highlight a series of actions which must be taken in such areas as women in agriculture, small-scale farmers, agribusiness, subsidies, human capital, and linkages between international and national research anbd energy. Other topics include - Africa's security situation; social and economic factors, ecology, and social engineering; dietary patterns in Africa; pest management; agricultural practice; and international organizations. It is aimed at economists, anthropologists, ecologists, agriculturalists, social and political scientists, and all those interested or involved in agricultural production in Africa and other underdeveloped countries.

Download or read book Prosp rit Agricole en Afrique S che written by Dov Pasternak and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-17 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Le livre intitulé « La prospérité agricole en Afrique sèche » s'adresse tant aux profanes qu'aux scientifiques, et est ? lire absolument par quiconque s'intéresse au développement agricole en Afrique. L'auteur, le professeur Dov Pasternak, pionnier de l'irrigation goutte ? goutte, a joué un rôle majeur dans le fleurissement du désert du Néguev. Lors de ses 30 ans de travail ? l'Université Ben Gurion au debut de sa carrière, Dov est devenu expert dans l'irrigation des cultures avec de l'eau salée. Il est l'auteur ou coauteur de centaines de documents de recherche et a servi de conseiller dans 20 pays ? travers le monde. D'ailleurs, il a été distingué par une chaire UNESCO mondiale pour son travail de recherche sur le désert. Plus tard, Dov s'est tourné vers l'Afrique. En 2001, il s'est installé au Niger pour mieux saisir les défis ? soulever par les agriculteurs de subsistance africains. Pendant 10 ans, il a servi de scientifique en chef pour la diversification des cultures ? l'ICRISAT, un grand centre de recherche agricole sur le continent, et ensuite comme conseiller sur les grands projets. Dov s'est investi ? aider les africains en situation d'extrême pauvreté ? se sortir de leur condition. Il était persuadé que l'agriculture puisse être une source importante de revenues grâce ? l'approche entrepreneuriale. Ce livre dépeint ses 18 années d'expérience en Afrique. Hélas, le professeur Pasternak est décédé en 2018. « La prospérité agricole en Afrique sèche » commence par analyser les raisons de l'échec de tant de projets de développement et de ce qu'il faudrait pour arriver ? les réussir. Le livre met en exergue comme solution aux conditions actuelles l'irrigation des légumes, des arbres fruitiers et des grandes cultures rentables et il termine en suggérant comment réussir les programmes de développement. Les quarante-quatre photos et de nombreuses anecdotes de l'expérience de vie de Dov font que ce livre est un plaisir ? lire.

Download or read book The New Harvest written by Calestous Juma and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and can help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by advancing scientific and technological research, investing in infrastructure, fostering higher technical training, and creating regional markets.

Download or read book Agribusiness in Africa written by Barbara Dinham and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Economic evaluation of the impact of agribusiness multinational enterprises on food production and agricultural production of cash crops in Africa south of Sahara - examines transformation of coffee and sugar plantations, international markets, etc.; includes case studies on Kenya and Tanzania as well as profiles of Booker McConnell, Lonrho, Tate and Lyle, and Unilever; discusses dependence on transnationals in food shortage, and food imports, food processing, agricultural price, etc. Graphs, map, references.

Download or read book Farming Systems of the African Savanna written by A. Ker and published by IDRC. This book was released on 1995 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Farming Systems of the African Savanna: A continent in crisis

Download or read book The Agricultural Dilemma in Africa written by Great Britain. Overseas Development Administration and published by . This book was released on 1986 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conference papers on natural resources and obstacles to agricultural development in Africa south of Sahara - examines the availability of arable land, the climate and rain fall (incl. The causes of drought); considers the scope for improved agricultural technologys, as well as constaints due to economic conditions, agricultural policies, sociological aspects etc.; includes case studies of agricultural projects in Botswana, Kenya and Sudan. Graphs, references, statistical tables. Conference held in Ashford 1985 Jul 14 to 17.

Download or read book Structural Adjustment the African Farmer written by Alex Duncan and published by Heinemann Educational Books. This book was released on 1992 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the impact of structural adjustment policies upon the incomes and welfare of Africa's peasant farmers who currently operate at very low levels of productivity of both land and labour and are confronted with low household income and inadequate food security. A common method has been applied across five countries. Analyses have been made of the links between national economic policies and the various markets in which the smallholders operate, and the services and infrastructures which influence their productive capacities. There are differences in the resource base and the level of ecological deterioration, in export opportunities, in physical infrastructure and, in particular, in the depth and nature of economic policy reforms. The team have recognised the important differences between these five countries and overcome the formidable problems of collecting agricultural data in Africa. The book provides firm evidence of the impact, both positive and negative, of structural adjustment. The editors argue for a more targeted, project-specific approach to small farmer development. This complements the current, donor interest in policy related aid support.