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IFPRI Kampala newsletter – week of July 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest! We are back from a short break so we offer you an extra long edition!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

In the news this week, we report on how the government rejects proposal to export sugarcane to Kenya and on how Uganda seeks to boost tea growing and exportation. We also report on the katikkiro of Buganda’s warning on the proposed coffee law and point to an interesting article in the Economist on beetles and flies becoming part of the agricultural food chain

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Smallholder farmers demand budget formulation process involvement
EABW

The farmers who converged in Kampala to discuss the recently passed Uganda 2019/20 budget, argue that on many occasions, their views are not represented in the final budget which affects them as smallholder farmers….. involving smallholder farmers in the budget formulation process will empower them to monitor the implementation of the budget at the grass root level.

Govt rejects proposal to export sugarcane to Kenya
Independent

Government is opposed to the proposal to export unprocessed raw materials such as sugar cane. The Trade, Industry and Co-operatives Minister, Amelia Kyambadde, stated this while presenting a statement to parliament on the issue of excess sugar cane in Busoga sub-region. She explained that the government discourages unprocessed exports so as to promote industrial growth through value addition.

Sierra Leone leader gives nod to army overseeing agriculture
Monitor

The visiting Sierra Leone president, Mr Julius Maada Bio, has backed President Museveni’s proposal to deploy soldiers in the agriculture sector. “The military should ensure discipline and expertise instead of preparing for war. Let us fight food insecurity because it does not only bring peace but also foreign exchange, which the country requires,” President Bio said.

European Union’s investment fund gets sh34b to boost agribusiness
New Vision

The European Union’s agribusiness fund dubbed Yield Uganda Investment Fund has received €8m (approximately sh34b) to support agro-processing industries by giving them low-interest loans and equities. The funding was given to the Fund by funding partners Open Society Foundations and FCA Investments.

Peanut innovation projects under way in Uganda
USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab of Peanut

Scientists, students and advisors working on Peanut Innovation Lab projects in Uganda met in late May for a launch meeting in Kampala to celebrate the start of work and share questions and insight about the direction of projects. The Lab currently has half a dozen projects that deal with peanut production, processing and consumption in Uganda.

Journalists and policy makers demand simple biotech messages
International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications

For six years, Ugandan policymakers and journalists have expressed frustrations about the difficulty in appreciating scientific terminologies and messages presented about biotechnology. For this reason, the Uganda Biosciences Information Center brought together science and media practitioners to develop the first ever ‘dictionary’ that provides simple language translations of some of the terminologies used in biotechnology and biosciences.

Uganda seeks to boost tea growing and exportation
Observer

Ahead of the annual African Tea Convention in Kampala from June 26 to 28, the country looks set to revive the fortunes of the export cash crop. The three-day event, organised by the East African Tea Association and assisted by the Uganda Tea Association, is a global event aimed at promoting tea production and consumption all over the world. Uganda produces at least 80 million kilograms of tea annually, however the local market remains weak.

Katikiro warns on proposed coffee law
Independent

Charles Peter Mayiga, the Katikiro of Buganda Kingdom is pessimistic that once passed into law in its current form, the National Coffee Bill 2018 will dampen farmer’s commitment towards reviving coffee production. Last year, Uganda Coffee Development Authority-UCDA unveiled the National Coffee Bill 2018 that has since been adopted by cabinet. The bill seeks to regulate all on-farm and off farm activities in the coffee value chain by issuing licenses right from farmers to traders for purposes of enhancing quality of coffee in the country.

Earth observations help to monitor the impacts of cyclone Idai on people and food in eastern Africa
Agrilinks

Cyclone Idai left more than 1,000 people dead and thousands more missing, potentially affecting millions in Southern Africa. As emergency response and recovery efforts continue, another disaster is likely unfolding elsewhere on the continent: Idai pulled precipitation South, away from Eastern Africa, resulting in persistent dry conditions affecting crops at the start of the main growing season. That’s where NASA earth observations come in.

Del Monte’s Sh500m plant to feed Coca-Cola in Kenya
Business Daily

Thika-based pineapple juice maker Del Monte will next month open a Sh500 million processing plant within its Thika plantation and expand production portfolio to other fruits. The new facility will have a processing capacity of 60 tonnes of fresh fruits per year (avocados, mangoes and passion fruits) which will be sourced from Kiambu and neighbouring Murang’a County.

Severe weather in the U.S. is impacting global food security
Food Tank

Across the key agricultural states in the Midwestern United States, crop plantings were delayed because of severe weather including heavy rain and flooding. This delay significantly impacts corn and soybean acreage; both crops play a major role in the global agricultural economy and have triggered a spike in commodity prices, indicating the impacts of climate change on food price volatility and potential food insecurity.

Beetles and flies are becoming part of the agricultural food chain
Economist

Some visionaries hope that insects will play a big role in future human diets. Insects are efficient converters of food into body mass. And in some parts of the world they are, indeed, eaten already. Well, maybe. But it will take some serious marketing to persuade consumers, in the West at least, that fricasseed locusts or termiteburgers are the yummy must-haves of 21st-century cuisine.

Sixteen companies rethinking food and beverage packaging
Food Tank

The United States generates almost 80 million tons of packaging waste each year, according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency. When landfilled or incinerated, this waste pollutes the environment and poses health risks to humans and wildlife. The food industry is largely responsible for this growing packaging problem.

New index helps countries boost food systems sustainability
Food Tank

A new index developed by Bioversity International aims to build better, more resilient food systems and improve diets. By tracking how sustainably countries use their agricultural biodiversity—or agrobiodiversity—the Agrobiodiversity Index supports actors within food systems to make better decisions to achieve sustainability and resilience.

Research Reports, Policy Briefs and Discussion Papers

Smallholder households: distinct segments, different needs
CGAP

Using data from CGAP’s national surveys, three segments emerged – Subsisting, Commercializing, and Diversifying smallholder households – according to their crop and livestock sales, amount of agricultural land, and smallholder livelihood profile: (i) the Commercializing segment sees their agricultural activities as a business. They’re the key market for financial solutions related to agricultural goals; (ii) the Diversifying segment has a wider range of income sources and they generally value a generic portfolio of financial services; (iii) serving the more vulnerable Subsisting segment at scale calls for partnerships, technology, and comprehensive approaches to financial and nonfinancial services.

Research

Delivering more with less: subnational service provision in low capacity states
Kyle, J. & Resnick, D. – Studies in Comparative International Development, 2019

In developing countries, low state capacity frequently is blamed for poor and uneven service delivery. Yet, since state capacity manifests unevenly across space and sectors, identifying which elements of capacity are more likely to enhance service delivery is not straightforward. We examine how subnational variation in capacity affects access to agricultural extension in rural Nepal. We explore six dimensions of state capacity using original household survey data and interviews with local bureaucrats. We find that local knowledge and motivation of bureaucrats play a significant role in shaping service access. By contrast, traditional capacity indicators—including resources, professionalization, and autonomy—matter surprisingly little. These findings suggest that bureaucrats working with fewer but more motivated staff who spend more time in a district are more likely to facilitate citizens’ access to agricultural extension. Placebo tests add confidence that relationships are not driven by unobservables. Scholarship on state capacity traditionally has been unable to measure capacity disaggregated by geography and sector, and, as a result, has struggled to link empirically different elements of capacity with service delivery. This paper begins to address this gap and in doing so, offers broader implications for the dynamics of rural development.

Access to information, price expectations and welfare: The role of mobile phone adoption in Ethiopia
MG Haile, T Wossen, M Kalkuhl – Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019

Using household survey data from rural Ethiopia, this study explores the role of mobile telephony in smallholder farmers’ price expectation formations. The empirical findings suggest that farmers who own mobile phones and who reside closer to markets make smaller price forecasting errors. The beneficial effect of mobile phones is stronger for households that reside farther away from grain markets, indicating that mobile telephony provides information that at least partially compensates location-disadvantaged farmers. Holding all else constant, mobile phone ownership is associated with about a 30% decrease in the conditional mean of a smallholder’s price prediction error, whereas an additional kilometer from nearby grain markets reduces the expected prediction error by about 10%. The results are robust across different econometric estimators as well as the use of alternative measurements of price forecasting error. Our simulation analysis shows that accurate information about grain price developments could save a significant welfare loss for smallholders. Depending on their income levels, the analysis hints that smallholder farmers would be willing to pay between 7% and 20% of their income to improve the price signal, in other words, to avoid uncertainty on producer prices. Our work emphasizes an alternative way to deal with price volatility and improve farmers’ welfare that focuses on improving access to information rather than reducing volatility per se.

The Role of Land Use Consolidation in Improving Crop Yields among Farm Households in Rwanda
Pia Nilsson – Journal of Development Studies, 2019.

Relative to other developing regions, the role of land consolidation in increasing crop yields is poorly understood in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper examines the role of land use consolidation on agricultural productivity among smallholder farmers in Rwanda. Household-level data are used to estimate a fixed-effects model with matched control groups to mitigate selection bias. The study finds a positive association between land use consolidation and crop yields, but only among farm households with landholdings greater than one hectare, which is well above the average farm size in Rwanda. Findings also point to the importance of non-organic fertilisers and irrigation as there appear to be significant benefits associated with further increases in their use among the consolidated farms.

Gender in climate change, agriculture, and natural resource policies: insights from East Africa
Edidah L. Ampaire, Mariola Acosta, Sofia Huyer, Ritah Kigonya, Perez Muchunguzi, Rebecca Muna, Laurence Jassogne – Climatic Change, 2019.

Gender mainstreaming was acknowledged as an indispensable strategy for achieving gender equality at the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action. Since then, governments have made substantial efforts in developing gender-responsive policies and implementation strategies. The advent of climate change and its effects, which have continued to impact rural livelihoods and especially food security, demands that gender mainstreaming efforts are accelerated. Effective gender mainstreaming requires that gender is sufficiently integrated in policies, development plans, and implementation strategies, supported by budgetary allocations. This study analyzes the extent of gender integration in agricultural and natural resource policies in Uganda and Tanzania, and how gender is budgeted for in implementation plans at district and lower governance levels. A total of 155 policy documents, development plans, and annual action plans from national, district, and sub-county/ward levels were reviewed. In addition, district and sub-county budgets for four consecutive financial years from 2012/2013 to 2015/2016 were analyzed for gender allocations. Results show that whereas there is increasing gender responsiveness in both countries, (i) gender issues are still interpreted as “women issues,” (ii) there is disharmony in gender mainstreaming across governance levels, (iii) budgeting for gender is not yet fully embraced by governments, (iii) allocations to gender at sub-national level remain inconsistently low with sharp differences between estimated and actual budgets, and (iv) gender activities do not address any structural inequalities. We propose approaches that increase capacity to develop and execute gender-responsive policies, implementation plans, and budgets.

The impact of maize price shocks on household food security: Panel evidence from Tanzania
Robert Rudolf – Food Policy, 2019

Using three waves (2008/09, 2010/11, 2012/13) of the Tanzanian National Panel Survey, this study investigates the impact of maize price shocks on household food security. Between 2008/09 and 2012/13, calorie intake stagnated for urban households, yet sharply deteriorated for rural households. The latter was driven by a significant decline in the consumption of the major staple maize which showed strongest price hikes among all major food items. Fixed-effects regressions indicate a clear negative relationship between maize prices and average household energy intake. Almost all population groups were found to be negatively affected by maize price shocks, with rural landless households being the most vulnerable group. In particular, a 50 percent rise in maize prices decreases caloric intake for rural (urban) households on average by 4.4 (5.4) percent, and for rural landless households by 12.6 percent. Results further indicate that subsistence agriculture can act as an effective strategy to insure against food price volatility.

What drives smallholder farmers’ willingness to pay for a new farm technology? Evidence from an experimental auction in Kenya
Hira Channa, Amy Z. Chen, Patricia Pina, Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, Daniel Stein – Food Policy, 2019.

We use an incentive compatible experimental auction to measure demand for a new agricultural technology, a triple layered hermetic storage bag. When used properly, the bag creates an airtight seal that reduces storage loss from insect pests and neutralizes aflatoxin contamination in stored grain. We find that demand for this new technology is highly elastic (4.3) and that the wholesaler could increase profit by lowering the price. We also find that farmers’ valuation for the bag is not significantly different based on the medium through which information about it is communicated to them, either text, audio or video messages. This suggests that practitioners should use the cheapest option for disseminating information, which is text messaging in this context. In addition, we find that farmers who have prior awareness of the bag are willing to pay 20% more on average than those previously unaware of it. In total, the highly elastic demand for the improved bags, along with the fact that prior awareness of the bag leads to higher willingness to pay, suggests that a one-time price subsidy for the new technology could spur demand and increase future adoption.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this email and references to online sources is provided as a public service with the understanding that IFPRI-Kampala/USSP makes no warranties, either expressed or implied, concerning the accuracy, completeness, reliability, or suitability of the information. Nor does IFPRI-Kampala/USSP warrant that the use of this information is free of any claims of copyright infringement. The views and opinions expressed in this this email and references to online sources do not necessarily reflect official policy or position of IFPRI, IFPRI-Kampala or USSP or should not be taken as an endorsement.

