The present ability or otherwise of Africa to cope with climate change and improve its agricultural production depends on the environment and natural resources base of the continent, on the impacts of its past and on the nature of its present interactions with the outside world. Africa is a large...

The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) aims to revitalize African farming in order to reduce rural poverty and hunger. This is a massively important undertaking for a continent where a third of the population continue to struggle with chronic malnutrition. But is CAADP getting the right strategies, policies and...

Agriculture remains an important means of alleviating poverty, but shortage of finance can constrain its development. At the same time, agriculture is evolving towards a global system requiring high-quality, comptetitive products, and is organized in value chains which often exclude smallholders. Value chain financing in agriculture offers an opportunity to...

Producer organisations are widely heralded as leading contributors to poverty reduction and the achievement of food security. Following the withdrawal of state support as part of measures for liberalization, producer organizations in Africa have been in a process of transition, attempting to define appropriate strategies in a competitive open market...

The aim of this research is to raise and provide empirical evidence for promoting tree farming in Malawi. It addresses questions such as: Is tree farming a viable system for small-scale farmers in Malawi? Trees have multiple products for subsistence use and are also a source of income security to...

This first issue after the merger of the old Baobab with the Kilimo Endelevu Africa (KEA) looks at the importance of livestock in the livelihoods of farmers. Livestock is an integral part of most family farms, and fulfills many functions such as food, assets and fertilizer. This issue focuses on...

This issue of Baobab focuses on access to water for sustainable agriculture and livelihoods, its management and policies, or lack of them, which can regulate its effective and efficient use. In a region that highly relies on rainfall for food production, a lot needs to be done in agricultural water...

The paper reports work aimed at improving livelihoods of smallholders by providing investors, policymakers and implementers with concrete knowledge and tools to make informed investment decisions on small-scale irrigation water management interventions. The projects reported assessed promising irrigation interventions and their ‘market potential’, analyzed which technologies ‘fit’ in major agroecological...

This report is based on extensive research and interviews with several hundred farmers, the majority of them women, carried out by ActionAid staff and consultants in Uganda, Kenya and Malawi throughout the last third of 2009. It is complemented by an extensive global literature review, and our study also benefited...

Based on the premise that smallholders often get excluded as markets become more commercial, this paper draws lessons from the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) Project by exploring the main issues and challenges facing extension service partners in five African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi). These lessons...

This paper uses a rural household survey dataset collected in 2006 and 2008 to investigate the impact of a market-based land resettlement project in southern Malawi. The program provided a conditional cash and land transfer to poor families to relocate to larger plots of farm land. The average treatment effect...

This paper analyses Malawi’s smallholder agricultural efficiency, using a nationally representative sample survey of rural households undertaken by the National Statistical Office in 2004/2005. It aims to inform agricultural policy about the level and key determinants of inefficiency in the smallholder farming system that need to be addressed to raise...

This paper examines the role of fertiliser subsidies in Malawi, the world’s fifth poorest country. Malawians depend on domestic crops from over-cultivated soils. Recurrent poor harvests have had disastrous consequences for food security, but yields have improved significantly since the introduction of a government scheme to improve access to fertiliser...

Climate variability poses a severe threat to subsistence farmers in southern Africa. Two different approaches have emerged in recent years to address these threats: the use of seasonal precipitation forecasts for risk reduction (for example, choosing seed varieties that can perform well for expected rainfall conditions), and the use of...

Based on village surveys in diverse regions of Malawi, this paper explores the features of labor use in smallholder agricultural production in Malawi. Labor contracts found in the study villages were interrelated with the high risks in agricultural production and the problem of food deficit, and provided a means for...

The agricultural sector in Malawi is vital to the economy for incomes and food security. The sector accounts for 35% of national income, generates 90% of foreign exchange, and provides paid and self-employment to 92% of the rural population. One constraint in achieving food security has been the small size...

The objectives of this Technical Paper are to highlight the contribution that inland and coastal small-scale fisheries can make to poverty alleviation and food security and to make practical suggestions on ways that this contribution can be maximized. This paper is organized into three main sections. The first section discusses...

This publication provides an overview of recent literature on the potential of the informal food sector (IFS) to facilitate an affordable supply of food to urban areas and generate income for low-income households. The goal is to identify global patterns, topics for further research, and policy suggestions. It also draws...

The need to focus on women farmers' productivity, which can be an effective engine for social change, has become increasingly clear in sub-Saharan Africa. Women have a significant role in farming and post-harvest activities in most countries in the region. Nevertheless, a complex set of rights and obligations reflecting social...

Southern Africa is one of the regions estimated to be most at risk from climate change. While policy responses to global warming have been mainly driven by debates among scientists, the insights of poor people living on the frontline have been largely neglected. This study seeks to understand what is...