Increasing agricultural productivity is an important challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Since the 1960s, agricultural production in SSA has failed to keep up with population growth.
Donor Report
In 1987, an improved resource management system that incorporates velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens var. utilis) to address soil fertility and weed (Imperata cylindrica) infestation was introduced to the small-scale farmers in a densely populated area of the derived savannas in Benin Republic (West Africa). Six years later, an adoption study was conducted to assess factors driving the adoption process. Four types of land tenure systems based on mode of access to land were identified: divided inheritance, purchasing, gifts, and sharecropping/renting.
This study analyzes the links between risk and the kinds of property rights that have evolved to provide the mobility necessary to raise livestock in drought-prone countries--in this case Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Niger. The study also evaluates the impact of cooperation on resource management in these environments. The express purpose of this research is to contribute to the current debate on resource management in highly variable environments, focusing on the impact of climate variability on and the role of cooperation in resource management.
"Using survey data from the Upper East region of Ghana collected in 2005, the paper evaluates the household- and community-level factors influencing women’s and men’s decisions to participate in off-farm activities, either in the off-farm labor market or in local community groups, and the relationship with on-farm crop returns. Results indicate that crop returns are not affected by increased labor availability over a certain labor-land ratio.
Effective poverty reduction programs require careful measurement of poverty status. Several studies have shown conceptually that assets reflecting productive capacity form a more robust basis for identifying the poor than do flow variables such as expenditures or income. Nonetheless, little work has empirically compared poverty measurements based on assets and expenditures. This paper uses panel data from Ethiopia to generate an asset-based poverty classification scheme. Regression results are used to estimate an asset index and classify households into categories of structural poverty.
Poverty and malnutrition are significant problems in South Africa. The vast majority of poor people in the country are black and live in rural areas (RDP 1995; SALDRU 1994). Unemployment in South Africa is extremely high, female-headed households and black children are particularly vulnerable, and basic services are inadequate.' The poorest segments of South African society are overwhelmingly dependent upon a mix of social pensions, remittances, low wages, piece jobs, and, to a small extent, agricultural production. The nutritional situation in South Africa is as alarming.
Movement of people, or migration in the positive sense of the term, contributes positively to the achievement of secure livelihoods, and to the expansion of the scope for poor people to figure out pathways out of poverty. Migration does this by ameliorating seasonality and risk, reducing vulnerability, enabling investment in a range of livelihood assets (land improvements, education, livestock etc.), and providing the poor with more of a chance to gain a first purchase on virtuous spirals out of poverty (Ellis, 2003).
Book chapter
Most of Nigeria's poor reside in rural areas and gain their livelihood from agricultural work. If the government's poverty reduction goals are to be achieved, Nigeria will need an adequate level of strategically targeted investments in agriculture to upgrade rural infrastructure, boost productivity, and increase competitiveness. Before effective investment programs can be designed and implemented, however, it is important to have a clear understanding of the current pattern of public spending on agriculture.
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