Poverty is higher in most African countries than elsewhere in the developing world, and highest in the ruralareas. Accelerating growth in agriculture will therefore be critical to sustain growth and reduce poverty,but policy makers are unsure which sub-sector will yield the highest return for a...

Mathematical programming analysis has been quite effective for commercial farm planning in developed countries, but less so for subsistence farms in developing countries. In particular, it is difficult to reproduce the level of diversification observed on subsistence farms using a simple profit...

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the most important development challenge of the 21st century. Poverty is higher in most African countries than elsewhere in the developing world. According to the recently published Report of the Commission for Africa, economic growth in Africa is necessary for...

Access to credit is one strategy for promoting the adoption of yield-enhancing technologies. However, advancing credit to smallholder farmers for encouraging technology adoption is a complex policy issue. The objective of this paper is to identify appropriate and sustainable credit repayment...

On farm conservation of crop diversity entails policy challenges, especially when the diversity of crops maintained on farms has both inter-specific (among crops) and infra-specific (within a crop) components. Survey data is used to compare the determinants of inter- and infra-specific diversity...

Market access plays an essential role in assuring better income and welfare levels for smallholder livestock producers, and thus contributes to poverty alleviation. This is even more so in the Ethiopian context where livestock play an essential role in the economy. Making use of the Heckman...

New technologies must be developed in sub-Saharan Africa which are sustainable and economically viable. This paper discusses a methodology for measuring the agricultural sustainability and economic viability of tropical farming systems for new technology evaluation. The approach is based on the...

Blessed with abundant land and water resources, Nigeria’s agricultural sector has a high potential for growth, but this potential is not being realized. Productivity is low and basically stagnant. Farming systems, which are mostly small in scale, are still predominantly subsistence-based and...