Slow adoption rates of Agricultural technologies continue to beset Africa’s food insecurity reduction efforts and economic development generally. Household survey data and focus group discussions were used to identify determinants of adoption of tissue culture bananas among smallholder farmers...

This report is a summary of emerging issues affecting African agriculture, recent experiences and policy proposals that can guide interventions in improving the sector’s productivity. Agriculture is at the centre of rural poverty reduction in Africa and urgent measures are needed to increase...

The push-pull technology (PPT) has widely been disseminated to control stemborer (Chilo partellus and Busseola fusca) and Striga weeds (Striga hermonthica and Striga asiatica) in maize fields in Kenya. This study examined farmers’ preferences for various dissemination pathways in order to...

Achieving agricultural growth and development and thereby improving rural household welfare will require increased efforts to provide yield enhancing and natural resources conserving technologies. Agricultural research and technological improvements are therefore crucial to increase agricultural...

Reliable data on private sector agricultural research and development is globally scarce, particularly in developing countries. In South Africa, it has been observed that research performance by the public sector via the Agricultural Research Council has declined in recent years and...

Participatory technology development has been used for quite some time. However, little is known about how farmers perceive participatory methods and processes. Understanding farmers’ concerns about the participatory process can be an important starting point and can further the ultimate aim...

This study is based on a panel survey interviewing 416 farmers practising conservation agriculture for at least five cropping seasons. Farmers obtained higher yields on conservation agriculture plots than on nonconservation agriculture ones. The mean maize yield on conservation agriculture was...

The importance of farmers’ perceptions of characteristics on agricultural innovation adoption has increased these two decades. Empirical studies revealed that in addition to farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics and institutional factors, farmers’ perceptions of the innovation-specific...

The government of Malawi in 2004 initiated an ICT-based Malawi Agricultural Commodity Exchange (MACE), a market information service project, to improve access by farmers to market information. MACE was intended to improve the efficiency of agricultural markets as part of the strategy to improve...

In spite of the socio-economic importance of yam, his production is still facing serious constraints as no availability and inadequacy of seed tubers. In order to cope with these constraints, International of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has developed improved varieties of which we have TDrs’...