Supporting farmer participation in formal seed systems: lessons from Tharaka,Kenya

This article examines contemporary challenges of formal seed sector participation for resource-poor farmers in Tharaka and engages in a wider discussion of national seed policy and formal seed sector development in Kenya. While many farmers reported utilising modern seed varieties developed by the formal seed sector, the majority of these were introduced through seed aid and maintained through seed saving, supporting seed system integration strategies. Building on these findings, the article discusses ways in which national seed policy in Kenya might be refined to better meet national and regional development goals focused on decreasing the incidence of hunger and poverty.     

Integrating gender into index-based agricultural insurance: a focus on South Africa

Index insurance is an agricultural risk management tool that can provide a safety net for smallholder farmers experiencing climate risk. While uptake and scale-out of index insurance may be slow among smallholders, we can learn from experiences that demonstrate where crop insurance can protect smallholders’ livelihoods from climate risk. Integrating gender into climate risk management is necessary to ensure that the benefits of index insurance are experienced by both men and women. A dedicated intention to integrate gender may be required. Taking South Africa as a case study, the potential for gender-sensitive index insurance scale-out among smallholders is investigated.     

Lessons of endogenous leadership in Nigeria: innovating to reduce waste and raise incomes in the cassava processing and goat-keeping systems

Agricultural innovations are increasingly emerging from African research scientists. This paper looks at an innovation developed by animal scientists at the University of Agriculture Abeokuta in Nigeria. They identified a method for drying cassava peels, which creates an income source for rural women, reduces environmental waste, and raises the income of goat herders by transforming the cassava waste into animal feed. Initially funded by a World Bank grant, this paper addresses the challenges of securing donor funding for local innovations and presents an argument for a new model of development that supports locally driven solutions to current development issues.     

Farmer typology formulation accounting for psychological capital: implications for on-farm entrepreneurial development

Understanding and accounting for the heterogeneity of small farmers is critical for informing development pathways to improve the performance of smallholder irrigation. Using multivariate analysis, this study sought to develop farmer typologies in and around irrigation schemes and used these to inform strategies for on-farm entrepreneurship development. The research uniquely integrates psychological capital in defining farmer typologies, to capture individual features of each farmer, otherwise missed by the generic sustainable livelihoods framework literature. The study affirms the need to focus on psychological capital and concludes that heterogeneity among small-scale irrigators should be accounted for in future agricultural and rural development programmes.     

Indicators for economic vulnerability to drought in South Africa

This article identifies and estimates economic drought vulnerability indicators among communal farmers in South Africa, using an economic vulnerability index based on a household survey of 121 communal farmers. The results show that lack of resources, unemployment, price sensitivity, market access, the level of farm debt, output, on- and off-farm diversification, management, and financial safety nets were the main economic vulnerability variables. Farm debt and financial safety provide the bulk of the vulnerability index. The study’s findings suggest that government should reconsider priorities in the implementation of appropriate policy measures in response to drought.     

One-stop border posts and informal livelihoods in Busia,Kenya

‘One-stop border posts’ (OSBP) are being developed on East African trade corridors to support growth in cross-border trade in the region. This article presents a household survey examining the impact of the OSBP at Busia on the Kenya–Uganda border on the livelihoods of informal traders and workers. It finds positive effects through enhanced access to cross-border trade. However, it also finds negative effects, including reduced work opportunities for unskilled manual workers. Further research is needed into the long-term effects on the price and foreign exchange differentials which currently incentivise the informal trade, before the effects can be fully assessed.     

The effect of logistic services on the watermelon value chain in Tanzania

This article reports on a study that aimed to understand the effects for poverty reduction of the link between logistic services and cost of the watermelon value chain in Rufiji and Mkuranga districts in Tanzania. Structured questionnaires and FGDs were used to collect data from 251 respondents. Findings revealed that transport cost, storage cost, purchase cost, and logistics service have strong significant effect on the watermelon value chain cost. Based on the findings, the study recommended the use of affordable methods of storage, opening agro-input shops in villages, and the development of a favourable environment for watermelon businesses, to help reduce chain cost.     

“The pluses of pulses”: haricot beans and women’s empowerment in Ethiopia

This practical note demonstrates the role that haricot beans play in assisting women to become food and nutrition secure, to generate income, and to have sustainable livelihoods that are resilient to shocks. Based on qualitative research among female and male beneficiaries of a pulse innovation project implemented in southern Ethiopia, the note provides a summary of the critical voices of farmers, and the role that haricot beans play in empowering women. It also outlines some of the challenges that the project faced in achieving its empowerment objectives.     

