Smallholders

The Role of Food Banks in Food Security in Uganda : the Case of the Hunger Project Food Bank, Mbale Epicentre

Upphovsperson:	Watuleke, Joseph
Utgivare:	Uppsala
År:	2015
Ämnesord:	Food security, Food supply, Smallholders, Farming, Agricultural production, Food storage, Livelihood, Sustainable development, Uganda

This study addresses the role the food bank plays in food security, sustainable livelihoods and building resilience to climate change among smallholder farmers in Uganda, and in particular eastern Uganda. Currently, it is difficult to measure the socioeconomic impact of the food bank on smallholder farmers in eastern Uganda due to the difficulty of isolating its contribution from that of interrelated programmes and farmer activities. It is, however, evident that the food bank plays a significant role in improving the smallholder farmers’ food production and incomes. The food bank is actively engaged in training smallholder farmers in modern farming methods, providing improved seeds and safe storage facilities for farmers’ produce, helping farmers to diversify their livelihood sources and providing climate-related information. Prolonged drought and lack of access to sufficient seeds of good quality are the main sources of food insecurity among smallholder farmers. Distance from the food bank and lack of access to information are among the other factors that affected many farmers’ ability to participate in food bank activities. Community ownership of the food bank is still lacking, and this is a long term threat to the sustainability of the project. There is therefore an urgent need to establish community-managed food banks at lower levels that ensure community ownership; equitably distribute benefits among target farmers; encourage seed-saving among farmers; initiate community-supported agriculture programmes to improve access to farm credit; and invest in rainwater harvesting for irrigation.

Food security now or wait for research to assess risks? : genetically modified crops and smallholder farmers in Africa

Upphovsperson:	Arvidsson, Tommy
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Agrarian Change, Property and Resources | Uppsala
År:	2015
Ämnesord:	Africa, Agriculture, Genetic engineering, Biotechnology, Crops, Smallholders, Food production, Food security

Genetically modified (GM) crops are by proponents considered as a possible solution to the food and nutrition problems in developing countries. However, there are also concerns of how side effects may affect environment and human health. These will probably still remain unknown for decades. But can Africa wait 30 years for research to give a definite answer about the risks connected with biotechnology?

Relations Key to Innovations – Peasants, Institutions and Technical Change on the Mossi Plateau in Burkina Faso

Upphovsperson:	Hårsmar, Mats
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, African International Links
År:	2013
Ämnesord:	Technical change, Food crop productivity, Innovation systems, Burkina Faso, Smallholders

How can technical changes within food crop cultivation in a country like Burkina Faso be explained? This is an important question for the reduction of poverty, for enhanced food security as well as for economic growth. Poor countries, where agriculture is dominating broad based economic growth, require increased productivity in food crop cultivation. This study builds on fieldwork from three villages, undertaken in 2001/2002 and in 2010. The villages are situated on the ‘Mossi plateau’ in central Burkina Faso, where chronic poverty is widespread. The study finds the character of diffusion channels and the role of social relations to be decisive in explaining access, choice and adoption of new techniques. The innovation system theory is found relevant, not least because of its focus on power structures and relations between actors. To further strengthen such systems, intermediary organizations should be supported and informal institutions transformed.

Favouring a Demonised Plant : Khat and Ethiopian smallholder enterprises

Upphovsperson:	Gessesse, Dessie
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Agrarian Change, Property and Resources | Uppsala, Sweden
År:	2013
Ämnesord:	Ethiopia, Plant production, Drugs of abuse, Khat, Commercial farming, Small farms, Smallholders, Income, Livelihood

Khat is a plant native to Ethiopia that has been consumed over several centuries as a mental and physical stimulant. This report outlines khat’s role as a source of livelihood. Khat, dubbed a social ill by many, is at the same time part and parcel of the livelihoods of many others. With consumption of the stimulant spreading to many parts of Africa, Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, khat production has become a controversial global issue. In most European and North American countries khat is illegal. The debates so far focus on the consumption of khat and its allegedly harmful health ,economic and social effects. The argument here is that expanded khat production, driven by growing demand for the stimulant, is made possible through multidimensional links between producers, sellers and others. Today, khat production is part of the wider agro-silvi-pasture complex that characterises Ethiopian rural landscapes. At the farm level, khat shares space with food and tree crops and contributes cash to the household economy. The fact that its production is a smallholder venture andis expanding through a variety of farming systems indicates its importance to cultivators and their use of land. This paper is not exhaustive, but makes an exploratory attempt to highlight khat-related livelihood issues and seeks to contribute to the ongoing debates on the stimulant and to prompt further research.

African Agriculture and The World Bank : Development or Impoverishment?

Upphovspersoner:	Havnevik, Kjell | Bryceson, Deborah | Birgegård, Lars-Erik | Matondi, Prosper | Beyene, Atakilte
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Agriculture, Rural development, Sustainable agriculture, Farming, Smallholders, Land tenure, Commodity markets, Poverty alleviation, Structural adjustment, Development strategy, Africa, Business and economics, Ekonomi

African smallholder family farming, the backbone of the continental economy throughout the colonial and early post-colonial period, has been destabilized and eroded over the past thirty years. Despite the World Bank’s poverty alleviation concerns, agrarian livelihoods continue to unravel under the impact of economic liberalization and global value chains. Can African smallholders bounce back and compete? The World Development Report 2008 argues they can and must. How realistic is this given the history of World Bank conditionality in Africa? This essay explores the productivity and welfare concerns of Africa’s smallholder farming population in the shadow of the World Bank.

Gender and agricultural supply responses to structural adjustment programmes : a case study of smallholder tea producers in Kericho, Kenya

Upphovsperson:	Ongile, Grace Atieno
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	1999
Ämnesord:	Kenya, East Africa, Agricultural production, Tea, Structural adjustment, Smallholders, Gender, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This study investigates the gender implications of agricultural sector reform in Kenya. The author focuses on smallholder tea production with the aim of pinpointing the factors that influence the adoption of tea among male and female farmers assessing female farmers' perceptions of the changes in living standards over the research period, and suggesting appropriate policy reforms to ensure that women's interests are taken into account in the design of agricultural reforms.