General Agriculture Development

Version:
2021

Capture décran 151Investing in farmers – what is known as ‘agriculture human capital’ – is crucial to addressing challenges facing our global agri-food systems, from sustainably feeding the world’s growing population with food that is safe, healthy and nutritious to finding innovative solutions for more resilient and climate-smart agriculture. Investing in farmers is just as important as investing in infrastructure and other physical capital. Yet less than 3 percent of global agriculture development finance between 2015 and 2018 was invested specifically in strengthening the skills and capacities of agricultural producers.How do you invest in building the human capital of agricultural producers? What factors make that investment successful? The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and IFPRI, with support from PIM, sought answers to these and other questions in their joint global study.

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260
Date:
30 April 2024
 

 
Version:
2024

Capture décran 145This report presents the findings and recommendations of the enquiry into sustainable finance in agrifood systems conducted by the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate for the members of the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development. The enquiry explored two questions.(i) How are donors working to make their financing more catalytic?(ii) How are donors using their concessional financing to crowd in commercial financing from development finance institutions (DFIs) and the private sector? The central message is that, if donors and DFIs take higher risks with their grants and lending, every donor dollar has the potential to mobilize four dollars in commercial finance. When this happens, agrifood small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) will have more financing, domestic lenders will participate and markets will deliver affordable borrowing prices. This is the catalytic power of aid.

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264
Date:
30 April 2024
 

 
Version:
2018

This book casts a look at innovainnovation booktion in agricultural and food systems. It focuses in particular on supporting innovation, by examining methods and organizations, and on evaluating innovation using different yardsticks. The book is based on reflections and research originating from various scientific disciplines, on fieldwork carried out both in France and in many countries of the Global South, and finally on the experiences gained by accompanying and supporting innovative actors. It combines theoretical contributions on innovation with iconic case studies to illustrate its observations and discussions. This book is intended for teachers, professionals, students, and researchers.

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2808
Date:
14 January 2019
 

 
Version:
2018

Faure Guy et al Innovation Page 001L’innovation est devenue un objet de questionnement incontournable dans nos soci.t.s. Elle est omnipr.sente dans les discours d’acteurs .conomiques ou politiques, s’inscrit dans des politiques d.di.es et dans de nouvelles institutions telles que les p.les ou les plateformes, et vient s’incarner dans la figure du h.ros contemporain cr.ateur de start-up.  Le th.me de l’innovation a aussi gagn. une place importante dans le monde scientifique, comme en t.moigne la forte croissance des travaux qui y sont consacr.s, la cr.ation de soci.t.s savantes et de revues sp.cialis.es contribuant . l’affirmation d’un champ acad.mique autour des Innovation Studies  (Fagerberg et Verspagen, 2009 ; Godin, 2014).

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2529
Date:
17 July 2018
 

 
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2237
Date:
24 December 2017
 

 
Version:
2014

More than 500 million family farms manage the majority of the world’s agricultural land and produce most of the world’s food. We need family farms to ensure global food security, to care for and protect the natural environment and to end poverty, undernourishment and malnutrition. These goals can be thoroughly achieved if public policies support family farms to become more productive and sustainable; in other words policies must support family farms to innovate within a system that recognizes their diversity and the complexity of the challenges faced.

The State of Food and Agriculture 2014: Innovation in family farming analyses family farms and the role of innovation in ensuring global food security, poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. It argues that family farms must be supported to innovate in ways that promote sustainable intensification of production and improvements in rural livelihoods. Innovation is a process through which farmers improve their production and farm management practices.

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3019
Date:
15 December 2016
 

 
Version:
2016

FAO 2016 Migration Agriculture and Rural Development Page 01The present document gives the perspective of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on migration and outlines the main entry points where FAO can support international efforts to address global movements of refugees and migrants. FAO has long-standing experience in building up the resilience of rural populations, supporting rural livelihoods, including those of displaced people and host communities, as well as addressing food insecurity, rural poverty and natural resource depletion, which are among the drivers of migration. Together with its partners, FAO is committed to further strengthening its efforts on migration within humanitarian and development contexts, building on its comparative advantage in agriculture and rural development issues.

This document is directed towards Member States, UN system and all other potential partners.
It sheds light on the role that agriculture and rural development and the sustainable management of natural resources can play in curbing migration pressure in rural areas. It also discusses possible areas of further engagement to maximize the potential bene ts of migration on food security and agriculture and rural development. 

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3279
Date:
20 September 2016
 

 
Version:
2016

IFAD Rural Development Report 2016 Page 001The Rural Development Report: Fostering Inclusive Rural Transformation focuses on inclusive rural transformation as a central element of the global efforts to eliminate poverty and hunger, and build inclusive and sustainable societies for all. 

