Latest articles
Did enforcement of farm-gate minimum prices lead to a maize marketing crisis in Malawi?
March 1, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog During the 2020/21 growing season, the Government of Malawi made a bold move to protect small-scale farmers from unscrupulous traders who buy farm produce without licenses, use uncertified scales and buy at very low prices below the farm-gate set prices.
Cocoa Commercialisation in Nigeria: Issues and Prospects
February 24, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog Cocoa remains a relevant cash crop in Nigeria and is produced largely by small-scale farmers dominant in the country’s southwest region. Insights from historical trends, from 1807 when the crop was introduced until the millennium era, indicated myriads of challenges
APRA Brief 29: Achieving Inclusive Oil Palm Commercialisation in Ghana
February 22, 2022 / APRA Briefs Policy Briefs Publications Written by: Fred Dzanku and Louis Hodey Oil palm is the most important export crop in Ghana, aside from cocoa. Compared with cocoa, however, oil palm has a more extensive local value chain, including greater opportunity for local industrial and
Journal Article: The Politics of Land, Resources & Investment in Eastern Africa’s Pastoral Drylands
February 22, 2022 / Journal articles Publications The rush for land and resources has featured prominently in recent studies of sub-Saharan Africa. Often happening alongside regional projects to upgrade and expand infrastructure, this urgency to unlock untapped economic potential has generated heated debate around the social and
APRA Working Paper 84: The Struggle to Intensify Cocoa Production in Ghana: Making a Living from the Forest in Western North
February 22, 2022 / Publications Working Papers Since cocoa began to be cultivated in the 1880s in southern Ghana, it has created jobs, incomes and prosperity for the many farmers growing the crop. Until recently, cocoa farmers could make use of highly favourable conditions when clearing forests
Do smallholders face disadvantages to reaping gains from rice commercialisation in Ethiopia?
February 22, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog The introduction of rice into Ethiopia in the early 1970s provided a potential solution to widespread food insecurity. Moreover, it held high hopes for positive impacts on the incomes and opportunities of smallholders, through increasing commercialisation. Recent national policy continues
Land, Investment & Politics Reconfiguring Eastern Africa’s Pastoral Drylands: Book launch & discussion with the editors
February 22, 2022 / Events News More than ever before, the gaze of global investment has been directed to the drylands of Africa, but what does this mean for these regions' pastoralists and other livestock-keepers and their livelihoods? Will those who have occupied drylands over generations
APRA Working Paper 83: Hired Labour Use, Productivity, and Commercialisation: The Case of Rice in Fogera Plain of Ethiopia
February 21, 2022 / APRA Briefs Policy Briefs Publications With the expansion of rice production in Ethiopia’s Fogera Plain, the rural labour market, highly characterised by the casual unskilled labour supply, has flourished. This is mainly associated with the nature of rice production, where certain agronomic practices demand a
APRA researcher appointed to President Biden’s Board for International Food and Agricultural Development
February 17, 2022 / News Dr. Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, a researcher in the APRA Nigeria Country Team and Associate Professor in the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics (AFRE) at Michigan State University (MSU), has been appointed to the Board for International Food and Agricultural
Drawing lessons and policy messages from APRA research in Tanzania
February 17, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog With a goal to share feedback on their research process and the outcomes of their studies in terms of publications, policy messages, and policy engagements, APRA Tanzania researchers gathered members of the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office in Tanzania
The effects of COVID-19 on local food systems and rural livelihoods: An e-Dialogue overview
February 15, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog As COVID-19 took hold in March 2020, the main focus was on ensuring we stayed healthy and safe from infection. However, it soon became clear that the pandemic would have much further reaching effects than just the disease itself –
APRA Working Paper 82: Interrogating the Effectiveness of Farmer Producer Organisations in Enhancing Smallholder Commercialisation – Frontline Experiences From Central Malawi
February 10, 2022 / Publications Working Papers Many years of significant investment into the production and adoption of productivity-enhancing technologies and practices in agriculture have not yielded the desired results. Most smallholder farmers in Africa remain trapped in poverty. Having realised that addressing production challenges alone is
‘Living under contract’: reflections after 25 years
February 10, 2022 / FAC blog Contract farming in different forms has become increasingly common in farming systems across the world, not least in Zimbabwe, but does it benefit smallholder farmers or exploit them?
APRA Working Paper 81: Use of Climate-Smart Agriculture Practices and Smallholder Farmer Market Participation in Central Malawi
February 9, 2022 / Publications Working Papers In the past few decades, climate-smart agriculture (CSA) has been promoted to improve food security and raise incomes as a strategy for sustainable agricultural development. The adoption rates among smallholder farmers, particularly in Africa, remain low and have varied in
The differential effects of COVID-19 on food systems and livelihoods in Africa
February 9, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog The COVID-19 crisis has caused severe disruptions to agri-food systems across the world. In sub-Saharan Africa, where many people already suffer from shocks and stresses related to climate change, conflict and poverty, the pandemic further threatened the economic and nutritional
APRA Working Paper 80: Long-Term Change, Commercialisation of Cocoa Farming, and Agroecosystems and Forest Rehabilitation in Ghana
February 9, 2022 / Publications Working Papers Cocoa production has a long history in Ghana, originating in the late nineteenth century. Since then, cocoa production has seen significant changes. Originally, cocoa was cultivated in newly cleared forests in which many forest trees were preserved as shade trees.