IFPRI-Kampala newsletter – week of June 16th 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

In the news this week, we report on Uganda resumes exporting poultry to Kenya and on how conventional farming affects farmers access to market. We also report on how Zimbabwe commercialises its indigenous crops and point to a NPR article on how Kelp has been touted as the new kale, but it has been slow to catch on.

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Uganda resumes exporting poultry to Kenya
Observer

Kenyan banned Ugandan poultry products in 2017 after the outbreak of bird flu and swine flu was confirmed in the country. Nairobi claimed then it had banned Ugandan poultry products to “secure the country from the viral infection”.Ugandans are now free to export poultry and poultry products to Kenya.

Yield Uganda Investment Fund invests In analytical laboratory
EABW

Yield Uganda Investment Fund has committed Shs1.3 billion to Chemiphar (U) Ltd alongside Agricultural Business Initiative’s grant injection of Shs2.45 billion. Chemiphar is an internationally accredited analytical laboratory located on the outskirts of Kampala, whose core business is to provide testing and inspection services to SME businesses operating in food and beverages, agro-products, environment, pharmaceutical and cosmetics as well as agricultural seeds. Chemiphar acts as an enabler to agri-businesses which are required to meet international standards for both export and local certification of their processed and value added products.

Conventional farming affecting farmers access to market
EABW

Promotion of conventional farming in Uganda may affect small holder farmers’ access to local and international markets due to the health effects associated with the farming system. Farmers are now agitating for organic farming where crops can be produced using organically produced manures. They say this will save them money and also open their market opportunities to their produces both locally to internationally market where the demand for organically produced foods is high.

Renewable technology confronts Kenya’s food waste
Spore

Solar-powered cold storage units are being used by over 2,000 fruit and vegetable farmers in eastern Kenya to reduce post-harvest losses and gain better access to local markets. Mobile cold rooms have been set up for farmers to store their produce before being transported to market. Farmers are thus able to harvest their crops at a convenient time, and seek suitable markets, whilst their produce is preserved. The green energy innovation has seen a 40-60% reduction in post-harvest losses among its users.

Why South Sudan cattle rustlers keep terrorising northern Uganda
Monitor

Statistics obtained from Lamwo District indicate that a total of 254 goats and 100 cattle have so far been stolen by suspected South Sudan rustlers since February last year. Livestock farming in the district has been severely hindered by cattle rustling.

State projects leave tens of thousands of lives in the balance in Ethiopia – study
The Guardian

A giant dam and irrigated sugar plantations are “wreaking havoc” in southern Ethiopia and threaten to wipe out tens of thousands of indigenous peoples , a US-based thinktank has claimed. It says that the Ethiopian government has yet to address the impact of state development plans on indigenous populations in the lower Omo valley, where people face loss of livelihoods, starvation, and violent conflict .

Zimbabwe commercialises its indigenous crops
Spore

Zimbabwe has many adaptable and drought-resistant plant species that require minimal or no agri-inputs at all and have significant commercial potential. Baobab, for instance, is a hardy tree that grows in very dry areas of the country and is used in BIZ’s flagship products, such as baobab powder, marmalade and hair oil. Other indigenous plants processed at BIZ include, Bambara nut, marula tree, mongongo nut or mankelli tree, the resurrection plant, rosella, sausage tree or kigelia, the wild melon tree and ximenia.

How a Syrian genebank secured over 100,000 seeds during wartime, maybe saving the future of wheat
Food Tank

Dr. Ali Shehadeh organised the rescue of thousands of varieties of pulses, legumes, and grasses, co-ordinating shipments to other genebanks in Turkey and Lebanon,

Organic millet farmer talks about ancient grain’s U.S. rise in popularity
Food Tank

Millet production in the United States increased 16 percent between 2016 and 2017, and is experiencing a sharp rise in popularity. Jean Hediger, a certified organic millet farmer, says the rise is due to consumers recognising the health benefits of this low cost, ancient grain. While millet is mainly grown in developing countries, its ability to thrive in harsh and arid environments makes it easy to cultivate and is an attractive source of food as climate change forces farmers around the world to seek alternative crops that are tolerant of dryer temperatures.

Kelp has been touted as the new kale, but it has been slow to catch on
NPR

Kelp is a type of seaweed that grows in large underwater forests and looks a little like green lasagna noodles with curly edges. It can be used as a pasta substitute, as noodles, sautéed with butter and mushrooms, or ground into powder to use as seasoning. High end restaurants have also used seaweed as a side vegetable and on cookies.

A huge amount of food is wasted—and with it, water, energy, and nutrition
Chicago Council

Roughly a third of all water used for agriculture is used to grow food that will ultimately be lost or wasted. In general, the food products most vulnerable to spoilage have highest water content. Food loss and waste thus carry significant waste of limited water resources.

Child hunger threatens Africa’s economy, report says
DevEx

Africa’s economic and social progress is under threat from persistently high levels of child hunger, according to a report by the Africa Child Policy Forum. The report found that child hunger currently costs African countries as much as 17% of their gross domestic product. It urges governments to ensure children have enough food to safeguard their country’s economic future, as well as their citizens’ well-being.

Sixth-generation Dutch seedsman wins $250,000 World Food Prize
World Food Price

Simon N. Groot of the Netherlands has been announced as the 2019 World Food Prize Laureate for his transformative role in empowering millions of smallholder farmers in more than 60 countries to earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production, benefitting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets.

The research-practitioner divide: Why we are still optimistic
PIM

Researchers and development practitioners don’t often team up to co-lead large global projects for a number of reasons. But even though this type of partnership isn’t very common, we each need the other to be able to solve seemingly intractable global problems like hunger and poverty.

Beyond Hummus
Food Tank

To some, chickpeas are synonymous with hummus. But that’s a pretty limited view of a crop that is the second most eaten pulse in the world. Chana Dal. Burmese tofu. Farinata di ceci. Chana masala. Chakhchoukha. Guasanas. They’re all national dishes based on the same ingredient—the little ram’s head-shaped seed that gave the famous Roman orator Cicero his name.

Research:

Incentives and the diffusion of agricultural knowledge: experimental evidence from northern Uganda
KM Shikuku, J Pieters, E Bulte, P Läderach – American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2019

We present results of a randomized evaluation that assesses the effects of different incentives for diffusion of agricultural knowledge by smallholders in northern Uganda. Randomly-selected disseminating farmers (DFs) from a large sample of villages are assigned to one of three experimental arms: (a) training about climate smart agriculture, (b) training plus a material reward for knowledge diffusion, and (c) training plus a reputational gain for knowledge diffusion. We find that leveraging somebody’s reputation (or social recognition) has a positive impact on DFs’ experimentation and diffusion effort. This impact is stronger than that measured in the private material rewards treatment.

Using Randomized Controlled Trials to Estimate Long-Run Impacts in Development Economics
A Bouguen, Y Huang, M Kremer, E Miguel – Annual Review of Economics, 2019

We assess evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on long-run economic productivity and living standards in poor countries. We first document that several studies estimate large positive long-run impacts, but that relatively few existing RCTs have been evaluated over the long run. We next present evidence from a systematic survey of existing RCTs, with a focus on cash transfer and child health programs, and show that a meaningful subset can realistically be evaluated for long-run effects. We discuss ways to bridge the gap between the burgeoning number of development RCTs and the limited number that have been followed up to date, including through new panel (longitudinal) data; improved participant tracking methods; alternative research designs; and access to administrative, remote sensing, and cell phone data. We conclude that the rise of development economics RCTs since roughly 2000 provides a novel opportunity to generate high-quality evidence on the long-run drivers of living standards.

The impact of maize price shocks on household food security: Panel evidence from Tanzania
R Rudolf – Food Policy, 2019

Agricultural extension, intra-household allocation and malaria
Yao Pan, Saurabh Singhal, Journal of Development Economics, 2019.

Can agricultural development programs improve health-related outcomes? We exploit a spatial discontinuity in the coverage of a large-scale agricultural extension program in Uganda to causally identify its effects on malaria. We find that eligibility for the program reduced the proportion of household members with malaria by 8.9 percentage points, with children and pregnant women experiencing substantial improvements. An examination of the underlying mechanisms indicates that an increase in income and the resulting increase in the ownership and usage of bednets may have played a role. Taken together, these results signify the importance of financial constraints in investments for malaria prevention and the potential role that agricultural development can play in easing it.

Correlated non-classical measurement errors, ‘Second best’ policy inference, and the inverse size-productivity relationship in agriculture
Kibrom A. Abay, Gashaw T. Abate, Christopher B. Barrett, Tanguy Bernard, Journal of Development Economics, 2019.

We show that non-classical measurement errors (NCME) on both sides of a regression can bias the parameter estimate of interest in either direction. Furthermore, if these NCME are correlated, correcting for either one alone can aggravate bias relative to ignoring mismeasurement in both variables, a ‘second best’ result with implications for a broad class of economic phenomena of policy interest. We then use a unique Ethiopian dataset of matched farmer self-reported and precise ground-based measures for both plot size and agricultural output to re-investigate the long-debated relationship between plot size and crop productivity. Both self-reported variables contain substantial NCME that are negatively correlated with the true variable values, and positively correlated with one another, consistent with prior studies. Eliminating both sources of NCME eliminates the estimated inverse size-productivity relationship. But correcting neither variable generates a parameter estimate not statistically significantly different from that generated using two improved measures, while correcting for just one source of NCME significantly aggravates the bias in the parameter estimate. Numerical simulations demonstrate that over a relatively large parameter space, expensive collection of objective measures of only one variable or correcting only one variable’s NCME may be inadvisable when NCME are large and correlated. This has practical implications for survey design as well as for estimation using existing survey data.

IFPRI Kampala newsletter – week of June 9th, 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

In the news this week, we report on Gov’t releases UGX 16 billion for emergency relief food and on silk production becoming the new money-spinner. We also have a special report on OWC project: missed targets, lessons and way forward and point to a NYT article on how Millennials are making farming sexy in Africa.

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Gov’t releases UGX 16 billion for emergency relief food
Independent

The Ministry of Disaster Preparedness and Refugees has started the emergency procurement of food relief for at least 3.5 million people facing starvation in different parts of the county. Severe dry conditions from October-December 2018 and delayed rainfall between January and March 2019 March led to crop failures and affected early planting in areas of Acholi, Teso, Bukedi, Busoga and Karamoja. The adverse weather also affected the large section of Uganda’s cattle corridor dominated by pastoralists in areas of Nakasongola and Nakaseke.

Could silk production become farming’s new money-spinner?
Observer

The farming activity of raising silkworms in order to obtain raw silk has been practiced in Uganda since the sixties but it was abandoned in the nineties due to lack of market and the complexity. However, the global rise in demand for silk and the subsequent increase of the price prompted government, through the National Agricultural Research Organisation, to embark on new ways of tapping into the industry.

From a seedling to a cup: Uganda co-operative ensures its coffee travels the world
Medium

Elvanis Nkundwa reaches up and plucks red coffee cherries from the branch of one of her coffee trees. She moves quickly and confidently through her orchard, harvesting cherries by the handful. Narrow footpaths cut between the trees; taller trees overhead provide shade and a home for the numerous birds whose songs fill the mountain air.

Uganda and Denmark to work on food quality
New Vision

Ugandan chilies and vegetables are facing a ban from the EU market over contamination concerns. Uganda and Denmark have agreed to come up with a framework that will see an improvement in Ugandan agricultural products for ease of access of the European Union market.

Pathways to resilience in the Karamoja cluster

Karamoja Resilience Support Unit

Proceedings and papers from a recent regional research conference on research and policy options. It reaffirmed the need for stronger evidence-based programming and policy making to improve the quality and impact of investments in the cluster.

Budget to build grain storage facilities
Monitor

The lasting solution for such a problem is to put in place storage facilities to help peasant farmers, who will hopefully have come together in cooperative societies, to determine when to sell their produce, and to who to sell. This is old-school economics that those in government should be aware of.

The secretive traders fulfilling demand for a Chinese delicacy
The Guardian

Highly prized for its swim bladder – served in soups and stews – the fish could disappear altogether from Africa’s Lake Victoria thanks to the lucrative trade. A thriving trade in fish maw – made from the swim bladders of fish – could lead to the extinction of the Nile perch fish in east Africa’s Lake Victoria.

Coffee law to punish farmers over neglect
Monitor

Farmers who neglect their coffee will be punished, according to the new Coffee Bill. The Bill, which is yet to be handled by Parliament, is currently before the House committee on agriculture, animal industry and fisheries.