Twenty reasons why local knowledge will remain relevant to development

Local knowledge has continued to gain popularity among development practitioners in the last four decades. However, the future of local knowledge seems hazy to some academics and researchers, perhaps due to the methodological challenges in operationalising local knowledge in development research. Rather than appropriate its full potential for sustainable (global) progress, renditions on the relevance of local knowledge in development research agenda have largely become rhetoric. Nonetheless, this viewpoint outlines 20 pertinent reasons in support of the relevance of local knowledge and why it has a future in development theory and practice.     

Understanding the needs and challenges of a Black community in South Africa

This article reports on a study conducted with an unemployed group of community members residing in the Gugulethu Township in South Africa. The study aimed to gain an in-depth understanding of their needs and challenges, and what they thought could be done to assist and empower them so that they could improve their lives. Their basic human needs were violated during apartheid and as a consequence, they are still battling poverty today. We offer suggestions on how Black communities in South Africa could be supported and empowered in order to become employable and self-reliant.     

Reflections on mentoring experiences for evidence-informed decision-making in South Africa and Malawi

This article is based on the consensus that the availability and utilisation of research enhances policy discussions. The article reflects on the experiences within one approach: capacity building through mentoring. The UJ-BCURE programme aimed to increase the capacity of decision-makers to use evidence in decision-making via mentoring models. Mentoring is described as an interactive, facilitated process that promotes learning. The features of the models that have contributed to the programme’s success are orientation workshops with mentees combined with participatory, needs-led, and flexible approaches. UJ-BCURE experiences are relevant to the field of evidence-informed decision-making in an African government context.     

Applying frame analysis and reframing for integrated conservation and development: example from Mumbai

The way we frame a given problem structures the content that is brought into focus and thus the kinds of practical steps seen as necessary to alleviate it. This article interrogates two competing partial framings implicated in ongoing controversy over mangrove destruction in Vikhroli East, Mumbai, which have precluded integrated conservation and development. The article analyses the content of each particular framing, identifies their respective “blind spots”, and evaluates the validity of various frame components. It concludes with an exemplary alternative reframing arguably more conducive to social justice and sustainability in Vikhroli East and beyond.     

Best practice for rural food security projects in Southern Africa?

It has been widely believed that commercialisation is the solution to food insecurity in rural Africa. Project designs have attempted to set up agricultural cooperatives and encourage entrepreneurial farmers. Yet the problems revealed in the 1950s are still widespread. In a counter-perspective, some have argued for the relevance of subsistence and low-input agriculture. This article examines three NGO projects in South and South-eastern Africa which prioritise food security through household subsistence, using low-input technologies, along with an encouragement to produce a surplus for cash. We look at what these projects share and why their strategies work.     

Key challenges in Malawi’s paprika supply chain: new insights into contract farming

Contract farming is a vital tool for linking small-scale farmers with modern supply chains. This study explored challenges resulting from contracting in the paprika supply chain in Malawi. The study used focus groups, semi-structured interviews, and email correspondence with 100 supply chain participants. The identified challenges include: inadequate input provision via the contract, a lack of opportunities to bargain and participate in contract design, and side-selling. While the contract secured the outlet for paprika, it failed to provide a reliable paprika supply for the contracting company. Thus, Malawi’s case analyses the potential of contract farming to champion the development of vulnerable economies.     

Food security in rural Uganda: assessing latent effects of microfinance on pre-participation

This article assesses the effects of microfinance on food security, using data from a group of Ugandan women from two rural villages: Bulike and Kaliro. Approximately 130 in-person questionnaires were completed over the summer of 2013. Statistical modelling techniques are used to shed light on the variability of access to food and additional income. Specifically, researchers identify latent effects of MFO participation-based literature and test these constructs using survey data collected from women who are about to begin participation in an MFO. Results provide evidence that a structural linkage exists between women’s social capital, empowerment, and collective action and access to additional income.     

Energy poverty amidst abundance in Malaysia: placing energy in multidimensional poverty

In developing countries the analysis of energy poverty has been framed in terms of a nexus; linking poverty, gender, and energy as obstacles to sustainable development. This article considers the dual challenges of energy and fuel poverty in Malaysia, a middle-income country boasting high levels of grid penetration, suggesting that there are limitations to this approach in relation to articulating the relationship between energy and poverty, specifying the dynamics of energy poverty, and informing policies to address this. Locating energy deprivation in the context of multidimensional poverty offers a basis for addressing energy poverty in a wider range of spatial and temporal contexts.     

How democratic decentralisation facilitates,sustains, and interrupts market-driven development in India

Democratic decentralisation has emerged as an instrument to implement market-driven development, and elected bodies now extend commercial inputs for commodity production and link households to firms. However, the nature of market-driven development under this condition is understudied. This article focuses on an Indian case where, while access to market inputs was shaped by political capital with elected leaders, narrowing market participation, leaders – now market intermediaries – fostered trust in firms, helping sustain market participation. Conflicts over electoral politics interrupted market production. Markets rely on state institutions and are intertwined with politics, contrary to market proponents’ claims that markets stand above society and are unmediated spaces of exchange.     