COVID-19 underlines frailties in Zimbabwe’s food systems
February 8, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog Zimbabwe enforced its first lockdown on 30 March 2020 in an attempt to contain the further spread of COVID-19. On that day, the Ministry of Health and Child Care had officially recorded eight confirmed cases and a single death. The
Assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on food systems and livelihoods in Mngeta division, Tanzania
February 8, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog Since the onset of COVID-19, which was first announce in Tanzania early in March 2020, consecutive waves of the pandemic have resulted in a series of health, social and economic impacts. This was revealed in A Multi-Phase Assessment of The
A way forward for Ethiopia’s rice sector: Outcomes of a national event
February 3, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog This blog is the second in our two-part series on the APRA Ethiopia team’s recent national event, entitled “Rice Sector Transformation Event in Ethiopia – Lessons from APRA Programme”, which aimed to discuss the country’s rice sector, including the trends
Food insecurity and cost of living in Kenya’s rural population amid relaxation of COVID-19 containment measures
February 1, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog After Kenya confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on March 12, 2020, the country underwent a series of movement restrictions and closures to stymie the spread of COVID-19 infections. The containment measures helped to slow the local spread of coronavirus,
Agrarian change and rural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa: Emerging challenges and regional realities
January 27, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog On 20 January 2022, an e-dialogue was convened to analyse the dynamics of agricultural commercialisation and agrarian change across East, West, and Southern Africa. The programme began with participants engaging in three parallel regional presentations and discussions, and culminated in
Omicron for Christmas: what was the experience in rural Zimbabwe?
January 26, 2022 / FAC blog The Omicron wave peaked in Zimbabwe just before Christmas. With people moving about for the festive season and large numbers coming back from South Africa and elsewhere for the holidays, the fear was that the spread would be dramatic, with
Transforming the rice sector in Ethiopia: Lessons from APRA Programme
January 25, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog The APRA Ethiopia team held a national event to discuss the country’s rice sector, including the trends in the production, import and consumption of rice, the key challenges facing the sector, and the policy and development lessons for addressing the
COVID-19 e-dialogue: impacts on food systems and livelihoods
January 25, 2022 / Events News Focusing on 9 February 2022, APRA, in partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Foresight4Food (F4F), will host an interactive e-dialogue on COVID-19 and its Effects on Local Food Systems and Rural Livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa.
e-Dialogues on Agricultural Commercialisation, Agrarian Change and Rural Transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa
January 25, 2022 / Events News Who is benefitting as food systems and rural economies are transformed and who is at risk of being left-behind? Throughout 2022, the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa (APRA) Programme of the Future Agricultures Consortium (FAC), UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network
APRA Working Paper 79: Cocoa Commercialisation in Nigeria: Issues and Prospects
January 18, 2022 / Publications Working Papers Despite the setback in the Nigerian agricultural sector’s development and its declining cocoa production in recent years, the nation still has potential to regain its production capacities in the cocoa sub-sector. In fact, cocoa farmers included in the study, across
APRA Working Paper 78: How Does Land Size Mediate the Relationship between Specialisation and Commercialisation? Lessons from Rice Farming in the Fogera Plain of Ethiopia
January 18, 2022 / Publications Working Papers The introduction of rice into Ethiopia provided a solution to food insecurity. More recently, national policy has emphasised the positive relationship between rice specialisation and commercialisation and, thus, higher incomes. In retrospect, this initiative has been hugely successful as the
A multi-phase assessment of the effects of COVID-19 on food systems and rural livelihoods in Nigeria
January 17, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nigeria, there have been serious concerns about the impact of the pandemic on agri-food systems, given that most of the population depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. These concerns are compounded
APRA e-dialogue: Emerging Challenges and Regional Realities
January 12, 2022 / Events News On 22 January 2022, APRA, in partnership with the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Foresight4Food (F4F), will host an interactive e-dialogue on Agrarian Change and Rural Transformation in sub-Saharan Africa. The session, which will be held on Zoom
Hard pressed but not crushed: A story of resilience and adaptation to COVID in Ghana
January 12, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog The COVID-19 pandemic has killed and destroyed – not only lives – but livelihoods as well. The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted food systems in Ghana since its emergence in the country in March 2020. According to the United Nations World
As Omicron sweeps through Zimbabwe, how are people responding?