OWC project: missed targets, lessons and way forward
Monitor

In 2001, donors, including the World Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, European Union, Department for International Development, Danish International Development Assistance, United Nations Development Programme, Belgian Survival Fund, Netherlands and Irish Aid, pumped billions of shillings into the National Agricultural Advisory Services programme, then projected as a radical reform of the country’s agricultural advisory (extension) services and a, “paradigm-changing policy-shift, a radical move away from a traditional, top-down government-led extension service to a privatised, demand-led, one in which farmers were supposed to define their own requirements for advice.”

The Uganda Coffee Roadmap is on the move
Global Coffee Platform

150 coffee experts gathered to the 12th Annual Stakeholder Meeting of the Ugandan Coffee Platform to learn how the 15-year Uganda’s Coffee Roadmap will will increase Uganda’s coffee production from the current 4.7 million bags to 20 million bags in 2030, and triple the income of 1.2 million smallholder coffee farmers.

Trees or sugar? Conservationists, traditional kingdom clash over Ugandan forest
East African

The National Forestry Authority says the sugar project will carve out 13 per cent of Bugoma, a state-owned forest reserve which is home to a tenth of the country’s chimpanzees and is a growing eco-tourism destination.

“We have nothing to eat”: further reflections on the famine in Turkana and the government’s food security policies
East African Review

Famine in Turkana and other Kenyan counties may not have yet caught the attention of the international media, but domestic dissatisfaction with the famine response may force the government to alter its food security policies. The more likely scenario, however, is that this government will, like most Kenyans, pray for the rains, and hope that the food crisis will go away all on its own.

Kenyan farmers told not to use weed killers that may cause cancer
Nation

Kenyan agronomists and coffee marketing agents have raised the red flag over the use of weed killers suspected to cause cancer.

Millennials ‘make farming sexy’ in Africa, where tilling the soil once meant shame
New York Times

After he graduated from university in Ghana, Vozbeth Kofi Azumah was reluctant to tell anyone — even his mother — what he planned to do for a living. “I’m a farmer,” he said, buzzing his motorcycle between freshly plowed fields on a recent afternoon. “Here, that’s an embarrassment.”

Did the Dutch steal this African food?
BBC

It is hard to believe, but despite injera’s popularity throughout Ethiopia, the patent for the processing of teff flour and related teff products ended up in the hands of a company in the Netherlands.

Scientists have identified a biological weapon that could end the devastating effect of the fall armyworm in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sci Dev Net

According to the FAO, fall armyworm has already spread across Sub-Saharan Africa since its detection in the region in 2016, affecting millions of hectares of maize and sorghum. Fall armyworm threatens the food security of about 200 million people in Africa. The biological weapon, known as Telenomus remus, is a parasitoid — an insect that completes its larval development within the body of another insect leading to the death of its host. It is being used to augment control of fall armyworm in the Americas, experts say.

Personal reflections on the Green Revolution’s narrative and myths
IDS

Getting to grips with the Green Revolution: I set out in the field research focused on seeds and agricultural extension. I had a GR mindset myself: it was seeds which could offer a breakthrough in rice, and agricultural extension could transfer to farmers’ new more productive technology. I found agricultural extension difficult to research. But our village work hit us between the eyes with the primacy of water management.

Research:

Climate change has likely already affected global food production
Deepak K. Ray, Paul C. West, Michael Clark, James S. Gerber, Alexander V. Prishchepov, Snigdhansu Chatterjee – PlosOne, 2019

Crop yields are projected to decrease under future climate conditions, and recent research suggests that yields have already been impacted. However, current impacts on a diversity of crops subnationally and implications for food security remains unclear. Here, we constructed linear regression relationships using weather and reported crop data to assess the potential impact of observed climate change on the yields of the top ten global crops–barley, cassava, maize, oil palm, rapeseed, rice, sorghum, soybean, sugarcane and wheat at ~20,000 political units. We find that the impact of global climate change on yields of different crops from climate trends ranged from -13.4% (oil palm) to 3.5% (soybean). Our results show that impacts are mostly negative in Europe, Southern Africa and Australia but generally positive in Latin America. Impacts in Asia and Northern and Central America are mixed. This has likely led to ~1% average reduction (-3.5 X 1013 kcal/year) in consumable food calories in these ten crops. In nearly half of food insecure countries, estimated caloric availability decreased. Our results suggest that climate change has already affected global food production.

Climate change and developing country growth: the cases of Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia
Arndt, C., Chinowsky, P., Fant, C. et al. – Climatic Change, 2019

We consider the interplay of climate change impacts, global mitigation policies, and the economic interests of developing countries to 2050. Focusing on Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia, we employ a structural approach to biophysical and economic modeling that incorporates climate uncertainty and allows for rigorous comparison of climate, biophysical, and economic outcomes across global mitigation regimes. We find that effective global mitigation policies generate two sources of benefit. First, less distorted climate outcomes result in typically more favorable and less variable economic outcomes. Second, successful global mitigation policies reduce global fossil fuel producer prices, relative to unconstrained emissions, providing a substantial terms of trade boost of structural fuel importers. Combined, these gains are on the order of or greater than estimates of mitigation costs. These results highlight the interests of most developing countries in effective global mitigation policies, even in the relatively near term, with much larger benefits post-2050.

Agricultural Informatization and Technical Efficiency in Maize Production in Zambia
GE Mwalupaso, S Wang, S Rahman, EJP Alavo, X Tian – Sustainability, 2019

The cropland productivity gap between Africa and the rest of the world is widening. Fortunately, increasing farmers’ access to useful agricultural information reduces the costs of searching for information, thereby leading to higher agricultural productivity and sustainability. This study investigates the association between the adoption of mobile phones to collect agricultural information and farmers’ technical efficiency (TE) in Zambia. Different from previous studies, we focus on the actual use of mobile phones by farmers rather than mere ownership. Farmers were selected using a two-stage sampling procedure, and the Cobb-Douglas (CD) production function is adopted to estimate the association using two approaches—the conventional stochastic production frontier (SPF) and propensity score matching-stochastic production frontier (PSM-SPF) model. In both cases, we found that the use of mobile phones is significantly and positively associated with farmers’ TE. However, the conventional SFP model exaggerates the TE scores by 5.3% due to its failure to mitigate biases from observed variables. Regarding the agricultural growth indicators (income and output) related to TE, a close inspection reveals that increasing mobile phone use to close the TE gap between the two groups could result in a 5.13% and 8.21% reduction in severity of poverty and extreme poverty, respectively. Additional research is essential to corroborate the findings and analyze the potential causal mechanisms. Our study provides strong evidence to promote mobile phone use in agricultural production in rural Zambia.

Participatory plant breeding: Who did it, who does it and where?
S Ceccarelli, S Grando – Experimental Agriculture, 2019

The paper provides an overview of institutions, scientists, and practitioners involved over the years in the various ways in which participatory plant breeding (PPB) is implemented, with indication of the crops involved and the countries in which it took place, or is still taking place. This might help creating a better awareness of the scope (both geographical and crop wise) of the different methodologies as well as of their advantages, disadvantages, applicability, and limitations. Through a literature survey, we found 254 publications showing that over a period of 36 years participatory approaches in plant breeding have been used in 69 countries (10 developed and 59 developing) with 47 crops including self-pollinated, cross-pollinated, and vegetatively propagated crops, by several Institutions including CGIAR centers, universities, and NGOs. We argue that there are no obvious scientific or technical reasons limiting the use of PPB, and we interpret the limited institutionalization as a difficulty to accept the paradigm shift that participation implies.

IFPRI Kampala newsletter week of June 3rd, 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

In the news this week, we report on the sugar zoning politics and on residents in Jinja using ARVs to fatten pigs. We also have news articles on Why people in Senegal pay a fortune for fancy sheep and on iron-rich GM wheat which is set to undergo field trials.

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Behind the sugar zoning politics
The Independent

Ugandan sugar millers, cane farmers and the government have for sometime been at loggerheads over a proposal to introduce zoning in the sugar cane growing areas. The proposed Sugar Bill, 2016, seeks to limit establishment of new sugar processing firms in the already existing ones within a radius of 25 kilometres. It also seeks to force sugar cane farmers or out growers to supply their cane to the sugar processing firm within their zone.

Agriculture budget passes Ugx 1 trillion mark
The Independent

The budget allocation for the agriculture sector will in the next financial year pass the 1 trillion Shillings mark for the first time in what officials say will cater for research, fertilizers and coffee strategy. The allocation to the sector will grow by 300 billion to 1.2 trillion Shillings in 2019/2020 financial year.

Residents in Jinja using ARVs to fatten pigs
Nile Post

Pig farmers in Kayunga district have adopted a vice of using ARVs to fatten pigs. This was revealed by the authorities during a stakeholders meeting that was organised by the National Drug Authority to sensitise veterinary doctors in Kayunga and Mukono.

Museveni’s GMO law dilemma
The Independent

Six months since Parliament passed a revised Genetic Engineering Bill, 2018, that included demands by President Yoweri Museveni, he has not signed it into law. But he has also not written to Parliament to explain why. This is the latest saga over a Bill that started out seven years ago as the National Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill, 2012. Since then, although almost everyone wants a biotechnology law, there has been tension between those for and against specific provisions in the Bill.

Job creation: agriculture’s potential to mitigate youth migration
Spore

We have most of the necessary resources, like land and fertile soil, which we can utilise to take up market opportunities in the global food industry,” says Kisseka Samson, 22-year-old co-founder and managing director of Hello Mushrooms U Ltd in Uganda.

Kenya signs agreement to export avocados to China
The East African

Kenyan farmers will now export hass avocados to China following a trade deal signed when President Uhuru Kenyatta recently met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing. It is estimated that when the agreement is fully implemented, the Chinese market will take in more than 40 percent of Kenya’s avocado produce, making it one of the largest importers of the fruit.
Why people in Senegal pay a fortune for fancy sheep
The Economist

People in Senegal adore sheep. Not only are they delicious, they can also be status symbols. Every year during Tabaski, a religious festival, hundreds of thousands of them are sacrificed (and then gobbled up). Poorer families often take out crippling loans to buy one so they don’t lose social standing.

What can our increasingly mobile world learn from pastoralists?
Pastres

A recent PASTRES seminar at the Robert Schuman Centre at the European University in Florence discussed mobility, and how lessons from pastoralists might be important for thinking about policy themes such as international migration and cross-border trade.

A coffee shop in San Francisco offers a $75 cup of coffee
BBC

Klatch Coffee in San Francisco is offering a $75 cup of coffee made from award-winning beans grown in Panama. The beans – called Elida Geisha Natural – sold for $803 per pound and hold the record for the most expensive coffee in the world.

With the help of ancient grains, gluten-free beer is saving the environment and local farmers
Food Tank

Millets and sorghum are nutrient-rich grains, high in protein and antioxidants. And they’re drought-resistant, making them reliable crops in dry, hot conditions. But over the past 50 years, The International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics estimates that these ancient crops have largely been forgotten as more farmers are prioritizing maize, wheat, rice, and soybeans. Now, a rather unlikely industry is taking advantage of millets and sorghum: gluten-free craft beer.

Reinventing the tomato for survival in a changing world
New York Time

Mr Gates believes that the tomato’s survival and continued deliciousness depend on the plant’s diversity, and he considers breeding hardy, cold-tolerant and heat-tolerant varieties an essential part of his work — not just to provide food, but also to expand the number of places where the plant can flourish.

Biodiversity collapse: the wild relatives of livestock and crops are disappearing
The Conversation

Humans are relying on a narrowing base of species for food, using more and more commercially-bred livestock and crops while losing the wild relatives – the reservoir of genetic diversity. These genetic resources may become increasingly important for feeding some nine billion people by 2050, in a world shaped by climate change and all the knock-on effects this will have for agriculture.

Iron-rich GM wheat set to undergo field trials
John Innes Centre

The John Innes Centre got the green light from the UK government to perform field trials of genetically modified wheat biofortified to produce high-iron white flour.

Coffee is good for your health – but don’t exceed six cups a day, study says
Coffee and Cocoa

While the pros and cons of drinking coffee have been debated for decades, new research from the University of South Australia shows the point at which excess caffeine can cause high blood pressure, a precursor to heart disease.

Burger King’s new plant-based burger now available in Sweden, soon in Asia
The Spoon

Burger King is now offering a new plant-based burger in Sweden. The new burger is a version of the Impossible Whopper, which is made with the popular plant-based pink meat introduced by California-based startup, Impossible Foods. In early April, the Impossible Whopper was released in St. Louis and will eventually be available in all Burger King stores worldwide. The special ingredient in the new plant-based burger which makes it pinkish-like bleeding meat and tastes like meat is called heme.

Policy notes, research briefs and discussion papers:

Gender in agricultural risk management: analytical framework and operational guidelines
PARM

This PARM guidance note explains how to integrate a gender lens into agriculture the risk assessment and management tools’ implementation process. It builds on existing analytical work and experiences of IFAD, FAO, World Bank and many other development agencies.

