Year Published
- 2008 (3) Apply 2008 filter
- (-) Remove 2009 filter 2009
- 2010 (11) Apply 2010 filter
- 2011 (11) Apply 2011 filter
- 2012 (1) Apply 2012 filter
- 2013 (5) Apply 2013 filter
- 2014 (4) Apply 2014 filter
- 2015 (8) Apply 2015 filter
- 2016 (7) Apply 2016 filter
- 2017 (2) Apply 2017 filter
- 2018 (2) Apply 2018 filter
- 2019 (2) Apply 2019 filter
- 2020 (0)
- 2021 (1) Apply 2021 filter
Research Topics
Populations
- Countries/Governments (1) Apply Countries/Governments filter
- Rural Populations (0)
- Smallholder Farmers (3) Apply Smallholder Farmers filter
- Women (0)
Types of Research
- Data Analysis (0)
- (-) Remove Literature Review filter Literature Review
- Portfolio Review (0)
- (-) Remove Research Brief filter Research Brief
Geography
- East Africa Region and Selected Countries (0)
- Global (1) Apply Global filter
- South Asia Region and Selected Countries (0)
- Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries (1) Apply Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
- Sub-Saharan Africa (2) Apply Sub-Saharan Africa filter
- West Africa Region and Selected Countries (0)
Dataset
- ASTI (0)
- FAOSTAT (1) Apply FAOSTAT filter
- Farmer First (0)
- LSMS & LSMS-ISA (0)
- Other Datasets (0)
Current search
- (-) Remove Household Well-Being & Equity filter Household Well-Being & Equity
- (-) Remove Information & Mobile Technology filter Information & Mobile Technology
- (-) Remove Food Security & Nutrition filter Food Security & Nutrition
- (-) Remove Finance & Investment filter Finance & Investment
- (-) Remove 2009 filter 2009
- (-) Remove Research Brief filter Research Brief
- (-) Remove Literature Review filter Literature Review
- (-) Remove Agricultural Productivity, Yield, & Constraints filter Agricultural Productivity, Yield, & Constraints
- (-) Remove Environment & Climate Change filter Environment & Climate Change
Agriculture and Climate Change: Part I
With estimated global emissions of 5,969-6,615 metric tons (Mt) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, agriculture accounts for about 13.5% of total global anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). Deforestation contributes about 11.8% of total GHG emissions, releasing about 5,800 Mt CO2 per year. Developing countries are largely responsible for emissions from agriculture and deforestation, with the developing countries of South Asia and East Asia accounting for 17% and 25% of global agricultural emissions respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for about 13% of global emissions from agriculture and 15% of emissions from land use change and forestry. This report examines the biophysical and economic potential of mitigating agriculture and land use GHG emissions, and provides a summary on the current and projected impact of global carbon market mechanisms on emission reductions.
Agriculture and Climate Change: Part II
This report covers two topics related to agriculture and climate change in developing countries. The first section discusses the role of agricultural offsets in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. Recent negotiations around a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement have included debate about whether agricultural carbon sequestration projects should be eligible under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). We examine the reasons for supporting or opposing this type of CDM reform and how these reasons relate to impacts on development goals and smallholder farmers, scientific uncertainty about carbon sequestration, and philosophical disagreement about the use of emission offsets. The second section covers proposed agricultural adaptation activities in Africa and other developing countries. While the majority of developing countries have outlined immediate adaptation needs in National Adaptation Programs of Action (NAPAs), few have made progress in implementing adaptation activities. We find that issues related to financial resources, scientific and technical information, and capacity building continue to challenge developing countries in preparing for the impacts of climate change.
This annotated bibliography addresses agricultural transformation and mechanization, dietary diversification and energy needs, and conservation tillage. Each citation is accompanied by an annotation briefly describing the findings and key takeaways.
On July 10, 2009 at the Italy G8 summit, attendees issued a joint statement pledging to contribute $20 billion towards agricultural development and food security in the developing world over the next three years. This research brief notes the status of the contributions made to the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative and whether any of the $20 billion will be allocated to agricultural research. We conclude that no declarations have been made as of September 2009 on how much of the $20 billion will be allocated to agricultural research, and which types of research will be funded by the initiative.
This literature review provides information on the dynamics of the maize market and maize prices in Zambia. We address four key topics: average production costs and breakeven prices for maize farmers in Zambia, main drivers of volatility of maize production volumes, key factors driving the differences between Zambian and global maize prices, and policies that may have contributed to increased farmer productivity.
Smallholder farmers in Africa are largely located in poor rural areas, are often geographically dispersed, and have limited access to road and communication infrastructure, thus raising the cost of market participation. This is especially true for farmers growing relatively low value staple crops. This literature review summarizes research on the challenges and innovations in linking smallholder producers of staple grains to markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on post-harvest issues including storage, aggregation, and transportation. For each post-harvest stage, we describe challenges faced by farmers and current efforts to address these challenges. In our review, we find a large amount of literature on the constraints to smallholder production and marketing but relatively few examples of innovative or novel technologies designed to improve storage and transportation for rural smallholder producers in Africa. Existing technologies have often been available for some time but have not seen widespread adoption, apparently due to high costs or inadequate funding for on-farm testing and extension. We conclude that the literature is somewhat divided as to whether interventions linking smallholder farmers to markets should be entirely market-driven and focus on linkages that can be profitable without subsidization, or whether NGO- and donor-driven interventions should play a role.
This brief presents an in depth analysis of the FAO’s methodology behind their calculations for hunger. The analysis includes a review of the key assumptions made by the FAO in their calculations, critiques of their methodology, and recommendations for future research. The critiques include opinions from the literature on the subject as well as from the authors of the request.
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are generally defined as geographically delimited areas administered by a single body, offering certain incentives (duty-free importing and streamlined customs procedures, for instance) to businesses that physically locate within the zone. This literature review provides a baseline analysis of SEZs and their potential impacts on smallholder farmers in SSA. Criticism on SEZs is distinctly divided between those who criticize on social or environmental grounds versus those who question the economic impact of SEZs. SEZs are often criticized based on perceived negative socio-economic impacts—particularly their negative impact on women, labor, and working conditions. This review includes several country-specific studies that find evidence that SEZs actually have higher environmental standards and higher worker satisfaction than outside the SEZ. Most responses to criticisms do note, however, that the case studies’ results are not necessarily generalizable to SEZs throughout the world. The literature review includes key elements of successes and failures pulled from the case studies of SEZs in SSA. Though the evidence is insufficient to conclusively determine if smallholder farmers receive direct benefits from SEZs and their associated agroindustrial contracts, this review finds that resources provided to farmers (credit at rates lower than bank rates, technical or managerial assistance, pesticides, seeds, and fertilizer on credit) tend to be concentrated among larger farmers. The report concludes with a note on donor involvement as well as recommendations for further research.
This brief presents an initial examination of the possibility of using Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) as a way to evaluate agricultural interventions. We review DALYs, their formulation, and the data necessary to compute values. A review of relevant literature suggests that to use DALYs as an evaluative tool, an agricultural intervention must be tied to a specific disease, and from there, impacts on DALYs can be assessed.