Download or read book Transforming Agriculture in Southern Africa written by Richard A. Sikora and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-11-27 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a synthesis of the key issues and challenges facing agriculture and food production in Southern Africa. Southern Africa is facing numerous challenges from diverse issues such as agricultural transformations, growing populations, urbanization and climate change. These challenges place great pressure on food security, agriculture, water availability and other natural resources, as well as impacting biodiversity. Drawing on case studies from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the chapters in this book consider these challenges from an interdisciplinary perspective, covering key areas in constraints to production, the most important building blocks of good farming practices, and established and emerging technologies. This book will be a valuable support for informing new policies and processes aimed at improving food production and security and developing sustainable agriculture in Southern Africa. This informative volume will be key reading for those interested in agricultural science, African studies, rural studies, development studies and sustainability. It will also be a valuable resource for policymakers, governmental and nongovernmental organizations, and agricultural practitioners. This title has been made available as Open Access under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CCBY-NC-ND) license and can be accessed here: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429401701
Download or read book Food Crop Production by Smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa written by Ambayeba Muimba-Kankolongo and published by Academic Press. This book was released on 2018-02-07 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Food Crop Production by Smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa: Challenges and Opportunities for Improvement evaluates traditional cultivation practices used by smallholder farmers, providing a synthesis of the latest information on increasing crop yield through adoption of research innovations. The book catalogs smallholder cultivation practices and recommends innovative strategies for improving the agriculture sector including: management practices that reduce net carbon emissions; technologies that improve soil structures and conserve the natural resources base; means of empowering female resources along value chains; and government commitment to adopt policies that enhance agriculture productivity by encouraging farmers to use environmentally sound cultivation technologies. Traditional farming techniques often produce negative impacts on the environment and ecosystem resulting in outbreaks of diseases and pests. In addition to the region’s recurrent droughts, these outbreaks of numerous diseases and pests, weeds and other invasive plants put thousands at risk of poverty and hunger, as well as malnutrition. This book presents enhanced agricultural production technologies for ensuring adequate food production, safety and nutritional quality for the population of Southern Africa and forms the basis for an increased SADC regional effort in food production through which financial and trade institutions can improve stakeholder capacities, encourage micro-enterprise development and enhance employment and regional trade. Provides a critical synthesis of data and information for increasing crop yield through adoption of research innovations Evaluates traditional and scientific interventions that address food security issues of the poor farmers in the region Presents agro-ecologies of countries in the region and how they relate to various cultivation practices Catalogs smallholder cultivation practices and recommends innovative strategies for improving the agriculture sector
Download or read book Agriculture in Southern Africa written by Clifford Curtis Taylor and published by . This book was released on 1935 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
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: SubSaharan 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 subSaharan Africa has fallen, however, for much of the past halfcentury. 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 subSaharan 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 Food Policy and Agriculture in Southern Africa written by Richard Mkandawire and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Agricultural Development in Southern Africa written by Allan Low and published by Heinemann Educational Publishers. This book was released on 1989 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this innovative book Allan Low uses the theory of household economics to establish the link between the stagnation of African farming and the rapid development of modern market sectors in southern Africa.
Download or read book Transforming Southern African Agriculture written by Ann Willcox Seidman and published by Africa World Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Conservation Agriculture in Africa written by Saidi Mkomwa and published by CABI. This book was released on 2022-01-11 with total page 537 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tillage agriculture has led to widespread soil and ecosystem degradation globally, and more particularly in the developing regions. This is especially so in Africa where traditional agricultural practices have become unsustainable due to severe exploitation of natural resources with negative impacts on the environment and food system. In addition, agricultural land use in Africa today faces major challenges including increased costs, climate change and a need to transform to more sustainable production intensification systems. Conservation Agriculture has emerged as a major alternative sustainable climate smart agriculture approach in Africa and has spread to many African countries in the past decade as more development and research, including in sustainable mechanization, has enabled its extension and uptake. It is key to transforming Africa's agriculture and food system given its ability to restore soil health, biodiversity and productivity of millions of smallholder farms as well as larger-scale farms. This book is aimed at all agricultural stakeholders in the public, private and civil sectors in Africa engaged in supporting the transformation of conventional tillage agriculture to Conservation Agriculture. The book will be of interest to: researchers, academics, students, development stakeholders, public and private sector investors and policy makers as well as institutional libraries across the world.