Research:

Genome analysis of African yam backs Niger River as cradle of African agriculture
Scarcelli N, Cubry P, Akakpo R, Thuillet AC, Obidiegwu J, Baco MN, Otoo E, Sonké B, Dansi A, Djedatin G, Mariac C. – Science Advances, 2019

While there has been progress in our understanding of the origin and history of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, a unified perspective is still lacking on where and how major crops were domesticated in the region. Here, we investigated the domestication of African yam (Dioscorea rotundata), a key crop in early African agriculture. Using whole-genome resequencing and statistical models, we show that cultivated yam was domesticated from a forest species. We infer that the expansion of African yam agriculture started in the Niger River basin. This result, alongside with the origins of African rice and pearl millet, supports the hypothesis that the vicinity of the Niger River was a major cradle of African agriculture.

Development pathways toward “zero hunger”
Jennifer Blesh, Lesli Hoey, Andrew D. Jones, Harriet Friedmann, Ivette Perfecto – World Development, 2019

Globally, industrial agriculture threatens critical ecosystem processes on which crop production depends, while 815 million people are undernourished and many more suffer from malnutrition. The second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 2), Zero Hunger, seeks to simultaneously address global environmental sustainability and food security challenges. We conducted an integrated literature review organized around three disciplinary perspectives central to realizing SDG 2: ecology and agricultural sciences, nutrition and public health, and political economy and policy science. Within each discipline we first draw on a wide range of literature to summarize the state of knowledge on effective pathways to achieve food security while ensuring the sustainability of food systems. We then conduct a comprehensive review of articles in each of these disciplines that discuss SDG 2, using the pathways we outline initially to frame our analysis. In particular, we ask whether the framing of SDG 2 is appropriate given current understandings of transitions to sustainable food systems. By applying a food systems lens, our review identifies several limitations in the way SDG 2 is applied by researchers including a productionist perspective, limited attention to ecological processes on farms, a definition of food security that lacks a food systems perspective, and a lack of attention to historical and structural factors that shape opportunities for equity and food security in different contexts. Finally, we consider possibilities for expanding the research agenda and associated implications for development practice. We argue that the pathway to achieving Zero Hunger should center on place-based, adaptive, participatory solutions that simultaneously attend to local institutional capacities, agroecosystem diversification and ecological management, and the quality of local diets. Two conceptual frameworks – social-ecological systems and sustainable diets – offer systems-based lenses for integrated analysis of agriculture and food security, which could inform the development of effective policies.

Pastoral community coping and adaptation strategies to manage household food insecurity consequent to climatic hazards in the cattle corridor of Uganda
M Mayanja, C Rubaire-Akiki, J Morton, JD Kabasa – Climate and Development, 2019

Establishing short and long term measures that pastoral and agropastoral households use to ensure they have access to food in periods of climate extremes could provide insights into ways to support households in similar conditions. Using semi-structured elicitation, 15 purposively selected participants from case households and 13 community leaders, in the central cattle corridor of Uganda were interviewed in January to February 2013. Thematic analysis revealed four coping strategies: harvesting immature food crops, selling off cattle, searching for alternative water sources and using alternative non-production-based means to access food. Three adaptation strategies identified were: diversifying livelihood activities, changing agricultural practices and investing in alternative water sources. Several strategies were related to incremental crop system changes, to maintain the existing way of practice. However, some were transformational, like formerly specialized livestock keepers taking on crop farming. Some strategies presented environmentally erosive effects; which could be curbed by evaluating the opportunity cost of diversification and transformative practices in relation to incremental adaptation. Insights gleaned could assist researchers to consider aspects for in-depth adaptation analysis and inform on how policies and institutions in Uganda could be used to facilitate, rather than undermine, pastoralists’ coping and adaptation; and thus guide interventions to strengthen food security.

Impacts of integrated soil fertility management on yield and household income: The case of Tamale (Ghana) and Kakamega (Kenya)
IS Adolwa, S Schwarze, A Buerkert – Ecological Economics, 2019

Integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) has been widely promoted by research and philanthropic organizations as well as governments to increase crop yields and improve livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa. Therefore, it is surprising that there is still scant information on its impact on crop yields and household income. This paper uses a counterfactual model to assess ISFM impact on yields and total household incomes using farm household data from Tamale (Northern Ghana) and Kakamega (Western Kenya). The analyses reveal that ISFM adoption leads to an increase in maize yields by up to 27% in Tamale and 16% in Kakamega. Increasing the number of ISFM components, however, does not improve yields. Despite the effect on yields, adoption of ISFM does not increase total household incomes at both locations. Some implications for future research are discussed.

Food Security Measures in Sub-Saharan Africa. A Validation of the LSMS-ISA Scale
O Bertelli – Journal of African Economies, 2019

Despite the international community’s emphasis on the need to achieve food security, there is still much debate surrounding its measurement, due mainly to its multidimensional aspects. This paper investigates the capacity of a new type of measure, food security scales, to capture dimensions of food security that other measures, such as food expenditures, caloric availability and food diversity, may miss. Drawing on nationally representative household panel data from Malawi, Nigeria and Tanzania, I find that the scale is a useful complementary measure to standard measures. Cross-section and panel analysis shows that the scale provides further insights into food vulnerability and coping strategies characteristic of food insecurity, dimensions not captured by the standard measures.

IFPRI Kampala newsletter – week of May 6th

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

In the news this week, we report on the Uganda Coffee Roadmap on the move and UK injects Shs577.6b to boost agriculture. We also have news articles on getting nutritious food to more people in Ethiopia and on climate change and overfishing

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

The Uganda Coffee Roadmap is on the move
Global Coffee Platform

150 coffee experts gathered to the 12th Annual Stakeholder Meeting of the Ugandan Coffee Platform to learn how the 15-year Uganda’s Coffee Roadmap will will increase Uganda’s coffee production from the current 4.7 million bags to 20 million bags in 2030, and triple the income of 1.2 million smallholder coffee farmers.

UK injects Shs577.6b to boost agriculture
Daily Monitor

“The objectives of this partnership is to improve values of agricultural produce through installation of value addition facilities for example establishing collection centres for priority commodities by buying and installing 112 batch drying, cleaning and grading systems of grains, cereals across the country,”

WFP halts distribution of super cereal while tests continue
Reliefweb

As a precautionary measure, the World Food Programme (WFP) has temporarily halted distribution worldwide of a fortified blended food from one of its suppliers as tests continue to establish whether it is linked to outbreaks of illness in East Africa. According to medical centres and hospital records, three people died and 293 were admitted to health centres in the Karamoja region of Northeast Uganda in March and April after eating Super Cereal, distributed by WFP. The product is used by WFP and partners to prevent malnutrition, especially among women and children.

USAID Hub trains nearly 7,000 village agents and extension workers to support Ugandan farmers
East Africa Trade and Investment Hub

The USAID Trade Hub project in collaboration with its grantee, Akorion Company Limited, trained 6,922 village agents and extension workers to introduce the Village Agent Model, a new extension services approach, throughout Uganda. The trainees will support the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industries and Fisheries, MAAIF, to drive agricultural transformation for greater food security and prosperity.

Tanzania targets China’s $105 million avocado market
The Citizen

Avocados are poised to become green gold, thanks to horticulture industry champions in collaboration with the government for unlocking the multi-million-dollar Chinese market for Tanzanian growers.

Report blames Kenya’s lopsided priorities for acute food insecurity
Business Daily

Poor allocation of funds for agriculture, wrong priorities and lack of co-ordination from the government have pushed Kenya into a food crisis. Hopes that agriculture would thrive under devolution have been dashed as county governments continue to starve the industry of funds, leaving the country badly exposed to food shocks.

EALA calls for the formation of a food security and nutrition body
East African

East African Legislative Assembly, EALA, member Mathias Kasamba is working on a motion to compel EAC partner states to create a body to deal with regional food security and nutrition. Mr Kasamba said with East Africa being so rich in agricultural potential, leaders ought to use the resources to improve the quality of life. The EALA MP accused leaders of concentrating on physical infrastructure development instead of investing in agriculture.

Cold conundrum? Getting nutritious food to more people in Ethiopia
Food Tank

With a skyrocketing population in a region that is getting drier and hotter due to climate change, Ethiopia has no time to waste in producing—and preserving—more nutritious food accessible for rich and poor alike.

Reaching for the sky: addressing hidden hunger with Sky Brands in Zimbabwe
HarvestPlus

Making a viable business and contributing to the global fight against malnutrition can occur simultaneously and sustainably. Cognizant of the damaging ripple effect that stunted cognitive and physical development can have on families and communities, the company aims to help the next generation avoid hidden hunger.

Only 60 years of farming left if soil degradation continues
Scientific American

Generating three centimeters of top soil takes 1,000 years, and if current rates of degradation continue all of the world’s top soil could be gone within 60 years, a senior UN official said. Soils play a key role in absorbing carbon and filtering water, the FAO reported. Soil destruction creates a vicious cycle, in which less carbon is stored, the world gets hotter, and the land is further degraded.

Climate resilient crops may be the answer to withstand climate change
Food Tank

People in sub-Saharan Africa and India who depend on small scale farms for their food will be disproportionately affected by climate change. But plant breeders from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) are increasing their efforts to breed crops that are resilient and can survive in extreme weather conditions.

Accountability deficit? Assessing the effectiveness of private finance blending in ensuring that small-scale farmers are not left behind
Oxfam

To boost agricultural development in developing countries, donors are increasingly resorting to blended finance: the practice of combining public development funds with private resources. Blended finance may open opportunities to inject more resources into the food and agriculture sector, but the assumptions that blended finance is inherently beneficial for agricultural development and that it is an efficient way to finance smallholder agriculture, are not supported by the evidence currently available.

Challenging desertification myths
Pastoralism, Uncertainty, Resilience

Myths of desertification have a long history. Ideas of desiccation and desert advance were framed by colonial science and informed by the narratives of the ‘dust bowl’ in the USA. Yet, whether from long-term environmental monitoring, aerial and satellite photography, ecological modelling or local knowledge and field observation, the standard narratives have been found severely wanting, and basic definitions and systematic mapping are absent.

Coffee contributes £17.7 billion to UK economy
Coffee and Cocoa International

The industry’s total contribution to the UK economy currently stands at around £17.7 billion, including direct, indirect, and induced impacts.  The coffee sector is also supporting more job creation in Britain than ever before, with 210,325 jobs including direct, indirect and induced impacts. Between 2016 and 2017 the number of people employed in coffee-related activities increased by nearly 10 per cent.

How pastoralists can help us deal with the unexpected
Pastoralism, Uncertainty, Resilience

Dealing with the unexpected is part-and-parcel of what pastoralists do, and learning how this is done can be enormously useful for other sectors. In pastoral areas, policy and development interventions must, at the minimum, avoid making systems less flexible, less able to deal with the uncertainty. The rush to intensify and modernise may actually undermine the capacity to produce food and support livelihoods in incredibly challenging settings. No other m can make use of such environments.

Coffee price falls steeply again
Coffee and Cocoa International

The coffee price slumped again last week. The Arabica price fell below 90 US cents per pound and as low as 87 cents/pound.

A perfect storm: climate change and overfishing
The New Humanitarian

Fish stocks all over the world are on the verge of collapse due to the twin effects of climate change and overfishing, and scientists warn this could lead to widespread malnutrition throughout poorer countries in tropical climates.

Climate labels on food to become a reality in Denmark
Food Tank

The Danish Government has announced that a climate labeling system on food products will accompany its plan to become carbon neutral by 2050. Officials from the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities, and Climate stated that the Government is proposing to work with supermarkets to place stickers on all food products that clearly indicate their carbon footprint.

Best Practices: Early Warning Early Action Systems
Food Security Portal

To respond appropriately to such food crises, policymakers need reliable, timely information regarding food production and availability, food prices, and hunger levels. A number of early warning systems, such as those found in the Food Security Portal’s Early Warning Hub, have been established to collect, analyze, and disseminate such information at global and national levels.

How rampant deforestation made Mozambique more vulnerable to Cyclone Idai
The New Humanitarian

Cyclone Idai’s recent devastation was amplified by deforestation in the region. Mozambique took the hardest hit. The country has seen between 10 and 15 percent of its forests disappear amid illegal logging and charcoal production in the past 25 years.

Biofortification of maize with provitamin A can reduce aflatoxin load
CYMMIT

This research is especially significant for countries where the health burdens of exposure to aflatoxin and prevalence of vitamin A deficiency converge with high rates of maize consumption.

Food organizations join forces to reintroduce neglected crops to global ecosystems
Food Tank

An estimated 100,000 global plant varieties are endangered today. Extreme weather events, over-exploitation of ecosystems, habitat loss, and a lack of public awareness continue to threaten plant biodiversity. Conservation techniques such as seed banks and seed exchanges play an important role in preserving heirloom varieties of important food crops.

