Recurring drought and crop failure in many parts of the world have led to food and nutrition insecurity, and a dependence on food aid. But recently, some farmers in Kenya have been developing their own sustainable way to secure enough nutritious food along with extra income so that they can...

This issue highlights experiences of development approaches that are helping in the fight against poverty in rural areas. Reducing rural poverty is one of FAO’s strategic objectives for the coming years, to which the Dimitra project is making a special contribution. Innovative methodologies have been developed which seek to place...

The International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) has uncovered well-grounded resolve to place family farmers as protagonists in addressing a number of challenges we face, from eradicating hunger and poverty to conserving natural resources. Nothing comes closer to the sustainable food production paradigm than family farming. The diverse set of...

The United Nations declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Although many forms of production were once family-based, agriculture is now one of the few that are still dominated by families. Because family farms are so prevalent, making them more productive could help combat poverty and hunger in many...

This video describes the implementation of the inclusive business model approach to support trading relations between small-scale cotton producers and ginners in Kenya.

Agriculture plays a significant role in Africa, accounting for about 30 per cent of GDP south of the Sahara, as well as a significant proportion of export value. Not surprisingly, in most African countries, 60 per cent or more of employees work in agriculture. Yet this barely scrapes the surface...

The Eastern African region (which includes Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania) is highly vulnerable to climate change and several of its major sectors (notably agriculture) that significantly contribute to the sub-region’s economies are at risk. About 80% of the population in East Africa depend on agriculture, which contributes to 40% of...

Inclusive procurement is a deliberate way for governments to purchase goods or services from specific unfavoured or vulnerable supplier categories in order to advance social and economic development. However, public procurements must also meet transparency requirements in place to maintain integrity and to safeguard the expenditure of public funds. This...

WFP’s current gender policy, which explicitly reaffirms WFP’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment to support partner countries in addressing food and nutrition challenges sustainably.Literature review and empirical research conducted by ALINe on behalf of WFP between January and August 2011, which examined...

Small-holdings in sub-Saharan Africa are prone to low crop yields. Problems contributing to low yield are mainly related to poor soil fertility and weed infestations compounded by inappropriate application of recommended technologies. Researcher-managed trials were done to determine fit for technologies to prevailing socio-economic conditions. The research was done as...

Globally, agricultural production systems are under pressure to meet multiple challenges: to sustain or increase production from the same area of land and reduce negative impacts on the environment amid uncertainties resulting from climate change. As farming systems adapt to meet these challenges, one of agriculture’s greatest assets in meeting...

This video highlights how a pastoralist community in Mandera, Kenya applied knowledge gained in a pastoral field school to improve their livelihood through fodder production.

The documentary shows how three smallholder farmers in Tanzania and Kenya escaped poverty, hunger and diminishing yields through learning organic farming practises. This documentary was made for IFOAM by Maweni Farm in collaboration with the national organic agriculture movements in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda.

In this chapter we review some national statistics that will help characterize the capacity of the population to adapt to climate change and describe Kenya’s land base and current agricultural context. Then we show results of crop models that incorporate climate projections from recent global models. Finally, we incorporate those...

The second of three books in IFPRI's climate change in Africa series, East African Agriculture and Climate Change: A Comprehensive Analysis examines the food security threats facing 10 of the countries that make up east and central Africa - Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda...

Family farming is the basis for modern food provision in Africa, today and tomorrow. Its multifunctionality and sustainable productive potential is supported by extensive research evidence. Family farming and small-scale food production generates food and well-being for the majority of the population and the wealth of the region, and conserves...

The potential benefit of indigenous chicken (Gallus domesticus) production is still under exploited in Kenya despite the efforts by different stakeholders to mainstream this production system as a pathway to rural development. The production system is often characterized by low input-low output productivity and low commercialization of the enterprise. This...

Steven Kiranga Gichanga is a family farmer in Mugaari, a village in Kenya. He was trained in goat rearing but could not afford a goat to get started. He was also trained in bee keeping but could not afford a bee hive either. After a community reflection forum in 2012,...

Stimulated by work pioneered in Bangladesh, the paper outlines a conceptual framework for using poultry as a tool in poverty alleviation. There is now evidence from several coun- tries that small poultry enterprises with adequate institutional support targeting the poorest rural women and their families can help them take the...

Over the last fifty years food production per person in Africa has grown disappointingly slowly at little more than 10%. The population of Africa is growing rapidly at an average annual rate of 2.5% and is expected to almost double by 2050 to close to two billion people. Chronic hunger...