Key messages:  - Supplies of pine produced by commercial plantations will increase rapidly over the next 5 years. Pine plantations planted in the early 2000’s will soon mature, leading to an increase from roughly 200 000 m3 of pine production currently, to 800 000 m3 in 2023, and stabilizing at 1.2 million m3 after that.   - Exporting timber from Uganda is impeded by restrictive policies. Numerous approval requirements and a lack of approved grading standards substantially hinder access to export licenses for timber. These [...]

Mainstreaming greenhouse gas accounting intoagricultural investments and policiesThe 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement tied the knot between sustainable economic developmentand a climate-resilient, low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions future. Moving forward, accountingfor potential changes in GHG emissions will be a vital component of any agricultural investment, project,or policy proposal under consideration by any country, institution, or organization.To support the international community’s efforts with quantifying changes in GHG emissions,the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) developed the EX-AnteCarbon-balance Tool [...]

GIUSEPPE MAGGIO AND NICHOLAS J. SITKO Chapter 30 in Transforming Agriculture in Southern Africa: Constraints, Technologies, Policies and Processes1st EditionRichard A. Sikora, Eugene R. Terry, Paul L.G. Vlek, Joyce Chitja

This report is prepared to provide an ex-ante appraisal of the carbon-balance of the “Environmental Services Project” (ESP) of the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Swedish International Deveopment Cooperation Agency (SIDA) in Albania. The calculated ex-ante carbon balance is intended to complement conventional ex-ante economic and environmental analyses commonly undertaken in the planning phase of investment projects and development policies. A number of itsoutputs can furtherbe used in financial and economic analyses.This appraisal also provides the [...]

Does receiving information on potential adverse weather conditions induce adaptive responsesby smallholders? Do market institutions ease constraints to adaptation of these practices? Thisreport examines these questions using a unique panel dataset of Zambian smallholderhouseholds collected before and after 2015/16 El Niño Southern Oscillation event. The analysisfinds that farmers receiving drought-related seasonal forecasts are more likely to integratedrought tolerant crops into their cropping systems and to acquire improved maize seedvarieties. These farmers, on average, are found to apply double the quantity [...]

This report is a case study of a multi-impact appraisal of a paddy value chain in India. The value chain isanalysed from production to the distribution of rice into inner markets, comparing the performance ofan upgrading scenario to the current situation. In the present case, farmers practice 1 to 3 rice crops ayear (conventional rice). With the project, a more sustainable agro-ecological rice cultivation, namely RiceSystem Intensification (SRI), will be proposed to them. Adopting this methodology will improve water-useefficiency, soil [...]

This report is a case study of a multi-impact appraisal of a cacao value chain in Haiti. The value chain isanalysed from production to the distribution of rice to retailers, comparing the performance of anupgrading scenario to a baseline scenario. In the present case, cocoa is grown in the traditional form withlow levels of agroforestry application. With the project, new agroforestry cocoa plantations are developedon degraded land and in existing plantations, agricultural practices are improved to increase yield andproducers are [...]

This paper examines how smallholders living in regions where a drought is forecasted adapt their farm practices in response to receiving seasonal forecast information. The article draws on a unique longitudinal dataset in Zambia, which collected information from farm households before and after a significant drought caused by the 2015/2016 El-Niño Southern Oscillation. It finds that farmers residing in areas forecasted to be drought-affected and receiving seasonal forecast information are significantly more likely to integrate drought tolerant crops into their [...]

Strategic investments in the agriculture sector are a catalyst for sustainable, economic growth and poverty reduction. Through their partnership, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) have produced this comprehensive study on the State of Agriculture in the Caribbean, drawing upon decades of research on the many drivers of change affecting the CDB’s Borrowing Member Countries (BMCs), including international trade, institutional policies, and climate change.   This report follows forty years of structural [...]

A presente síntese fornece conhecimentos empíricos para ajudar a identificar e a privilegiar políticas e investimentos quepodem aumentar os benefícios da diversificação de sistemas de cultivo e melhorar a adopção de sistemas de cultivo maisrentáveis e resistentes. Especificamente, a síntese centra-se nos pequenos produtores de milho, a cultura que é mais praticadaem Moçambique, e identifica opções políticas assentes numa análise de: a) factores que influenciam a adopção de sistemas decultivo relativamente mais orientados para a subsistência ou para o mercado; [...]