Rural areas are in crisis. Revitalisation is the solution
Reuters

As the deadlines to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and climate goals draw ever closer, it is time for a dramatic, system-wide transformation to make rural areas more productive, sustainable, climate-resilient, healthy, and attractive places to live in order to leave no one behind.

5 everyday foods that are making droughts worse
CNN

Almost 5 billion people could struggle with water shortages by 2050 due to climate change, according to the United Nations. Already, more than 25% of the world’s crops are grown in regions with severe water shortages, according to the World Resources Institute. In many countries, farmers tap into groundwater to irrigate their crops, particularly during periods of limited rainfall, and experts warn that irrigation is contributing to water shortages in drought-prone regions.

Research:

Assessing poultry firm survival in Kampala: a case of Biyinzika Enterprises Limited
Henry Stanley Mbowa, Kaaya Siraje – Journal of Research Innovation and implications in Education, 2019

The study assessed poultry firms’ survival and possible strategies for improvement, specifically, current survival, challenges facing Biyinzika Enterprises Limited and possible strategies for improving its survivability.

Maize crop nutrient input requirements for food security in sub-Saharan Africa
HFM ten Berge, R Hijbeek, MP van Loon, J Rurinda… – Global Food Security, 2019

Nutrient limitation is a major constraint in crop production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Here, we propose a generic and simple equilibrium model to estimate minimum input requirements of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium for target yields in cereal crops under highly efficient management. The model was combined with Global Yield Gap Atlas data to explore minimum input requirements for self-sufficiency in 2050 for maize in nine countries in SSA. We estimate that yields have to increase from the current ca. 20% of water-limited yield potential to approximately 50–75% of the potential depending on the scenario investigated. Minimum nutrient input requirements must rise disproportionately more, with N input increasing 9-fold or 15-fold, because current production largely relies on soil nutrient mining, which cannot be sustained into the future.

Urbanization, livestock systems and food security in developing countries: A systematic review of the literature
AA Hatab, MER Cavinato, CJ Lagerkvist – Food Security, 2019

This study systematically reviews the peer-reviewed literature on livestock production and food security in urbanizing environments of developing countries to synthesize the existing evidence and identify priorities for future research. Specifically, a systematic literature review was undertaken using PubMed, ISI Web of Science and Scopus databases over the period 1980–2017, resulting in a final number of 72 articles meeting our selection criteria. The results revealed a fragmentation in the literature, which draws from a very small number of studies, and is positioned in widely varied research areas, environments, livestock systems and consumption patterns. With such heterogeneity, drawing generalizations from the literature may be unreachable. Furthermore, the literature is largely qualitative in nature, with very few comprehensive models to capture and integrate empirical evidence. Food security was typically found to be narrowly defined, focusing primarily on interlinks with livestock supply. Considerably less attention has been given to other relevant dimensions of food security, such as accessibility, utilization and stability. Another important finding of relevance to food security is a need to address the “missing middle” in livestock value chains since the literature has customarily concentrated extensively on the two ends of the livestock value chain, i.e., on production and consumption, while widely ignoring other elements and actors along the value chain. A further focus on the interrelationships between livestock production, food security and urbanization in developing countries through a holistic and interdisciplinary approach is recommended. Particularly, future research aiming to understand livestock systems in the context of rapid urbanization should put more emphasis on addressing the full continuum of the livestock value chain and the four dimensions that drive food security in developing countries and how they possibly interrelate.

Analysing the potential of plant clinics to boost crop protection in Rwanda through adoption of IPM: the case of maize and maize stem borers
S Silvestri, M Macharia, B Uzayisenga – Food Security, 2019

Maize plays an important role in the livelihoods of rural communities in Rwanda. However, maize yields are threatened by the presence of pests and diseases and a general lack of knowledge and information for their management. In this study we sought to assess if plant clinics are making farmers more aware and knowledgeable of pests and diseases and are indirectly contributing to higher yields. We interviewed 644 farmers across Rwanda, both users and non-users of plant clinics. Propensity score matching was used to match the users and non-users of plant clinics and logistic regression was used to assess a number of factors, including interactions with plant clinics, that affect farmers’ adoption of pest management practices. Our analysis shows that users of plant clinics are more aware and knowledgeable in recognizing and handling maize stem borers. Furthermore, users of plant clinics have on average higher yields than non-users and this difference is highly significant (P < 0.001). The analysis therefore demonstrates that plant clinics are beneficial to farmers in Rwanda. However, efforts are required to diversify the spectrum of practices that are promoted by plant clinics and by extension and advisory services in Rwanda.

The Household and Individual-Level Productive Impacts of Cash Transfer Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa
S Daidone, B Davis, S Handa, P Winters – American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2019

The objective of most cash transfer programs is to alleviate poverty and/or food insecurity directly and through improvements in educational, health, and nutritional status (Fiszbein et al. 2009; Slater 2011). As these programs are key components of social protection strategies, understanding their impact on social outcomes is critical and a large body of literature has emerged on the social impacts of cash transfers focusing primarily on the health, nutrition, and schooling of the children of the poor (Fiszbein et al. 2009; Adato and Hoddinott 2010; Handa et al. 2010). Cash transfers may also have productive impacts, a dimension that only recently has started to receive explicit attention in the literature (Banerjee et al. 2015; Haushofer and Shapiro 2016; Tirivayi, Knowles, and Davis 2016; Hidrobo et al. 2018).

Estimating the potential of beekeeping to alleviate household poverty in rural Uganda
DR Amulen, M D’Haese, E D’Haene, JO Acai, JG Agea… – PloS one, 2019

Robust evidence underpinning the role of beekeeping in poverty alleviation is currently lacking. This study estimated the production potential for beekeepers in Northern Uganda by quantifying current production assets (equipment and knowledge) and impact on rural income streams range of proposed interventions. Intervention scenarios evaluated the economic benefits to be derived from different hive types combined with year-round provision of a nectar source (Calliandra calothyrsus) planted at varying density. Findings show that the type and number of beehive combinations used influenced the amount of revenue streams generated by the beekeepers. Addition of 20 log hives increased incomes 10 times, 20 KTBs increased revenues 16 times and Langstroth 18 times. Adding Calliandra trees as a forage source to the baseline scenario yielded revenues up to 17.6 times higher than the baseline. Implying that good management plus the introduction of a reliable nectar source, to off-set dry season challenges (absconding), could improve beekeeping productivity in Northern Uganda. Further research is required to validate in situ the impact of modelled scenarios on both honey yield and other ecosystem service benefits.

Farmers’ perspectives on payments for ecosystem services in Uganda
K Geussens, G Van den Broeck, K Vanderhaegen… – Land Use Policy, 2019

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) is a market based policy tool that is increasingly being recommended for effective and sustainable management of watersheds, especially for Sub-Saharan Africa, where soil and watershed degradation are currently very severe. The design of PES projects is challenging and insights in the local context are indispensable. Using a choice experiment, this study investigates the perspective of farmers on the design of a PES program in the Mount Elgon region in Uganda. We use mixed logit and latent class models to reveal and explain preference heterogeneity for PES attributes. We calculate willingness to accept values and perform a cost analysis to identify the most cost-efficient PES programs. Our results point to a strong willingness of farmers to participate in a PES contract. The majority of farmers are willing to adopt different conservation measures, even in absence of a compensation; a minority of farmers are strongly averse to buffer strips along the river and do require a significant compensation. We find that farmers have strong preferences for individual over communal compensation, and that additional in-kind rewards in the form of labour assistance or tools increase the willingness to accept a contract. The findings imply that PES is a promising avenue for improved watershed conservation in the Mount Elgon region; and that individual compensation, differentiation and specific targeting of such programs may benefit their cost effectiveness.

IFPRI-Kampala newsletter – week of April 22nd, 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

In the news this week, government tells Ugandans to prepare for famine and how a humble seed is helping African farmers to better manage both food and water. We also have news articles on why understanding how crop diseases and climate change interact is vital and link to an article explaining how diets are a top killer

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Current trends, opportunities and strategies aimed at boosting more increase in Coffee exports and the new partnership with Vietnam.
AgriProFocus

The Ministry of Agriculture has been seeking official collaboration with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam which is known to have experienced an increase in coffee exports from less than 2 million bags in 1991 to 27.5 million bags per year, making the coffee sub-sector in Vietnam worth US Dollars 3.2 Billion. The Memorandum of Understanding covers 14 main areas in the broad categories of coffee production, animal health and plant protection:

MAAIF responds to EU vow to ban UG pepper exports
Mulengera News

Licences of traders attempting to export substandard horticultural products will be revoked in order to protect Uganda’s export interests.

500 residents homeless after eviction by investor
Monitor

More than 500 residents of Ngorymwet Parish, Igenge Sub-county in Kween District, have been rendered homeless after they were allegedly evicted from their land, which is more than 7,000 acres, by an investor. The land borders Bulambuli and Kween districts near River Atari. The land was allegedly allocated to Fol Logistics Limited to establish a rice factory and also promote the growing of rice by the Bulambuli local government in 2017.

Meet Grace Maku
CropLife

How plant science can help Ugandans feed their families and increase climate-resilience.

Prepare for famine, government tells Ugandans
Monitor

The government has warned of impending famine in most parts of the country, cautioning traders to limit food exports and families to start food rationing.

Billions at stake as EU bans Uganda exports
Mulengera News

Through their Mission offices in Kampala, the Brussels-based European Union bosses have furiously written to Vincent Sempijja’s Agriculture Ministry halting any further exportation of Ugandan vegetables and fruit on grounds of being toxic and unsafe.

Economic impact of smallholder farmers in East Africa
The exchange

19,675,110 is an estimate of the number of smallholder farms in East African Community (EAC) countries. They contribute roughly 30-40% of GDP, employ roughly 70-80% of citizens, produce approximately 70% of the food that people in EAC countries consume every day. Despite this impact, smallholder farms continue to be among the most underserved markets in the world.

Why people starve despite being surrounded by stockpiles of food in East Africa
East African

An estimated 23 million people in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and South Sudan do not have enough to eat relying on food aid. Experts claim that the problem is not the lack of food rather, it is government intervention. Most of the countries have a food reserves from previous harvests, yet it can’t be sold due to disruptions in the East African market.

Building resilience across East Africa one seed at a time
CCAFS

Hoima’s seed bank, which was launched in August 2018, currently holds around 30 bean varieties, 23 finger millet varieties, two cowpea varieties and one pigeon pea variety, hailing from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Women farmers are also keeping three local vegetable seeds at HOCOSEB, adapted to local conditions.

How a humble seed is helping African farmers to better manage both food and water
Chicago Council

Early harvests and test crops using Water Efficient Maize for Africa seeds have shown substantial results, producing 25 to 35 percent more grain on average during moderate drought seasons compared with the common seed varieties used previously.

Irrigating Africa: can small-scale farmers lead the way?
The Conversation

We often hear that irrigation in Africa is too limited, and that the key to a “green revolution” on the continent is to expand to levels seen in Asia. But what if there is much more small-scale, informal irrigation in Africa than we thought? Could this be the basis for irrigating Africa? Engineer-designed irrigation schemes are often advocated. But the history of these schemes in Africa has not been a happy one. They have repeatedly failed, as strict cultivating and watering regimes are imposed, and high-cost equipment breaks down. Yet, such schemes remain central to development programmes across the continent, despite the disastrous record. What is the alternative? Could farmer-led systems lead the way?

Understanding how crop diseases and climate change interact is vital
The Economist

In the past 150 years, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has risen from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 410 ppm. For farmers this is mixed news. Any change in familiar weather patterns caused by the atmospheric warming this rise is bringing is bound to be disruptive. But more carbon dioxide means more fuel for photosynthesis and therefore enhanced growth—sometimes by as much as 40%.

ICO indicator hits lowest level since October 2006
Coffee and Cocoa

The ICO composite indicator for coffee fell by 3.1 per cent to 97.50 US cents/lb in March 2019, the lowest monthly average since October 2006 when the price was 95.53 US cents/lb.

Rice project has benefited 18 countries in Asia and Africa
New York Times

A decade-long agricultural project spearheaded by Chinese scientists has helped alleviate the poverty of more than 1.6 million farming households in 18 Asian and African countries by cultivating high-yield, resilient rice strains.

A new global agriculture: using big data to bring farmers together
Food Tank

For thousands of years, farmers have looked to the clouds for the next sign of rain to irrigate their crops. Now farmers are also looking to another cloud—the digital cloud—for insights that can make a critical difference for their operations. Through this network of servers, satellites, and mobile devices, the cloud is helping farmers share and access massive volumes of data.

2023 will be the International Year of Millets
Food Tank

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is endorsing India’s proposal to declare 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Millet, a grain mainly grown and consumed in developing countries until recently and once considered a poor man’s staple, is quickly becoming a favorite globally among those affected by climate change because of its ability to thrive in harsh and arid environments.