The report analyses global, regional and national pathways of rural transformation and suggests four categories into which most countries and regions fall, each with distinct objectives for rural development strategies to promote inclusive rural transformation: to adapt, to amplify, to accelerate, and a combination of them.

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3370
Date:
20 September 2016
 

 

While Indigenous people are generally depicted as victims of poverty and vulnerability to climate change, it would also be appropriate to emphasize their sensitivity to the environment, adaptive capacity and resilience, as manifested by their ability to modify their behaviour in response to changing climatic conditions. Indigenous peoples’ knowledge can provide important insights into the processes of observation, adaptation and mitigation of climate change consequences. 

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5399
Date:
13 June 2016
 

 
If one asks whether India’s green revolution has helped the country to achieve self-sufficiency in food, the obvious answer from the people of the highest echelons of policy making and politics would be a chest-thumping "YES". But, in truth, what was happening was literally “policy hi-jacking” by few groups with vested interests and the intent to maintain their status quo under the guise of augmenting food security. In the process, nutritional security, health and wellbeing of the population have become collateral damages. Click to read: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/game-grains-why-indias-agri-food-policies-need-review-sampathkumar?trk=mp-reader-card
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3309
Date:
21 August 2015
 

 
"If the global food & agriculture industry were a person, what are (or should be) his/her pension plans”. This series is about exploring the current situation of the global agri-food sector in the context of looming crises at large. The idea is similar to anyone investing in a pension plan to secure his/her future but the question is whether the ag-food industry is doing it or not as the number of mouths to be fed grows to 9 billion by 2050 and an increase of at least 60-70% is needed in food production. Ever since I started writing this series, I have been learning so many interesting things that I am sharing, to the extent possible, in an easy to understand manner. Click here to read more: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/part-5-hey-ag-whats-your-pension-plan-raghavan-sampathkumar?trk=mp-author-card
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3487
Date:
21 August 2015
 

 
Farmers who have introduced mechanization into their rice farming have found that they can reduce production costs by 27% and increase their profits ha-1 by 36%. Those who have employed mechanization together with SRI methods have achieved 55% higher production ha-1 and earned 58% more profit. Mechanization with SRI methods, doubling plant-to-plant spacing and reducing seedling age by half, cuts farmers’ seed requirements by 50%. Labor requirements are reduced by 60%, and the time required for all of the main rice-farming activities by 70%. Thus rice farmers in Nepal’s terai could find mechanization to be a solution for labor shortages.
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3929
Date:
27 June 2015
 

 

Farmers in Nepal are getting the most out of their farms, both in nutrition as well as in economic terms, by integrating a variety of crops on the farm.

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17529
Date:
27 June 2015
 

 
Farmers are by nature Innovative. It is their innovativeness that kept life on earth. This document is a M.Sc Thesis on same submitted to Haramaya University, formerly Alemaya University.
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9154
Date:
27 February 2015
 

 

This is chapter 10 of the publication:

Farming Systems Research into the 21st Century

The new dynamic

A comprehensive overview of systems approaches as applied to farming and rural development
The full publication can be found at SpringerLink.
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0
Date:
02 August 2012
 

 
Version:
2012

A presentation given at the general assemly of the World Farmes Organisation WFO

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6881
Date:
10 July 2012
 

 
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4520
Date:
09 August 2011
 

 
Version:
2011
A significant new article in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability (11 November) tackles the issues that will face agriculture in the future by identifying the top 100 questions of importance to the future of global agriculture.

The global population is estimated to reach 9 billion by the year 2050. In order to keep up with population growth and simultaneously prevent food prices from increasing considerably, the world will need to produce 70-100% more food in the next 50 years. The need to produce more food will be compounded by other challenges from climate change, water stresses, energy insecurity and dietary shifts. Global agriculture and food systems must change in order to overcome these myriad challenges and meet future food needs.

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5526
Date:
31 May 2011
 

 
Version:
2007

Agricultural advisory (extension) services are a vital element of the array of market and non-market entities and agents that provide critical flows of information that can improve farmers’ and other rural peoples’ welfare. After a period of neglect, agricultural advisory services have returned strongly to the international development agenda. Apart from their conventional function of providing knowledge for improved agricultural productivity, agricultural advisory services are expected to fulfill a variety of new functions, such as linking smallholder farmers to high-value and export markets, promoting environmentally sustainable production techniques, and coping with the effects of HIV/AIDS and other health challenges that affect agriculture. Therefore, it is highly appropriate that the WDR 2008 acknowledges the roles and the challenges of an effective evolution of agricultural advisory services in the coming decades.

Downloads:
5510
Date:
03 May 2011