Download or read book Farming Systems and Food Security in Africa written by John Dixon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-12-09 with total page 896 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge of Africa’s complex farming systems, set in their socio-economic and environmental context, is an essential ingredient to developing effective strategies for improving food and nutrition security. This book systematically and comprehensively describes the characteristics, trends, drivers of change and strategic priorities for each of Africa’s fifteen farming systems and their main subsystems. It shows how a farming systems perspective can be used to identify pathways to household food security and poverty reduction, and how strategic interventions may need to differ from one farming system to another. In the analysis, emphasis is placed on understanding farming systems drivers of change, trends and strategic priorities for science and policy. Illustrated with full-colour maps and photographs throughout, the volume provides a comprehensive and insightful analysis of Africa’s farming systems and pathways for the future to improve food and nutrition security. The book is an essential follow-up to the seminal work Farming Systems and Poverty by Dixon and colleagues for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Bank, published in 2001.
Download or read book Agricultural Policy Monitoring and Evaluation 2020 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2020-06-30 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This annual report monitors and evaluates agricultural policies spanning all six continents, including the 36 OECD countries, the five non-OECD EU Member States, and 13 emerging economies.
Download or read book An Economic Analysis of Southern African Agriculture written by William R. Duggan and published by Greenwood. This book was released on 1986 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Challenge of Change written by Lieb Nieuwoudt and published by University of Kwazulu Natal Press. This book was released on 2003 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a collective effort by leading South African researchers in agricultural economics. The book reviews policies and challenges in the agricultural economy which aim to promote equitable participation and transformation for a better future. South Africa is faced with urgent challenges: inequality has to be replaced with equity; poverty needs to be substantially reduced; living standards need to be improved; and growth needs to be maintained while keeping production internationally competitive. The agricultural sector has a crucial role to play in the process of achieving growth with equity. This book examines: structure and production in agriculture; income and employment growth in rural areas, including land distribution; agricultural marketing; water usage and food security; international trade and agricultural finance; research and development policy; and trade patterns in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). South African agriculture is currently characterized by a commercial modern sector, an emerging farmer sector and a subsistence sector. The strategic plan for South African agriculture is to unite these sectors into a prosperous agricultural industry. This book suggests policies that will enhance this process and ensure that agriculture continues to produce food at reasonable prices, earning foreign exchange and providing income to the rural poor.
Download or read book Adapting to Climate Uncertainty in African Agriculture written by Stephen Whitfield and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-08-20 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Future climatic and agro-ecological changes in Africa are uncertain and associated with high degrees of spatial and temporal variability and this change is differently simulated within divergent climate-crop models and in controlled crop breeding stations. Furthermore, uncertainty emerges in local contexts, not just in response to climatic systems, but to social, economic, and political systems, and often with implications for the appropriateness and adoption of technologies or the success of alternative cropping systems. This book examines the challenges of adaptation in smallholder farming in Africa, analysing the social, economic, political and climatic uncertainties that impact on agriculture in the region and the range of solutions proposed. Drawing on case studies of genetically modified crops, conservation agriculture, and other 'climate smart' solutions in eastern and southern Africa, the book identifies how uncertainties are framed 'from above' as well experienced 'from below', by farmers themselves. It provides a compelling insight into why ideas about adaptation emerge, from whom, and with what implications. This book offers a unique perspective and will be highly relevant to students of climate change adaptation, food security and poverty alleviation, as well as policy-makers and field practitioners in international development and agronomy.