IFPRI book highlights the key role of agriculture in improving nutrition
HarvestPlus

Biofortification is just one way in which agriculture has been used to improve nutrition, and as it gets scaled up, it is likely to significantly reduce the number of people suffering from hidden hunger and help them to have healthy, productive lives. It “…is by no means a silver bullet for elimination of hidden hunger, but as the evidence we present in this chapter shows, it is a golden opportunity for improving diets, with small and cost-effective tweaks in the current food system”.

Diets are a top killer
New York Times

In one of the largest surveys of data on global dietary habits and longevity, researchers found that consuming vegetables, fruit, fish and whole grains was strongly associated with a longer life — and that people who skimped on such healthy foods were more likely to die before their time.

The scandal of calling plantations ‘forest restoration’ is putting climate targets at risk
The Conversation

Curbing climate change via restoring Earth’s ecosystems to their former glory could be a profound positive legacy of the 21st century, but not if governments and their advisers pretend that vast commercial monocultures of trees are forest restoration.

Discussion papers, policy briefs and research reports

Rebounding from the brink of extinction: commercial production of milk amongst pastoralists for climate change resilience in Uganda
CTA

Changes in climate that intensify drought and accelerate the spread of livestock parasites and diseases darken the economic future for sub-Saharan pastoralists. Already stressed, as industrial and urban development narrow their access to pastures and water for their animals, many pastoralists face a bleak choice: abandon their livestock and their cultural heritage or die. In Uganda, however, the outlook for pastoralists is becoming much brighter. Thousands of pastoralists in Uganda point the way toward a better option: commercial milk production.

Policy coherence for agricultural transformation in African least developed countries: aligning agriculture and trade policymaking processes
FAO

This recent FAO publication defines policy coherence as the “systematic promotion of mutually reinforcing policy actions across government departments and agencies.” The report argues that, in the context of African food security, policy cohesion is ensuring that government trade policies do not undermine government agricultural policies and vice versa.

Research:

We use an incentive compatible experimental auction to measure demand for a new agricultural technology, a triple layered hermetic storage bag. When used properly, the bag creates an airtight seal that reduces storage loss from insect pests and neutralizes aflatoxin contamination in stored grain. We find that demand for this new technology is highly elastic (4.3) and that the wholesaler could increase profit by lowering the price. We also find that farmers’ valuation for the bag is not significantly different based on the medium through which in- formation about it is communicated to them, either text, audio or video messages. This suggests that practi- tioners should use the cheapest option for disseminating information, which is text messaging in this context. In addition, we find that farmers who have prior awareness of the bag are willing to pay 20% more on average than those previously unaware of it. In total, the highly elastic demand for the improved bags, along with the fact that prior awareness of the bag leads to higher willingness to pay, suggests that a one-time price subsidy for the new technology could spur demand and increase future adoption.

Understanding gender roles and practices in the household and on the farm: Implications for banana disease management innovation processes in Burundi
Iradukunda, F., Bullock, R., Rietveld, A., & van Schagen, B – Outlook on Agriculture, 2019.

Banana and plantain are one of the most important staple food crops and a significant source of income to smallholder farmers in the East African Great Lakes Region. Banana Xanthomonas Wilt (BXW) is a devastating bacterial disease that threatens smallholder production and livelihoods. We use a systems approach to describe how gender shapes roles and practices in the household, on the farm and in innovation processes. We draw on a case study in Burundi, where single disease stem removal (SDSR) has been introduced as a labour-saving package to reduce BXW incidence. Banana is grown by an estimated 90% of farmers, and BXW poses a critical threat to food security. We use qualitative data that include focus group discussions, interviews and transcripts from farmer learning group (FLG) discussions to describe gender norms, roles and practices and implications for awareness and uptake of SDSR in households. We identify gender patterns in innovation process, namely that men gain higher levels of access to information in FLGs than women and men are also primarily responsible for implementing SDSR. These patterns reflect gender-differentiated norms, roles and practices that are common in the household and in banana-based farming systems, thus demonstrating the ways that innovation processes perpetuate and reinforce common gender roles and practices. Women’s participation in FLGs, albeit lower than men, increases the potential of women to implement specific practices of the SDSR package. Systems approaches may be similarly used in different contexts where awareness and uptake of banana disease management packages, and other technical innovations, are not well understood. We found that gender norms, roles and practices significantly influence uptake of SDSR practices and warrant further investigation across the region, where smallholder uptake remains a pressing challenge to establish household food security.

Maize crop nutrient input requirements for food security in sub-Saharan Africa
H.F.M. ten Berge, R. Hijbeek, M.P. van Loon, J. Rurinda, K. Tesfaye, S. Zingore, P. Craufurd, J. van Heerwaarden, F. Brentrup, J.J. Schröder, H.L. Boogaard, H.L.E. de Groot, M.K. van Ittersum – Global Food Security, 2019

Analysing the potential of plant clinics to boost crop protection in Rwanda through adoption of IPM: the case of maize and maize stem borers
Silvestri, Silvia, Macharia, Martin and Uzayisenga, Bellancile – Food Security, 2019

Presence and property: Gendered perspectives on participation in a dairy development program in Kenya and Uganda
Pratyusha Basu, Alessandra Galiè, Isabelle Baltenweck – Women’s Studies International Forum 2019

As women’s participation has become central to the formulation and implementation of development programs, gender relations within households and gendered discourses in development programs have been subject to much scrutiny. This paper seeks to expand these notions of gender and development by situating women’s participation at the intersections of households and development programs. More specifically, this paper approaches participation as an amalgam of presence and property – the former denoting myriad forms of women’s work and knowledge, and the latter denoting access to and control over resources. The case study utilized here is the East Africa Dairy Development (EADD) program which aims to organize small-scale dairy farmers through centralized hubs which improve access to dairy inputs and markets. Based on interviews conducted with women and men in Kenya and Uganda, this paper shows how initiatives that include women construct new pathways for women’s participation because of the ways that various participatory strategies relate to one another, rather than due to the efficacy of one strategy over another. Overall, this paper seeks to contribute to gender and development studies by attending to how participation actually emerges in specific contexts through gendered negotiations with participatory development policies.

IFPRI Kampala newsletter – week of April 1st 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

This week, we report on Pastoralist women in Uganda and on how Ugandan farmers test big-data solution to climate challenges. We also have news articles on tariff, non-tariff barriers hitting Eastern Africa grain trade and link to an article explaining how good urban farming can combat bad eating

Under research, we provide links to:

We also highlight new discussion papers on subsidies in Mozambique and on peer learning among farmers.

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Pastoralist women in Uganda “moving mountains”

Medium

Karamoja’s pastoralist communities are deeply rooted in tribal traditions, with strong gender disparities between men and women. While women rarely make decisions in the family, small but significant changes are starting to sprout, initiated by the women themselves, turning a life of obstacles into potential opportunities.

Add value to agricultural commodities

Monitor

Did you know that you can cash in on agriculture without necessarily tilling the land? You can increase the value of primary agricultural produce through value addition.

Ugandan farmers test big-data solution to climate challenges

Thomson Reuters Foundation

When the MUIIS (Market-led, User-owned, ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service) launched in 2017, farmers who signed up paid a small monthly fee and contributed details about their farms to the programme database. In return 10 companies and other groups, including financial technology firm Ensibuuko, the Uganda Cooperative Alliance and the Uganda National Farmers Federation, teamed up to harness the data to give subscribers training and access to finance.

WFP suspends food distribution in Karamoja as investigations into poisonous food continue

Monitor

One person has died in Amudat District and several others are said to be in critical condition and currently admitted to different health centres after eating porridge supplied by World Food Programme.

How sustainable is our future? – Global Coffee Platform-International Coffee Organisation seminar

Global Coffee Platform

In Uganda, Emmanuel Iyamulemye highlighted the findings of the most recent study on Economic Viability of Coffee Farming, which has provided much needed facts on the investment cases for commercial coffee farming in Uganda, as well as creating awareness of the imperious need to empower farmers and act collectively to increase profitability of small holders.

Tariff, non-tariff barriers hit Eastern Africa grain trade

News Ghana

Tariff and non-tariff barriers are adversely affecting grain trade across the Eastern African region, a report by the East African Grain Council showed on Tuesday. According to the report, in Uganda, authorities are employing stringent measures on rice importation from Tanzania with more requirements from the Uganda Bureau of Standards (UNBS). Traders from Uganda selling to Tanzania, on the other hand, are required to retest products that had been already certified by UNBS.

Tanzania injects $72.4 million into agricultural sector

The exchange

Tanzania plans to invest 170 billion Tanzanian shillings ( $72.4 million) in a five year ambitious project to transform its agriculture sector under the second phase of its National Agricultural Sector Development Plan. To achieve the transformation, the ministry is targeting four major areas: (i) Renewable water sources (ii) Land conservation (iii) Environment protection and (iv) Increased use of irrigation schemes.

Liquid Telecom Kenya’s IoT network enables fish farmers to monitor ponds and increase production
Liquid Telecom

“Farmers have been closing down ponds and setting aside fish production as they struggle to feed fish correctly due to changing temperatures and conditions,” said Dave Okech, who initiated the AquaRech project and partnership, as the founder of a local fish farming group RioFish. “Our sensors transmit data to the cloud, where it is processed before sending specific instructions to farmers on the timing and quantity for feeding.”

Drought pushes Kenya’s pastoralists to the brink

The New Humanitarian

Long dry spells and occasional droughts have always been part of the rhythm of pastoralism here, but Turkana, like much of east Africa, is currently nine months into one of severest droughts in living memory.

Comesa wants members to lift barriers on seed trade

The East African

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa is pushing member states to align their laws with the bloc’s regulations to abolish trade barriers. It is argued that the Comesa Seed Trade Harmonisation Regulations will lead to increased seed production, supply reliability, enhanced trade and competitiveness of the seed sub-sector.

Guns, religion and climate change intensify Nigeria’s deadly farmer-herder clashes

LA Times

Farmers and cattle herders have clashed over land for as long as most people can remember in Kaduna. But they’re coming into increased proximity due to climate change. As grasslands have been degraded in northern Nigeria, semi-nomadic herders have starting moving their herds into densely populated farming areas to the south. At the same time, as Nigeria’s population has boomed, farmers have expanded their fields, often into the herders’ traditional grazing routes.

Irrigation: key to feeding sub-Saharan Africa’s growing population

Agrilinks

For countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region to maintain current food self-sufficiency levels of around 80 percent, they would need to “radically” accelerate rates of yield improvement—or massively expand land areas (with associated greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss), or increasingly resort to food import dependency. A new IFPRI study focuses on the potential of irrigation in providing food security for Sub-Saharan Africa’s growing population. If the region is to feed its growing population over the coming decades, sustainable drylands irrigation will be essential. The time to make irrigation both a national and regional priority is now.

Agriculture task force takes aim at EU investment plan for Africa

Devex

An expert group convened by the European Union to offer advice on how to create jobs in African agriculture will point to shortcomings in the EU’s flagship initiative for the African continent, the External Investment Plan. A Commission official, who requested anonymity, said: “It’s true, [EFSD] definitely didn’t turn out as successful in the first go for agriculture, because apparently, the risk is quite high. The banks are afraid to go there and the incentives being put by the External Investment Plan are not fully understood or not fully used in this sector of the economy.”

How good urban farming can combat bad eating

African Arguments

Governments must increase material, technical and informational support to urban farmers. This could include improving access to extension services, agricultural inputs, finance and insurance. Urban farmers could particularly benefit from help developing business plans and other technical advice. This could come from the government, NGOs, educational bodies or other organisations.

Two reasons why three billion people aren’t getting adequate nutrition

Food Tank

There is still a long way to go in virtually every area of the world to ensure that all people have access to safe, nutritious, and affordable food. Making the reduction of food waste and loss a priority will help to achieve this objective.

Checking in with prize-winning women business owners

Agrilinks

Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation helps women succeed as entrepreneurs around the globe by providing them with support services to commercialize agricultural technologies and grow their businesses. Six months ago, two of our clients won the Feed the Future Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs Prize for their promising business ventures.

Arabica and Robusta prices experience further declines

Coffee and Cocoa

Last week saw the price of Robusta coffee dip to a two-year low and close only marginally higher at US$1,485/ton. Commerzbank Research said it shed around 3% during the course of the week, although the Robusta coffee price fared better than Arabica – the latter’s price dropped for a time to a 13-year low of under 95 US cents per pound.

Inaction is not an option says coffee producers forum

Coffee and Cocoa

The World Coffee Producers Forum has condemned the global coffee industry and the price currently being paid for the coffee its members produce. “According to the International Coffee Organization, about 25 million families – mostly smallholders – produce coffee. Today, most of them cannot even cover their production costs and many of them cannot make a living for themselves and their families,” said the Forum.

