Seed is an essential input in agriculture, and the availability of quality seed of superior varieties is often critical for improved food security and poverty reduction in developing countries like Nigeria. However, while the Nigerian government recognizes the importance of improving seed availability, its recent focus in the seed sector...

Farmers in northern Nigeria are changing the way they intercrop their sorghum and millet with cowpea. By planting both crops at higher densities and in separate rows, and by applying some organic and mineral fertilizer, they harvest more and reduce damage by the parasitic weed striga. It is one of...

This study assesses the short-term effects of large irrigation dams on household consumption in the northern part of Nigeria. Using two rounds of the Nigeria LSMS survey, we apply multinomial logit inverse probability weighting (MIPW) methods to construct matching samples across three different types of hydrological basins – dam basins,...

Women cocoa farmers are central to the sustainability of the cocoa supply chain and cocoa growing communities. Although too often unrecognized, women’s labor makes significant contributions to the amount of cocoa produced, which is under increasing demand. Empowering women cocoa farmers not only has a positive impact on the lives...

Milk spoils because of germs that are too small to see. The germs grow in the milk and spoil it. Germs multiply faster in warm milk than in cold milk. So move the milk to the collection centre within 30 minutes of milking, or the milk will start to spoil....

In the Sahel, extreme poverty, fastgrowing populations, climate change, recurrent food and nutrition crises, armed conflicts and insecurity are building up to a perfect storm threatening the lives of communities already living on the brink of crisis. The region is one of the world’s climate change hotspots. Increasingly unpredictable weather patterns,...

Farmers in northern Nigeria are changing the way they intercrop their sorghum and millet with cowpea. By planting both crops at higher densities and in separate rows, and by applying some organic fertilizer, they harvest more and reduce damage by the parasitic weed striga. It is one of the strategies...

The key issues that this volume addresses are innovations in organizational and institutional arrangements that have enabled the creation of local markets for sustainably farmed agricultural products or, rather, “institutional innovations”. Institutional innovations can be described as new rules and forms of interactions. They help redefine sustainable practices locally and...

 Encouraging smallholder farmers to grow pulses and teaching them how to conserve the nutritious seeds is the best approach to promoting pluses. According to Elizabeth Mpofu, one of the six special ambassadors appointed by FAO to strengthen the campaign for this year’s International Year of Pulses (IYP), smallholderfarmers and family farmers should be...

Forest planning and policy making process in West Africa – and elsewhere in Africa for that matter – has largely been dominated by the State, with very little room for a meaningful participation of civil society. This state of affairs led to a management of forests and forest resources which...

The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa (NAFSN) launched in May 2012 under the auspices of the G8 aims to create the conditions that will allow the African countries concerned to improve agricultural productivity and develop their agrifood sector by attracting more private investment in agriculture. The...

Climate change is undermining the ability of African nations to feed themselves. Women smallholder producers are on the front line of dealing with the impacts, but are not first in line for international climate finance. Wealthy countries have committed to helping countries in Africa to adapt to climate change, but...

West African Agriculture is at a turning point. The combination of strong demand growth, sustained economic growth, higher global agricultural prices, and an improved policy environment has generated the most conducive conditions for Agricultural growth in over 30 years. West African countries and their Development Partners now clearly recognize the...

While scholars agree on the importance of land rental markets for structural transformation in rural areas, evidence on the extent and nature of their operation, including potential obstacles to their improved functioning, remains limited. This study uses household-level data from six countries to start filling this gap and derive substantive...

Ten years after the Economic Community of West African States launched its policy on food and agriculture, coordination remains a serious challenge. Several regional initiatives compete with each other at the political and the project levels, in a complex and fragmented institutional context. This paper is one of a series published...

This study examined farmers’ perception of climate change and coping strategies across gender in two agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. Two agro-ecological zones namely north-central and north-west were purposively selected and one State Agricultural Development Project each namely Niger and Kaduna were selected respectively. Structured questionnaire was used to elicit information...

This edition of Nature & Faune journal will be a special Issue to mark the International Year of Soils. It is planned to be issued during the Conference of the African Soil Society taking place in Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso from 2nd to 10th December 2015. The special edition of...

This study determined the adaptation and coping strategies adopted by farmers under yam- and cassavabased farming systems in Ebonyi and Enugu States in Nigeria’s derived savannah agro-ecological zone. The study uses data from 400 farmers. The likelihood that the farmers engage in some actions to cushion the effect of climate...

Cet ouvrage a pour objectif d’expliquer la nature et la force des liens entre la famille et l’exploitation agricole. L’ouvrage est construit autour d’une vingtaine d’études de cas menées dans divers pays de l’Asie, de l’Afrique, de l’Amérique latine et de l’Europe. Les auteurs précisent « ce qui fait famille »,...

The paper finds evidence that strategies to reduce transportation costs are likely to have a much larger effect on the profitability of fertilizer use than fertilizer subsidies. Apart from reduced transportation costs, other constraints such as timely access to the product; availability of complementary inputs such as improved seeds, irrigation,...