Orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) varieties rich in beta-carotene, a precursor of vitamin A are one of the least expensive sources of dietary vitamin A in Sub-Saharan Africa, where most sweetpotato is consumed as boiled or steamed roots. One major question is how its use can be expanded among...

Commercialization of agriculture in is a worthy effort in attaining food sufficiency in Africa. However, this needed quest has had an enormous environmental, health and safety implications for the agricultural sector of the continent. This quest has led to intense use of machinery, agrochemicals...

Smallholder farms in the humid highlands of East Africa are undergoing changes that question the notion of the rural space. Characterized by land degradation, increasing population pressure, intensive farming and continuous cropping in small plots, smallholder farmers have increasingly embraced...

The study quantifies factors affecting use of relief maize seed and implications on productivity in Zimbabwe. It uses Tobit and multiple regression models to analyze data collected from relief recipient households in 2010. Regression analysis showed that time of seed receipt, land area, rainfall...

Agricultural output commercialization has been found to have positive impacts on the income generating activities of household in sub-Sahara Africa. This paper examines the extent of agricultural produce commercialization and its impact on the household income generation vis-à-vis household...

Paper investigates the determinants of pesticide related Cost of Illness (COI), and acute symptoms, using a balanced panel of 363 farmers interviewed in 2005 and 2008. Finding shows that the incidences of pesticide-related health impairments have increased. Variation in number of symptoms and...

This research is a desk-based study that examines the processes of migration decision-making and the livelihood vulnerability that rural farm households face in Nigeria. It focuses on the socio-economic and environmental factors such as how vulnerability at the household level interacts with the...

Nonfarm earnings from diverse sources account for a substantial and growing share of household income among smallholder farmers in many areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, but information about the effects of these earnings on farm investments is relatively sparse. This study focuses on fertilizer...

This study assessed the determinants of participation and intensity of participation in collective action initiatives. It also examined the effect of participation in such initiatives on household commercialization and on household welfare (incomes). It uses a double hurdle approach (a logit...

Using household survey data from a random sample of 180 households in Gweru and Lupane district, we found the distribution of vulnerability among households was skewed with mean 0.76. On average 89% of the households had a probability of more than 0.5 making them vulnerable to food insecurity...