Knowledge

This report is a guide to shape investments by IFAD and other international donors in climate change mitigation actions in the East and Southern Africa region.

This paper discusses which climate variables to collect, and from which sources, when incorporating them into an impact assessment.

With funding from ASAP2, eight Climate Risk Analysis reports were produced by the University of Cape Town, covering Angola, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This report presents the results of IFAD’s stock-take on agroecology.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

This How to Do Note is part of a series of five Notes that accompany the NUS Operational Framework.

What risks and challenges do small-scale producers of oilseeds in Uganda face, and could agricultural insurance help them manage and mitigate those risks?

The Adaptation Framework is a repository of adaptation actions for small-scale agriculture, including livestock, forestry, and fisheries. It provides an approach for incorporating adaptation practices into project design.

Sorghum, finger millet and pearl millet are the most important staple foods for most households in the semi-arid tropics of East Africa, as these crops grow in harsh environments where other crops do not grow well. 

This collection of data on sustainable land management (SLM) technologies and approaches includes relevant information on different SLM practices, their implementation details, and their ecological and socio-economic benefits and disadvantages.

Population growth, rapid urbanization, and a young population are major trends shaping the future of African agriculture.

Rice farmers in the mid-hills region of Nepal are vulnerable to drought, which can drastically reduce yields. Stress-tolerant rice varieties can mitigate this vulnerability, as can having a high seed replacement rate and using best management practices in rice cultivation.

This is the first study to quantify the general equilibrium impacts of introducing a new cash crop into a poor isolated economy, including impacts on environmentally sensitive fishing activities.

To reduce the amount of foreign currency spent on importing wheat, it is essential to use improved varieties and practices to increase Africa’s domestic production quickly.

For millions of poor people in East and Southern Africa, bamboo has huge potential to alleviate poverty, protect the environment and help achieve the SDGs. 

This paper considers the relationship between farm size and productivity patterns across countries and within countries. 

This paper examines the impact of agricultural research on poverty and welfare by conducting a systematic review of experimental and quasi-experimental impact evaluations of improved varieties disseminated by CGIAR between 2007 and 2015.

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system.

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

Since 2006, IFAD and the European Union have partnered to invest over EUR 230 million in agricultural research programmes carried out through the CGIAR system. 

FAO, IFAD and WFP have developed joint actions in the Latin American and Caribbean region with the common goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture and rural development.

The programme aimed to intensify the cropping systems with grain legumes to improve the productivity and sustainability of rainfed agriculture while diversifying smallholder farmers’ income-generating opportunities. 

Agriculture begins with seed. Without seed, there can be no crops and no food production. When harvests fail or seed stocks are lost, seed insecurity ensues, which can reduce food security and livelihoods. 

This How To Do Note (HTDN) in this toolkit on Supporting Smallholder Seed Systems tackles the complexities of seed systems, setting out a process to support national agricultural policy decision makers, national and international development agencies and IFAD Country Programme Managers (CPMs) in the design and supervision of seed-related projects. The other publications in this toolkit are the Teaser and Lessons Learned.

This publication, Lessons Learned, presents some key lessons from the experiences of IFAD and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and other seed-related development projects. These lessons will help the reader of the How To Do Note (HTDN) to have a greater understanding and appreciation of the framework for analysing national seed systems and how to use the HTDN to inform the design and implementation of more effective seed projects.

The goal of the project was to increase the income of rural smallholder vegetable producers through the improved safety and quality of vegetables in the supply chain for domestic markets.

IFAD’s support to the Nigerian Government’s poverty reduction programme in rural areas targets large numbers of smallholder farmers and is essentially people-centred. IFAD supports programmes and projects that work with communities, and with smallholder farmers as the key players.

South-South and triangular cooperation has an enormous potential role in agriculture and rural development in developing countries, both in unlocking diverse experiences and lessons and in providing solutions to pressing development challenges.

From the cases that follow, a number of common lessons emerge. First, it is important to create a space for interaction and cross-country learning. In the Scaling up Micro-Irrigation Systems project or with the household mentoring approach, for instance, workshops and ‘writeshops’ gathered people from diverse countries who could then share their own knowledge and experiences. In such spaces, participants could compare how a similar approach or technology required certain adaptations to better fit with local cultural, social and environmental contexts, offering important lessons for future scaling up.

Sometimes individual champions can make a difference. In Madagascar, the project design for a public/private partnership improved drastically when an IFAD consultant with similar experience in another country became involved. In this case, it was also an ‘unexpected outcome’, as the innovation came from a replacement for the regular consultant, who had broken his foot …. So even through small staff changes, knowledge of a complementary innovation from another country can have a big impact.

​This report is aimed at readers who seek to build economic evidence in support of the inclusion of actions on agriculture in climate change plans and programmes, particularly at the national level under the umbrella of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the December 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims to restrict a rise in global temperatures and manage risks. Agriculture is a sector especially sensitive to climate change. It also accounts for significant emissions and is, therefore, a priority for both adaptation and mitigation plans and actions at global, national and local levels. 

Bananas (Musa spp.), including dessert banana, plantain and cooking banana are the eighth most important food crop in the world, and the fourth most important in least
developed countries (FAOSTAT, 2013). They are produced in 135 countries and territories across the tropics and subtropics. The vast majority of producers are smallholder farmers
who grow the crop for either home consumption or local markets. Less than 15 per cent of the global production of more than 130 million metric tons is exported. Today, the
international banana trade, totaling around 17 million metric tons, is worth over US$7 billion per year (FAOSTAT).