Endogenous development: some issues of concern

This article aims to provide knowledge and practical guidance to managing and implementing within the framework of endogenous development. The paper gives a theoretical overview of endogenous development, linked to issues of globalisation and poverty, and ongoing work among European institutions and academics that suggest shifts in Europe from exogenous to endogenous development approaches. It then makes a case for a paradigm shift – an African alternative to modernisation and development, namely endogenous development – using experiences with two NGOs in Ghana and Zimbabwe to locate theory in practice. The paper concludes with some empirical pre-requisites for conducting endogenous development with rural communities.

This article is prompted by the requests of my students at the University for Development Studies, Ghana, for knowledge and information, and practical guidance to managing and implementing within the framework of endogenous development. I start by giving a theoretical overview of the concept of endogenous development and link it with current issues of globalisation and poverty. I briefly mention current work among European institutions and academics that suggest shifts in Europe from exogenous to endogenous development approaches. Encouraged by such developments, I then make a case for a paradigm shift – an African alternative to modernisation and development, endogenous development. I bring to light the experiences with endogenous development in two NGOs – CECIK (Ghana) and AZTREC (Zimbabwe) – in order to locate theory in practice (praxis). I conclude by providing some empirical prerequisites for conducting endogenous development with rural communities, which demonstrate one way of conducting experimentation with farmers within the context of endogenous development.     

Livelihood improvement and smallholder beekeeping in Kenya: the unrealised potential

This article examines the potential of beekeeping, as an appropriate livelihood strategy for smallholder farm households using the sustainable livelihoods framework. A study undertaken over a six-year period (2004–9) with over 300 small-scale farmers in Kenya's Rift Valley Province found that despite excellent revenue earning potential, honey yields and returns remain comparatively low. Compared to maize, the staple crop of most Kenyan farmers, it was found that a typical ten-hive enterprise generated earnings equivalent to 0.86ha of maize. The article emphasises the need to build human capital for beekeeping rather than just promoting modern beehives.

L'amélioration des moyens d'existence pour les petits apiculteurs au Kenya

Cet article examine le potentiel de l'apiculture comme une stratégie adaptée à l'amélioration des sources de revenu pour les ménages de petits agriculteurs en se servant du cadre moyens d'existence renouvelable. Une étude d'une durée de six ans (2004-09) entrepris parmi plus de 300 petits agriculteurs dans le Rift Valley Province du Kenya a trouvé que, malgré le potentiel excellent pour faire des bénéfices, la récolte du miel et les revenus restent relativement faibles. Une comparaison avec le maïs, la culture de base de la plupart de fermiers kényans, a trouvé qu'une entreprise typique de dix ruches génère un revenu qui est l'équivalent de celui produit par 0.86ha de maïs. L'article souligne l'importance de développer le capital humain pour l'apiculture plutôt que de se limiter à la promotion de ruches modernes.

Mejoras en los medios de vida y los pequeños apicultores de Kenia: el potencial no realizado

El presente artículo analiza el potencial que tiene la apicultura como estrategia de sustento para los pequeños productores que utilizan el marco de medios de vida sustentables. Durante seis años, de 2004 a 2009, se llevó a cabo un estudio entre 300 pequeños productores de la provincia del Valle Rift en Kenia, el cual evidenció que, a pesar de su excelente potencial para generar ingresos, los rendimientos de miel y las ganancias se mantienen relativamente bajos. Asimismo, se halló que, en comparación con el maíz, cultivo básico de la mayoría de los campesinos kenianos, el conjunto típico de 10 colmenas generó ganancias equivalentes a 0.86 ha de maíz. El artículo concluye afirmando que, además de promover la apicultura moderna, es necesario construir el capital humano para la apicultura.

Melhoria dos meios de subsistência e pequenos produtores de abelhas no Quênia: o potencial não-percebido

Esse artigo examina o potencial da apicultura como estratégia adequada para meios de subsistência de famílias de pequenos produtores rurais utilizando a estrutura de meios de subsistência sustentáveis. Um estudo realizado durante um período de seis anos (2004–9) com mais de 300 pequenos produtores rurais da Província de Rift Valley, no Quênia, constatou que apesar do excelente potencial para gerar renda, a produtividade e rendimento da apicultura permanecem comparativamente baixos. Em comparação com o milho, plantação básica da maioria dos produtores rurais quenianos, constatou-se que um empreendimento típico com dez colméias gerou ganhos equivalentes a 0.86ha de milho. O artigo enfatiza a necessidade de se desenvolver capital humano para apicultura em vez de apenas promover instalações modernas para a produção de abelhas.