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This study looks at the business models of small and medium sized rice processors in Kenya in order to better understand the policy and technical support they need to grow and fulfil their role in agrifood systems transformation. More specifically, by employing semi-structured interviews with Kenyan rice millers, the technical study identifies challenges in their day-to-day business activities, including procurement, inbound and outbound logistics, in-house operations, financing, and human resources management. Additionally, the publication looks at opportunities for improving the business enabling environment in which these enterprises operate, providing a set of policy options to foster their role. The methodology cross [...]

Access to formal credit is critical to farmers for purchasing inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, plant protection materials or animal feed. In the absence of personal savings, borrowing from informal sources (such as moneylenders, relatives and friends) may involve unduly high interest rates and unfavourable conditions, which may make many agricultural operations uneconomical. The lack of access to credit is particularly problematic for farmers as there is a gap between the time that money is spent on cultivating crops or raising livestock, and the time money is made from the sale of the products.Credit to agriculture measures the amount of [...]

This brief summarizes the findings of the FAO Agricultural Development Economics Technical Study No. 16 “Productive public investment in agriculture for economic recovery with rural well-being: an analysis of prospective scenarios for Uganda”. It highlights how, through a series of scenarios, public investments promoting agricultural productivity in Uganda could drive growth in agrifood production, with favourable impacts on the economy, on well-being and on poverty, especially in rural areas. It also provides important information about the priorities of Uganda’s National Development Plan (NDP) III and vision for agriculture, as well as new priorities to be considered for enabling economic recovery [...]

Agriculture accounts for almost one-fourth of all the greenhouse gas emitted by humans, but is also a victim of the changing climate – extreme weather events, biodiversity loss and land degradation are undermining the sector's productivity – putting many livelihoods at risk. Yet, with the right set of policies and investments, agriculture can be a part of the solution. The EX-ACT suite of tools gathers the evidence complementing the information available to decisions makers on the outcomes of their agrifood interventions. It helps them to quantify the amount of greenhouse gas released or sequestered from agricultural production, analyse the outcomes [...]

This working paper analyses the financial cost and benefit of adopting two different bundles of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, which are tailored for the diverse conditions that prevail in southern Malawi. The results show the integration of CSA practices, including soil conservation, agroforestry, and livestock diversification, into conventional maize-legume and maize monocrop systems is profitable for farmers. Moreover, the profitability of these systems increases under extreme weather conditions that occur with increasing frequency in the region. However, the upfront costs and cost variability associated with the adoption of these CSA scenarios is high relative to conventional practices. In addition, while [...]

This working paper analyses the financial cost and benefit of adopting two different bundles of climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices, which are tailored for the diverse conditions that prevail in southern Malawi. The results show the integration of CSA practices, including soil conservation, agroforestry, and livestock diversification, into conventional maize-legume and maize monocrop systems is profitable for farmers. Moreover, the profitability of these systems increases under extreme weather conditions that occur with increasing frequency in the region. However, the upfront costs and cost variability associated with the adoption of these CSA scenarios is high relative to conventional practices. In addition, while [...]

The aim of this study is to provide readers with an overview of how agricultural insurance and social protection interventions can complement each other, within the frame of disaster risk management for vulnerable agricultural actors. Specifically, it aims to underline the operational nuances, challenges, opportunities and constraints associated with employing agricultural insurance within social protection systems. Furthermore, it presents a number of practical lessons learned and considerations that can be used by relevant public stakeholders (such as local policymakers and development agencies) to introduce aspects of agricultural insurance in programmes and initiatives that seek to strengthen social protection for vulnerable [...]

In recognition of the well-understood challenges with promoting rural and agricultural finance, the need for a more systemic approach to promoting financial inclusion is gaining traction in the thinking and programming approaches of the community of practice. Within this system-level view, the concept of de-risking the overall operating environment of agricultural value chains is recognized as a critically important factor. Accordingly, numerous project-based and stand-alone “de-risking” arrangements have recently been launched or are at various stages of design throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The generation of evidence of performance, impact and cost effectiveness is critical to validating the relevance of these types of [...]

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted digital financial inclusion trends across the world in many and complex ways. In developing and emerging contexts, this crisis also holds the potential to propel an unprecedented acceleration in the process of financial digitization and turn out to be a game-changer for digital financial inclusion. The aim of this study is to illustrate the opportunities and risks associated with the surge in uptake and use of digital financial service, providing ideas on how to leverage the paradigm changes affecting the overall approach and perspective towards digital financial services – on the part of various stakeholders – [...]

تفرض تلبية الطلب المتزايد على الغذاء ضغوطًا على الموارد من المياه والأراضي والتربة في العالم. وللزراعة دورها في تخفيف هذه الضغوط والمساهمة بشكل إيجابي في تحقيق أهداف المناخ والتنمية. ومن الممكن أن تؤدي الممارسات الزراعية المستدامة إلى تحسينات مباشرة في حالة الأراضي والتربة والمياه، وإلى توليد فوائد على مستوى النظام الإيكولوجي، فضلًا عن الحد من الانبعاثات الناتجة عن الأراضي. ويتطلب تحقيق كل هذه الأمور معلومات دقيقة وتغييرًا كبيرًا في كيفية إدارتنا للموارد. كما يتطلب بذل جهود مكمّلة من خارج مجال إدارة الموارد الطبيعية من أجل زيادة أوجه التآزر إلى أقصى حد وإدارة المقايضات. ويتمثل الهدف من تقرير حالة الموارد من الأراضي [...]