Cowpea is important to rural households in Ghana for its nutritional value and to supplement income. Poorer producers typically have to sell grain legumes soon after harvest, either to meet debts or because they cannot prevent storage losses (weight losses and value reduction) associated with insect damage. Market sellers are...

An FAO training has been a turning point in Rita’s shea business. Now she is an advocate and employer of other rural women, promoting sustainable livelihoods that can offset deforestation in her region. 

The commercialisation of traditional processed products from cassava, such as fufu, potentially offers new opportunities for income generation to rural households in Nigeria, Ghana and other parts of West Africa. Several options exist for the commercialisation of fufu, including the production of a shelf-stable product? This minimises the use of...

In the northern Republic of Ghana, a manually operated press for shea butter extraction is successful and popular among rural women. Shea butter production is an important income earning activity for women in rural areas and for many, it is their only source of income. Shea butter is used for...

With their ability to mobilise 1.5 billion smallholder producers, forest and farm producer organisations (FFPOs) can help drive a paradigm shift away from large-scale monocultural systems, which are vulnerable to climate change and highly inequitable. FFPO businesses embody greater diversity and equity, pursuing market opportunities for a diverse basket of...

This ETFRN News edition brings together 24 articles and interviews from around the world that reflect on the following questions: How do such actions and their impacts differ between different smallholder types and organizations? How do they differ between countries, regions and corporate contexts? What are the effects of various...

aWhere delivers agricultural intelligence to farmers, farm managers, crop consultants and researchers all over the world. The company aims at making agronomic and weather data available to farmers through intermediaries such as research centers, governments, information companies, mobile network operators and non profit organizations which can integrate the data into...

Africa south of the Sahara experienced an acceleration of economic growth in recent years that was accompanied by structural changes in national economies. Some African countries, such as Ghana, managed to utilize rapid growth for poverty reduction and improving food and nutrition security. Transformation of agriculture appears to have played...

This Country gender profile of the agricultural and rural sectors in Ghana analyses gender-related disparities in access to: credit and financial services; technologies and innovations; extension and information services; ownership and control of land and farm enterprises; the effect of climate change on farming activities; and social protection to strengthen the...

Given the global relevance of Integrated Food-Energy Systems (IFES), FAO has developed the IFES Analytical Framework; which gives guidance on how to select and assess indicators of IFES sustainability. The Analytical Framework (AF) includes a set of criteria, indicators and measures to help screen IFES projects. The first part of...

The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be...

More than twenty years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations contributed to the growing recognition of the role of pollination in agricultural production, with the publication of “The Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics”. Since that time, the appreciation of pollinators has grown, alongside the...

More than twenty years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations contributed to the growing recognition of the role of pollination in agricultural production, with the publication of “The Pollination of Cultivated Plants in the Tropics”. Since that time, the appreciation of pollinators has grown, alongside the...

This report synthesizes the analysis and findings of a set of seven country impact evaluation studies that explore the impact of cash transfer programmes on household economic decision-making, productive activities and labour allocation in sub-Saharan Africa. The seven countries are Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Results from...

Trip for exchange experience of Ghanians fish operators in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire

While there has been an unprecedented achievement in poverty reduction in the last three decades, eradicating extreme poverty and halving poverty by 2030 are still two of our greatest challenges. Today, about 767 million people continue to live in extreme poverty. Roughly, two thirds of the extreme poor live in...

Agroecology is deeply rooted in the ecological rationale of traditional small-scale agriculture, representing long established examples of successful agricultural systems characterized by a tremendous diversity of domesticated crop and animal species maintained and enhanced by ingenuous soil, water and biodiversity management regimes, nourished by complex traditional knowledge systems. Such complex...

The agricultural sector is one of the main contributors to economic growth and sustainable development in ECOWAS member countries. Women are driving forces for agricultural development, food security and nutrition in the region. They represent an important percentage of the agricultural labour force. They are the frontline nutrition care givers...

World tilapia aquaculture production grew 12 percent annually, from less than a half million tonnes in the early 1990s to over 5 million tonnes in the mid-2010s. Africa accounted for 20 percent of the growth. Yet most of the contribution came from Egypt, whereas in the mid-2010s countries in sub-Saharan...

Cette fiche du Projet Amélioration de l'emballage alimentaire pour les petites et moyennes entreprises agroalimentaires en Afrique Subsaharienne MTF/RAF/299/IMA descriptive présente les réalisations prévues, les objectifs, les partenaires de mise en oeuvre, les résultats et impacts attendus.