Discussion papers, policy briefs and research reports:

Subsidies and the Green Revolution in Africa

Michael Carter, Rachid Laajaj, and Dean Yang – 2019

The Green Revolution bolstered agricultural yields and rural well-being in Asia and Latin America, but bypassed sub-Saharan Africa. We study the first randomized controlled trial of a government-implemented input subsidy program (ISP) in Africa. A temporary subsidy for Mozambican maize farmers stimulates Green Revolution technology adoption, and effects persist in later unsubsidized years. Social networks of subsidized farmers benefit from spillovers, experiencing increases in technology adoption, yields, and expected returns to the technologies. Spillovers account for the vast majority of subsidy-induced gains. ISPs alleviate informational market failures, stimulating learning about new technologies by subsidy recipients and their social networks

Mobilizing P2P Diffusion for New Agricultural Practices: Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh

M Fafchamps, A Islam, A Malek, D Pakrashi – 2019

We run a randomized controlled experiment in which farmers trained on a new rice cultivation method (SRI) teach two other farmers selected by us. We find that farmers invited to teach others are much more likely to adopt new practices than farmers who only receive the BRAC training. Teacher farmers are effective at spreading knowledge and inducing adoption. Incentivizing teachers improves knowledge transmission but not adoption. Matching teachers with farmers who list them as role models does not improve knowledge transmission and may hurt adoption. Using mediation analysis, we find that the knowledge of the teacher is correlated with that of their student, consistent with knowledge transmission. We also find that SRI knowledge predicts adoption of some SRI practices, and that adoption by teachers predicts adoption by their students, suggesting that students follow the example of their teacher. Explicitly mobilizing peer-to-peer (P2P) transmission of knowledge thus seems a cost-effective way of inducing the adoption of new agricultural practices.

Peer-reviewed Research

Mobile technology and food access

L Wantchekon, Z Riaz – World Development, 2019

Access to food is a basic pillar of human development. It is therefore unsurprising that it features so centrally on global development agendas and that a robust, interdisciplinary literature seeks to examine its determinants. This study focuses on the relationship between mobile technology and food access. Specifically, we ask whether mobile technology can strengthen the relationship between food access and certain social and political factors such as remittance flows and political participation. We use Afrobarometer surveys and highly disaggregated data on 2G network coverage to estimate a multilevel model testing how increased connectivity measured by mobile technology influences food access. We show that mobile phone use and higher frequency of use are significantly and positively correlated with food access, but we do not find evidence that remittances and political participation levels can explain the mechanisms linking mobile technology and food access. The study highlights that connectivity can play a powerful role in shaping food outcomes even when controlling for commonly identified impediments such as income constraints or physical isolation. These findings suggest that policies aimed at improving food access should devote attention to strengthening both communication and physical infrastructure.

Subsidies for Agricultural Technology Adoption: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment with Improved Grain Storage Bags in Uganda

OJ Omotilewa, J Ricker-Gilbert, JH Ainembabazi- American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 2019

This article addresses the question of whether subsidizing an entirely new agricultural technology for smallholder farmers can aid its adoption early in the diffusion process. Based on a theoretical framework for technology adoption under subjective uncertainty, we implemented a randomized field experiment among 1,200 smallholders in Uganda to estimate the extent to which subsidizing an improved grain storage bag crowds-out or crowds-in commercial buying of the technology. The empirical results show that on average, subsidized households are more likely to buy an additional bag at commercial prices relative to the households with no subsidy who are equally aware of the technology. This suggests that under certain circumstances, such as when there is uncertainty about the effectiveness of a new agricultural technology, and the private sector market for the technology is weak or nascent, a one-time use of subsidy to build awareness and reduce risk can help generate demand for the new technology and thus crowd-in commercial demand for it. In this context, a subsidy can allow farmers to experiment with the technology and learn from the experience before investing in it.

IFPRI Kampala newsletter – week of March 18, 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

This week, we report on government procures 280 tractors for farmers and on WFP spends U.S.$147 million on food purchases in Uganda. We also have news articles on the commoditisation of pastoral milk and link to Iron Works: HarvestPlus and partners improve lives with iron-biofortified crops.

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

Do you know others who may be interested in this newsletter? Please encourage them to subscribe on https://bjornvancampenhout.com/newsletter/subscribe/

Happy reading

News:

Government procures 280 tractors for farmers
Monitor

The government has procured 280 tractors under the National Agricultural Advisory Services to help farmers engage in large scale commercial crop production, an official said in a meeting on Tuesday. The tractors will be given to organised and registered farmer groups, associations or cooperatives in a given locality who will manage them on business principles.

Coffee exporters top 2018 awards
Monitor

Coffee exporting companies have topped the 2018 Presidents’ Export Award. Ugacof, a coffee processing and exporting company, was the overall winner followed by Kyagalanyi Coffee.

WFP spends U.S.$147 million on food purchases in Uganda
Monitor

The World Food Programme has spent a total of $147m in the last three years in purchasing food rations in Uganda. Last year, the UN agency announced Uganda as a major hub for purchasing food. Mr El-Khidir Daloum, WFP Country Director said of the 198,000 metric tonnes they bought last year, only a small percentage was bought from small-holder farmer groups. The rest was bought from local traders. He said they have the capacity to buy more from Uganda, adding that farmers should improve on their post-harvest handling.

How Acholi, Langi are embracing tea farming
Monitor

Just like coffee which the people of northern Uganda recently started growing following decades of colonial propaganda that the soil types in the region did not support it, tea is yet another crop that now joins the list of cash crops formerly believed not to perform in the region.

Female food heroes
Croplife

Patricia Nanteza is a Communication Specialist for the National Banana Research Program in Uganda. “I think agriculture is only rivaled by education and health in tangible impact and making you ‘feel good’”.

Rwanda turns to poultry to fight malnutrition
New Times

The Rwanda Agriculture Board is set to start piloting a project that will donate chicken, for rearing, to every poor Rwandan household, which could potentially eliminate stunting and malnutrition. The programme comes at a time when Rwandans are considered to consume low animal resource proteins, especially from eggs, meat and milk.

New technology in Rwanda that could reduce post-harvest losses
New Times

The Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources is calling on the private sector to invest in cereals storage and related technology as part of the efforts to tackle post-harvest losses. This, if followed through public and private investment in crop storage technologies, the government said, could curb post-harvest losses from the current 16 per cent to 5 per cent by 2024.

UN fears Fall Armyworm outbreak threatens Zimbabwe’s food security
Voice of America

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation fears that an outbreak of fall armyworm in Zimbabwe will affect food security in a country where more than 5 million are already in need of food assistance.

Facts and stats on women in agriculture
Croplife

Did you know that only 25% of African agricultural researchers are women?

Iron Works: HarvestPlus and partners improve lives with iron-biofortified crops
HarvestPlus

Iron deficiency is the most common micronutrient challenge in the world. Poor diets lacking in iron limit brain development and learning capacity, hampering the potential of individuals and societies, generation after generation. That’s why HarvestPlus and its partners are developing and promoting biofortified crops rich in vitamins and minerals (like iron) needed for good health.

Transforming productive sectors in Africa: markets versus firms?
Market Links

Market systems that inhibit productivity growth and depress livelihoods are familiar enough across the developing world. Barriers to improvement that turn out to be fundamentally political are two-a-penny. More often than not, this is a matter of monopolists with political backing limiting market entry by potentially more efficient competitors.  Sometimes, however, the opposite is the case: there is too much market access, for too many kinds of business. As a result, too little is done to tackle problems of stagnant productivity and declining incomes for poor producers.

A fatal public health problem in Africa that flies under the radar
NPR

Africa as a continent continues to suffer from the world’s highest per-capita rate of foodborne illnesses. A new report this month from the World Bank’s Global Food Safety Partnership points to one reason why: Much of the funding for food safety efforts on the continent come from Western donors — and most of those efforts concentrate on safety standards for foods exported to other countries.

The commoditisation of pastoral milk
Pastres

Pastoralists´ integration into market dynamics is mostly addressed through the lens of trade in meat products, involving male traders. Pastoral milk, mostly traded by women, is often ignored. Good production of healthy milk is definitely the best way to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of a pastoral system at whatever level. Milk is central in the livelihood of pastoral households.

More Americans drinking specialty coffee
Coffee and Cocoa

The 2019 report found that more Americans are drinking speciality coffee daily and that 63 per cent of American adults drink coffee daily, which is on a par with 2018 consumption. “Coffee is America’s most beloved beverage – and for good reason,”

Policy Briefs, Research Reports and Discussion Papers:

Striving to transform Tanzania’s cotton sector
ODI

Cotton growing and ginning is one of Tanzania’s top three agricultural export industries. It is a major source of livelihood for up to half a million smallholder farmers, mostly in the large region of enduring rural poverty lying to the south and east of Lake Victoria, known in Tanzania as the Lake Zone. The sector has been underperforming for 50 years, with productivity stagnating and international prices and therefore earnings falling in line with productivity gains in competitor countries. Gatsby Africa’s Cotton Sector Development Programme is an important effort to turn this situation around by addressing the principal causes of low productivity in cotton growing and ginning (production of cotton lint) in the Lake Zone. This briefing note reviews the Gatsby programme.

Research

Farming for change: developing a participatory curriculum on agroecology, nutrition, climate change and social equity in Malawi and Tanzania
RB Kerr, SL Young, C Young, MV Santoso, M Magalasi…- Agriculture and Human Values, 2019

How to engage farmers that have limited formal education is at the foundation of environmentally-sound and equitable agricultural development. Yet there are few examples of curricula that support the co-development of knowledge with farmers. While transdisciplinary and participatory techniques are considered key components of agroecology, how to do so is rarely specified and few materials are available, especially those relevant to smallholder farmers with limited formal education in Sub-Saharan Africa. The few training materials that exist provide appropriate methods, such as compost making, but do not explain relationships and synergies between nutrition, social inequalities, climate change and agroecology. Some food sovereignty and agroecology courses aim at popular political education for those with more formal education. Here we describe the process of development of an innovative curriculum, which integrates agroecology, nutrition, climate change, gender and other dimensions of social equity across 2 weeks of training explicitly for smallholders in southern Africa with limited formal education. The curriculum is highly participatory; we use concepts in popular education, transformative and experiential-based learning, and theatre. It is also integrative; we link agroecology with climate change, human and soil nutrition, gender, and related components of social equity. Developed in partnership with Malawian farmers, community development experts and academics from five countries, the curriculum was piloted with 520 smallholder farming households in Malawi and Tanzania, and evaluated using qualitative techniques. Clashes of language, cultural norms, and terminology were as great of a challenge as agreeing on and conveying technical information, to weave into a coherent whole. However, farmers who participated in the curriculum training demonstrated high interest, comprehension of material and interest in immediate application to their lives.

Sustainable agricultural intensification in an era of rural transformation in Africa
TS Jayne, S Snapp, F Place, N Sitko – Global Food Security, 2019

Drawing on Boserupian and induced innovation principles, this review explores how the farm technologies and practices associated with integrated soil management and sustainable intensification may vary spatially according to the heterogenous ways in which economic transformation and population dynamics are influencing agricultural factor prices. Long-term trends in many areas are encouraging intensification of capital inputs, including fertilizer use. However, low agronomic efficiency of nitrogen poses a major constraint on fertilizer profitability and use. Integrated soil and agronomic management practices can improve the agronomic efficiency of fertilizer use, but achieving greater adoption of such practices will require greater understanding of best practices for the wide range of environmental conditions and farmer resource constraints in the region. Because sustainable resource managment best practices are highly localized and knowledge-intensive, massively increased investment in localized adaptive farm-level research and extension systems will be required to catalyze sustainable intensification in Africa.

Using participatory rural appraisal to investigate food production, nutrition and safety in the Tanzanian dairy value chain
B Häsler, G Msalya, K Roesel, K Fornace, M Eltholth… – Global Food Security, 2019

Identifying and implementing interventions that create co-benefits in terms of food and nutrition security as well as food safety requires an interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach. This study was part of a larger project that applied an integrated framework for combined nutritional, food safety and value chain analysis to assess the dairy value chain in two regions of Tanzania, namely Morogoro and Tanga. Here, we report on the use of participatory rural appraisals (PRAs) with producers and consumers to investigate seasonality, constraints and opportunities in cow milk production and consumption in ten villages in Tanzania and describe attitudes and practices surrounding milk quality and safety. The PRAs allowed identifying strong seasonal milk production and consumption practices reflecting rainfall patterns and a dependence on the natural environment. A wide range of production constraints were described by producers including insufficient technical know-how, poor quality breeds, cattle diseases, lack of capital, feed, water and reliable markets. While milk availability had a strong influence on milk consumption, findings showed that there are a range of other factors such as the consistency of milk, purchasing power and the availability of other foods which also influence consumer choice. A dependence on sensory milk quality attributes in the absence of other systems of certification was described. Both producers and consumers showed little concern regarding potentially contaminated milk despite an awareness of the existence of milkborne disease risks. The results indicate great potential for upscaling dairy production and at the same time highlight that any such interventions should carefully consider mitigation measures for food safety risks.