Download or read book OECD FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016 2025 written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2016-07-04 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025 provides an assessment of prospects for the coming decade of the agricultural commodity markets across 41 countries and 12 regions, including OECD countries and key agricultural producers, such as India, China, Brazil, the Russian Federation and Argentina.
Download or read book Organic Food Systems written by Raymond Auerbach and published by Cabi. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book reports on long-term comparative organic farming systems' research trials carried out over the last 5 years in the Southern Cape of South Africa, as well as research into the successes and failures of the organic sector and the technical tools required for sustainable development in South Africa, Zambia, Uganda and Tanzania. It includes 24 chapters organized into 4 parts. Part 1 (Chapters 1-6) discusses the historical development of organic farming systems, examines the global issues which confront us, and develops some concepts showing a progression in small-scale farmer development and how this can be supported with appropriate training and policy. The difference between national food self-sufficiency and household food security is examined, and the organic sector is introduced. Part 2 (Chapters 7-14) deals with capacity building and climate change. Holistic systems, inclusive participatory approaches, institution building and experiential learning are examined. Organic food production, farmer training, value chains, impact of drought on food prices and food availability, and urban water and energy use efficiency are described. Part 3 (Chapters 15-22) presents evidence on how to support organic farmers. It starts with 2 case studies on the well-developed organic sector in Uganda and the developing one in Zambia. The following chapters discuss soil carbon determination, comparison of organic and conventional farming systems, pest and disease control (e.g., chemical, holistic and biological control), soil fumigation, soil microbiology in organic and conventional systems, soil fertility changes and crop yield. Part 4 (Chapters 23-24) makes strategic suggestions about how to upscale organic farming and organic food systems in Southern Africa. This book is a vital resource for all stakeholders in organic agriculture.
Download or read book The Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction written by Luc J. Christiaensen and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relative contribution of a sector to poverty reduction is shown to depend on its direct and indirect growth effects as well as its participation effect. The paper assesses how these effects compare between agriculture and non-agriculture by reviewing the literature and by analyzing cross-country national accounts and poverty data from household surveys. Special attention is given to Sub-Saharan Africa. While the direct growth effect of agriculture on poverty reduction is likely to be smaller than that of non-agriculture (though not because of inherently inferior productivity growth), the indirect growth effect of agriculture (through its linkages with nonagriculture) appears substantial and at least as large as the reverse feedback effect. The poor participate much more in growth in the agricultural sector, especially in low-income countries, resulting in much larger poverty reduction impact. Together, these findings support the overall premise that enhancing agricultural productivity is the critical entry-point in designing effective poverty reduction strategies, including in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, to maximize the poverty reducing effects, the right agricultural technology and investments must be pursued, underscoring the need for much more country specific analysis of the structure and institutional organization of the rural economy in designing poverty reduction strategies.
Download or read book African Farmers Value Chains and Agricultural Development written by Alan de Brauw and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-11-02 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a thorough introduction to and examination of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the authors introduce the economic theory of agri-food value chains and value chain governance, focusing on domestic and regional trade in (and consumption of) food crops in a low-income country context. In addition to mainstream and heterodox thinking about value chain development, the book pays attention to political economy considerations. The book also reviews the empirical evidence on value chain development and performance in Africa. It adopts multiple lenses to examine agricultural value chains, zooming out from the micro level (e.g., relational contracting in a context of market imperfections) to the meso level (e.g., distributional implications of various value chain interventions, inclusion of specific social groups) and the macro level (underlying income, population and urbanization trends, volumes and prices, etc.).Furthermore, this book places value chain development in the context of a process the authors refer to as structural transformation 2.0, which refers to a process where production factors (labor, land and capital) move from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity agriculture. Finally, throughout the book the authors interpret the evidence in light of three important debates: (i) how competitive are rural factor and product markets, and what does this imply for distribution and innovation? (ii) what role do foreign investment and factor proportions play in the development of agri-food value chains in Africa? (iii) what complementary government policies can help facilitate a process of agricultural value chain transformation, towards high-productive activities and enhancing the capacity of value chains to generate employment opportunities and food security for a growing population.
