This brief summarizes the results of a novel analysis that examines the determinants of adoption of agricultural practices to improve food security and their productivity implications in Tanzania. Conducted by the FAO Economics and Policy Innovations for Climate-Smart Agriculture Programme (EPIC), the approach integrates historical Climate data with a rich...

This paper first looks “downstream” at two processes—urbanization and dietary changes—that create the demand (“pull”) for the changes in the whole food system. It then provides some illustrations of the transformation, mainly at the “midstream,” post-farmgate segments of the supply chains that are transforming—wholesale, processing, and logistics. It concludes with...

How many households keep livestock in rural and urban areas? What are their major production and husbandry practices, and their constraints to increase livestock productivity? This infographic presents an analysis of one of the largest datasets on livestock at household level available throughout sub-Saharan Africa: the Tanzania 2012/13 National Panel...

The data revolution must address three major challenges in order to contribute to sustainable development: increasing the quantity and quality of data; making the data usable; and ensuring their use by decision-makers. This infographic shows how the data revolution can be mobilized, with an example from the livestock sector. In collaboration...

This article investigates gender inequality in agricultural productivity, highlights its key determinants, and approximates the potential production, consumption, and poverty gains from reducing or closing the gender productivity gap. The analysis is performed on the basis of representative household survey datasets recently collected in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. In these...

Ils ont pratiqué l’agriculture pendant des générations mais, pour la première fois, des milliers de gens vivant sur l’île de Zanzibar, en Tanzanie, apprennent à cultiver. Grâce à ce nouveau savoir, ils parviennent à accroître leurs rendements de manière spectaculaire et à se libérer de la pauvreté.

This special issue of Nature & Faune journal, with its exciting variety of papers dealing with issues related to sustainable soil management in Africa is an important contribution towards promoting sustainability on the continent.

This report explores evidence and insights from five case studies that have made significant recent progress in addressing the challenge of insuring poor smallholder farmers and pastoralists in the developing world. In India, national index insurance programmes have reached over 30 million farmers through a mandatory link with agricultural credit...

ASARECA has been praised for providing mechanisms and technical backstopping for regional centres of excellence to work together and share technologies, Innovations and Management Practices during EAAPP Phase 1.

In December 2012, the programme on “Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume cropping systems for food security in Eastern and Southern Africa” (SIMLESA) commissioned a study to compile case studies of good practices in gender mainstreaming in the areas covered by the programme. This study was a result of an action point...

• Enteric fermentation is the largest contributor to GHG emissions • Emission intensities are higher for mixed crop-livestock systems when measured per area, but lower per liter milk produced • N balances are negative for mixed farming, and positive for agro-pastoralists due to the manure produced by the relatively big herd • Livestock...

Women play a critical role in every link of the value chain in small-scale fisheries, although their best-known roles are in processing and marketing of fish and other fishery products. This perception of the highly gender-segregated division of labour (men fishing / women processing) has shaped the generalized approach in...

Between 2008 and 2013 ASARECA coordinated and provided leadership in implementing a project called “Dissemination of New Agricultural Technologies in Africa” (DONATA) across 6 countries in eastern and central Africa. The approach in DONATA was the innovation platform for technology adoption (IPTA). At the start of the project, there were...

This publication contains of information on technologies and innovation for addressing climate change and variability in Eastern and Central Africa. They were compiled from national agricultural research system (NARS) and International research centers working in the ASARECA region. The information was submitted and discussed at a regional conference on “Climate...

Women smallholder farmers (WSFs) play great roles in ensuring food security at household level as a poverty reduction strategy, but they are faced with a number of constraints that deprive them from fulfilling their potential as farmers, food producer, provider and entrepreneur. In evaluating the constraints on WSFs toward ensuring...

Child labour is work that interferes with compulsory schooling or damages children’s health and personal development. Thanks to continuous efforts at the international and local level, recent global data,1 show that the number of children engaged in child labour worldwide has significantly declined from 215 to 168 million children (40 percent decline...

Rural household economies dependent on rainfed agriculture are increasingly turning to irrigation technology solutions to reduce the effects of weather variability and guard against inconsistent and low crop output. Organizations are increasingly using market-based approaches to disseminate technologies to smallholder farmers, and, although women are among their targeted group, little...

Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) have the potential to act as effective information dissemination channel that facilitates sustainable relationships between farmers and other stakeholders in agriculture sector. Past and on-going efforts in fostering dissemination of agricultural messages have not had the desired impacts of transforming the agricultural systems and impacting livelihoods....

Groundnut is among the most important crops for smallholder farmers in Tanzania, providing both food and income for households. Groundnut is a nutritious source of fats, protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals for human consumption and parts of the crop can be used for livestock feed. This study identified factors which...

Given the success of conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs elsewhere, in 2010 the Government of Tanzania rolled out a pilot CCT program in three districts. Its aim was to see if, using a model relying on communities to target beneficiaries and deliver payments, the program could improve outcomes for the...