Diversifying conservation agriculture and conventional tillage cropping systems to improve the wellbeing of smallholder farmers in Malawi
Dan TerAvest, Philip R. Wandschneider, Christian Thierfelder, John P. Reganold – Agricultural Systems, 2019

Food production and the wellbeing of smallholder farmers are constrained by their limited financial resources, poor market access, and inadequate institutional support in southern and eastern Africa. Conservation agriculture (CA)–minimal soil disturbance, year-round ground cover, and diverse crop rotations–is being promoted to sustainably boost crop production, increase household income, and diversify diets for better nutrition. In this study, three cropping systems–continuous no-till maize, CA rotation, and conventional tillage rotation–were established on smallholder farms in the Nkhotakota and Dowa districts, two distinct agroecological zones in Malawi. Diverse three-year crop rotations in CA and conventional tillage systems included the alternative food crops sweet potato and cassava and the grain legumes common bean, soybean, cowpea, and pigeonpea. The effects of cropping system on labor use and financial returns, which served as a rough indicator of feasibility and farmer wellbeing, were analyzed for three years from 2011 to 2014. Over the three years of the study, continuous no-till maize produced the greatest gross and net revenues, despite also having greater production costs than CA and conventional systems. Although substantially less profitable than continuous no-till maize, the diversified CA and conventional tillage rotations were profitable for smallholder farmers, partially due to lower production costs. Sensitivity analysis was used to test the robustness of each cropping system under varying labor, input, and output price scenarios. Altering farmgate prices had the greatest impact on profitability, regardless of the crop grown. The input and output prices for maize were stable over the course of the study so that continuous no-till maize was the most robust cropping system. In contrast, high input cost and output price variability for alternative crops increased risk compared to maize, which may reduce their appeal to smallholder farmers. Reducing the risk of conservation agriculture rotations could provide smallholder farmers with more diversified diets and greater ecosystem services, such as greater rainwater infiltration and storage to withstand dry spells. Based on the results of this study, policies that reduce input price variability and increase farmgate prices of alternative food crops would have the greatest impact on the adoption of diverse crop rotations in Malawi.

ifpri-kampala Newsletter – week of March 11th, 2019

Hello, and welcome to a new edition of the IFPR-Kampala’s USSP news and research digest!

As usual, this collection of recent news articles related to agriculture is compiled from online news sources. We also include links to recent publications on agricultural and policy-related research topics pertinent to Uganda and the wider region.

This week, we report on how f ormer rice farmer praise Vitamin A orange sweet potatoes and on how to increase coffee farmers’ profitability in African countries. We also have news articles on Tanzania’s cotton sector and link to a response to the Gates letter.

Under research, we provide links to:

Note that newsletters are archived on http://ussp.ifpri.info/.

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Happy reading

News:

Former rice farmer praises Vitamin A orange sweet potatoes
HarvestPlus

Walter Odongo, a 31-year-old farmer from Dokolo district in Northern Uganda, has only praise for vitamin A orange sweet potatoes. He was previously a rice farmer, but was persuaded to switch to a healthier, less labor-intensive crop by an awareness-raising campaign.

Project boosts farmers’ productivity by 70 per cent
Monitor

Access to timely weather information, insurance cover and input loan has increased farmers output by 70 per cent under the Market-led, User-owned ICT4Ag-enabled Information Service, a study has shown.

Will the Atiak Sugar factory and Soroti fruit processing plant see the light of the day?
Monitor

Two factories, both being supported by Uganda Development Corporation, the government’s investment and development arm, share similar aspirations and frustration. Given the notable progress thus far, the two processing plants —Soroti Fruit Factory based in eastern Uganda and Atiak Sugar Factory located in the northern part of the country, will eventually see the much-deserved light at the end of tunnel. But until then, the two are still work in progress.

How to increase coffee farmers’ profitability in African countries
Global coffee platform

The study in Uganda focused on the current challenges faced by coffee farmers when it comes to operating commercially, which needs to be address more efficiently to benefit coffee farming families in the country. The Ugandan Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) which is chairing the Ugandan Coffee Platform has been using the study to engage commercial farmers to join coffee production.

Can a new initiative save Rwanda’s ailing agriculture sector?
New Times

The Rwandan Ministry of Finance is moving to de-risk the local agriculture sector through agriculture insurance with the hope of improving its attractiveness to the local and foreign private sector, including financial institutions. Investors continue to shy away from the sector citing reasons such as inadequate data on the sector, dependence on unpredictable weather patterns, reliance of traditional practices, low output among other challenges.

Striving to transform Tanzania’s cotton sector
ODI

Cotton growing and ginning is one of Tanzania’s top three agricultural export industries. It is a major source of livelihood for up to half a million smallholder farmers, mostly in the large region of enduring rural poverty lying to the south and east of Lake Victoria, known in Tanzania as the Lake Zone. The sector has been underperforming for 50 years, with productivity stagnating and international prices and therefore earnings falling in line with productivity gains in competitor countries.

Tariff, non-tariff barriers hit Eastern Africa grain trade
News Ghana

Tariff and non-tariff barriers are adversely affecting grain trade across the Eastern African region. The barriers arising from rules of origin are being enforced on commodities such as rice, sugar, wheat and confectioneries.

How farmers are making the most of digital technologies in East Africa
CTA

Two-thirds of the population in Africa are employed in agriculture, with the vast majority being smallholder farmers. Agriculture could provide one of the best pathways out of poverty, but many farmers lack the knowledge and means to improve their farming practices. However, digital technologies are beginning to change this.

Promoting urban agriculture for food security
New Times

Urban agriculture is becoming prominent in many African cities. In Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, urban gardens in some communities are practiced as a part of urban agriculture. It forms at least 60 per cent of the informal sector and urban agriculture is the second largest urban employer.

Why farmers aren’t focused on reducing emissions: a response to the Gates letter
Palladium

In their annual letter released this week, Bill and Melinda Gates identify agriculture as one of the five “grand challenges” of climate change. The Gates rightly state that the world must find ways to mitigate the impact agriculture is having, while acknowledging the priorities of farmers in low-income countries who are already facing the climate crisis’ effects.

German hops hero
Croplife

German beer is famous around the world. Most brewers in Germany still follow a 500-year old recipe that combines water, hops, malt and alt yeast.

Humanitarians struggle to address environment: ‘It’s nice but it’s not crucial’
World Agroforestry

With growing stress on natural resources, emergency workers have begun to examine their interventions. Environmental mismanagement can be fatal. Focusing on approaches that are built on the Sustainable Development Goals and with the assistance of organizations, like the UN and World Agroforestry, help is at hand.

New diet, new destiny? Saving the planet takes more than changing what we eat
Food Tank

When the EAT-Lancet Commission launched a new landmark report last month, it was widely interpreted as saying that forking down less red meat and more vegetables should ensure that we can provide nutritious food for 10 billion people while maintaining a healthy Earth. However, while changing our diets can help turn around planetary degradation, the challenge is greater than that. As the EAT-Lancet commission points out, the way we produce our food must also be changed to ease the pressure on natural resources, not least water.

Research:

Demand and Supply of Infrequent Payments as a Commitment Device: Evidence from Kenya
Lorenzo Casaburi and Rocco Macchiavello – American Economic Review, 2019.

Despite extensive evidence that preferences are often time-inconsistent, there is only scarce evidence of willingness to pay for commit-ment. Infrequent payments for frequently provided goods and services are a common feature of many markets and they may naturally pro-vide commitment to save for lumpy expenses. Multiple experiments in the Kenyan dairy sector show that: (i) farmers are willing to incur sizable costs to receive infrequent payments as a commitment device,(ii) poor contract enforcement, however, limits competition among buyers in the supply of infrequent payments. We then present a model of demand and supply of infrequent payments and test its additional predictions.

Demographic Change, Agriculture, and Rural Poverty
J Thurlow, P Dorosh, B Davis – Sustainable Food and Agriculture, 2019

Population growth and urbanization are associated with economic development. Structural transformation entails workers leaving less productive agriculture and moving to more productive industries, often in urban centers. Population growth slows with development, leading to greater dependence on capital and technology rather than on labor. This was Asia’s successful pathway. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is also transforming, but far less than other regions are and with its own distinctive features. Though Africa is urbanizing, rapid population growth means that rural populations are still expanding. While African workers also are leaving agriculture, they do so at a slower pace than workers in Asia and are finding work in less productive services rather than in manufacturing. Such “urbanization without industrialization” raises concerns about Africa’s ability to create enough jobs for its urban workforce and underscores the need for continued focus on rural Africa. This chapter reviews the linkages between urbanization, agriculture and rural poverty in SSA, where most of the world’s poor will soon reside. It suggests that much of the economic growth and structural change that Africa enjoyed over the past two decades, attributable to a shift out of agriculture, was in fact an expansion of downstream components of the agriculture food system. Like agriculture, many downstream activities have strong linkages to poverty reduction. Governments concerned about jobs and poverty will need to raise productivity, not only in agriculture, but also throughout the entire food system. Since many downstream processing and trading activities are in towns and cities, promoting future poverty reduction will require greater alignment between agricultural and urban policies. Demographic change and rural-urban linkages will continue to be powerful drivers of global poverty reduction, but ensuring inclusive transformation will require broader development perspectives and policy coordination.

Why interventions in the seed systems of roots, tubers and bananas crops do not reach their full potential
CJM Almekinders, S Walsh, KS Jacobsen…- Food Security, 2019

Seed systems for roots, tuber, and banana (RTB) crops receive relatively little attention from development-oriented research and commercial seed sector actors, despite their importance for food security, nutrition and rural livelihoods. We review RTB seed systems—with particular reference to potato, sweetpotato, cassava, yam and banana —to reflect on current seed system development approaches and the unique nature of these systems. We refer to our own experiences, literature and 13 case studies of RTB seed system interventions to identify gaps in our knowledge on farmer practices in sourcing and multiplying seed, and processes affecting seed quality. Currently, most approaches to developing RTB seed systems favour decentralised multiplication models to make quality seed available to smallholder farmers. Nevertheless, arguments and experiences show that in many situations, the economic sustainability of these models cannot be guaranteed, among others because the effective demand of farmers for seed from vegetatively propagated crops is unclear. Despite the understudied nature of farmers’ agronomic and social practices in relation to seed production and sourcing in RTB crops, there is sufficient evidence to show that local RTB seed systems are adaptive and dynamic. Our analysis suggests the paramount importance of understanding farmers’ effective demand for seed and how this affects the sustainable supply of quality seed from specialized producer-entrepreneurs, regardless of the seed system paradigm. From the case studies we learnt that few interventions are designed with a rigorous understanding of these issues; in particular, what types of interventions work for which actors, where, and why, although this is a necessary condition for prioritizing investments to increase the use of improved seed by smallholder farmers.

Does large farm establishment create benefits for neighboring smallholders? Evidence from Ethiopia
D Ali, K Deininger, A Harris – Land Economics, 2019

Large-scale agricultural investment has expanded rapidly over the past decade, justified partly by the expectation that established smallholders will benefit from positive spillovers. We estimate spillovers between large and small farms in Ethiopia, using variation over time in proximity or intensity of exposure to large farms. We find that between 2004 and 2014, establishing commercial farms did not lead to job creation and provided only modest benefits in terms of technology, input market access, and resilience to crop shocks. This suggests that in Ethiopia a more strategic approach may be needed to maximize benefits from large farm formation for smallholders.

African Indigenous Vegetable Seed Systems in Western Kenya
L Pincus, M Croft, R Roothaert, T Dubois – Economic Botany, 2019

African indigenous vegetable (AIV) production systems are often constrained by the availability of high-quality seed. Concerted efforts to improve the informal seed sector could increase farmers’ access to seed, but these efforts are hampered by a lack of knowledge around the quality of farmer-produced seed and seed growers’ motivations for producing seed. This study collected seed samples and survey data from 127 farmers in western Kenya on their AIV seed production practices, uses of AIV seed, and motivations for growing seed. Germination tests showed that seed quality varied significantly between species. Seed access was still a constraint, even though the majority of seeds used by farmers are self-produced. Income from selling AIV seed differed significantly depending on gender, with men earning more than twice as much as women. This study demonstrates that the constraints farmers face in accessing high-quality AIV seed can vary significantly between species and over short distances. Female seed producers are not necessarily empowered to earn equal income as men, despite AIVs traditionally being considered a women’s crop. This study speaks to the importance of using localized information to develop programs for improving informal seed systems and continuing to employ gender-sensitive and transformative activities.

Diversifying conservation agriculture and conventional tillage cropping systems to improve the wellbeing of smallholder farmers in Malawi
D TerAvest, PR Wandschneider, C Thierfelder… – Agricultural Systems, 2019