We assess the level and determinants of relative technical efficiency of maize-based smallholder farmers using a translog stochastic frontier (TL) model and a symmetric generalized Barnett production function (SGB), both of which are tested for economic regularity conditions. In addition, we...

Cassava is a major staple that supplies more than 50% of daily energy to more than 200 million persons in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Cassava roots are known to be low in micronutrients such as vitamin A, iron, and zinc. Micronutrient deficiencies threaten the lives of millions of poor households...

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) underscore an overriding importance of human development for sustained economic, social, political and other development, and nutrition is the beginning of human development. Nutrition has, however, not been viewed as a development imperative in many...

This paper highlights a market information and linkage system (MILS) developed and tested by the Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange Limited (KACE) that increases the efficiency of agricultural markets to work better for smallholder farmers and other small and medium sized agro-enterprises...

Au Cameroun comme dans beaucoup d’autres pays en Afrique subsaharienne, les recherches sur le VIH/SIDA se sont confinées dans les zones urbaines et ignorant en quelque sorte les zones rurales. C’est ainsi que ses liens avec l’agriculture et le développement rural n’ont reçu que peu...

Striga is an indigenous parasitic weed that attacks cereals and other crops in Africa. In maize croplands alone, Striga infests over 2.3 million ha resulting in 1.6 million tons of grain loss worth US $383 million annually. An innovative approach to controlling the parasite was to induce...

This paper investigates sources and determinants of agricultural growth in Africa, concentrating on the growth path during the last three decades. The analysis employs the broader framework provided by empirical growth literature and recent developments in Total Factor Productivity (TFP)...

The restructuring process of the food markets in South Africa is at an advanced stages of consolidation and the emergence dominance of few supermarket chains expanding into non-traditional areas, through franchise format stores and forecourt stores overtaking informal wet markets and green...

Striga hermonthica (del) Benth is threatening rural livelihoods in western Kenya where maize is the major food and cash crop. Vulnerability analysis was conducted on a sample of 802 households in eight districts of Nyanza and Western provinces. Farmers perceived Striga as the major cause of...

L’objectif de la présente étude est d’évaluer la diffusion et l’adoption des variétés de riz NERICA en Guinée cinq années après leur introduction. Les données collectées en 2002 sont relatives à 1535 paysans choisis dans 79 villages des quatre régions naturelles de la Guinée....