January 10, 2022 / FAC blog It was just a few weeks ago that our last report noted the arrival of a new variant identified in South Africa. In the interim Omicron has swept through the country. This initially resulted in panic, with a rush to
A multi-phase assessment of the effects of COVID-19 on food systems and rural livelihoods in Zambia: The case of small-scale farmers surrounding Mkushi Farming Block
January 6, 2022 / APRA blog FAC blog Following the identification of the first COVID-19 case in Zambia on 18 March 2020, the government announced some lockdown measures intended to prevent the spread of pandemic. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has not only led to loss of human
The story of Ghana’s cocoa and oil palm commercialisation outcomes retold at a national dissemination workshop
December 20, 2021 / APRA blog FAC blog Together with stakeholders from public and private institutions countrywide, the APRA Ghana family gathered at ALISA Hotel in Accra to discuss the key findings emerging from three streams of APRA studies since 2016. Historically, cocoa and oil palm have remained
APRA researcher appointed to local government in Malawi!
December 20, 2021 / News Congratulations to Professor Blessings Chinsinga on his appointment to the post of Minister of Local Government in Malawi.
APRA Working Paper 77: Commercialisation Pathways and Climate Change: The Case of Smallholder Farmers in Semi-Arid Tanzania
December 20, 2021 / Publications Working Papers The semi-arid drylands of central Tanzania have been characterised by low and erratic rainfall coupled with high evapotranspiration. Up until now, farmers of these local dryland farming systems have been able to cope with these climate conditions. However, climate change
A Multi-Phase Assessment of the Effects of COVID-19 on Food Systems and Rural Livelihoods in Zambia
December 20, 2021 / COVID Country Report Impact Assessment Publications COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization in March 2020. The speed with which the pandemic spread geographically, and the high rate of mortality of its victims prompted many countries around the world to institute ‘lockdowns’ of
A Multi-Phase Assessment of the Effects of COVID-19 on Food Systems and Rural Livelihoods in Tanzania
December 20, 2021 / COVID Country Report Impact Assessment Publications Since the outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019, the pandemic has brought both social and economic impacts to global communities, although to varying degrees. Since the onset of the pandemic, different regions have responded in various ways by
Beyond impressive results: Are we ready to act?
December 20, 2021 / APRA blog Events FAC blog In its efforts to disseminate the results of a five-year research project, the APRA Malawi team held a national dissemination event at Ufulu Gardens in Lilongwe on 30 November 2021. The event brought together stakeholders from government, donor, civil society,
Journal Article: Private and State-Led Contract Farming in Zimbabwe: Accumulation, Social Differentiation and Rural Politics
December 17, 2021 / Journal articles Publications Contract farming schemes often amplify existing patterns of socio-economic differentiation. In Zimbabwe, processes of differentiation were underway before the current expansion of contract farming and they have deepened through the Fast Track Land Reform process. This article examines how pre-existing
Can agrarian transformation in Ethiopia’s Fogera Plain be scaled? Lessons from a national engagement workshop
December 16, 2021 / APRA blog Events FAC blog Ethiopia is facing a decline in national rice self-sufficiency and rice imports, which cost the country about US$200 million in 2019. However, there is a pathway to reversing this trend and recovering the national rice sector… The solution? An effective
A Multi-Phase Assessment of the Effects of COVID-19 on Food Systems and Rural Livelihoods in Nigeria
December 13, 2021 / COVID Country Report Impact Assessment Publications The first case of COVID-19 in Nigeria was reported on 27 February 2020. By 30 March 2020, Nigeria had recorded 131 confirmed cases and two deaths. To mitigate the impending health crisis, the Nigerian Government quickly commenced a series of
Ogun State community meetings push for policy on medium-scale farming
December 13, 2021 / APRA blog Events FAC blog Following the conclusion of their research into the opportunities and challenges of medium-scale farming as a pathway to inclusive agricultural commercialisation and improved livelihood outcomes for farming families across Nigeria, researchers on the APRA Nigeria Work Stream 1 (WS1) team
New COVID uncertainties in Zimbabwe
December 10, 2021 / FAC blog The unfolding drama of the pandemic continues. With a new variant identified in the region (Omicron) thanks to the effective work of South African genomics monitoring, Zimbabwe has been subjected to international travel restrictions. However, despite the global concern about
A Multi-Phase Assessment of the Effects of COVID-19 on Food Systems and Rural Livelihoods in Ghana
December 8, 2021 / COVID Country Report Impact Assessment Publications The COVID-19 crisis has disrupted food systems in Ghana since its emergence in the country in March 2020. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, the socio-economic impact of the pandemic caused by the imposition of restrictions on social
Prospects for smallholder commercialisation in Malawi
December 8, 2021 / APRA blog FAC blog This blog is based on APRA Working Paper 75, which presents a historical and contemporary agrarian inquiry into the reality of agricultural commercialisation in Malawi. The study’s key message is that smallholder agricultural commercialisation is possible, but it cannot be
National policy dialogue: Agricultural commercialisation and smallholder transformation in Nigeria
December 6, 2021 / Events News Relative to small-scale farms (SSFs), recent trends across sub-Saharan Africa show that medium-scale farms (MSFs) are accounting for an increasingly larger share of the total value of marketed agricultural products The rise of MSFs could substantially change the structure of
A Multi-Phase Assessment of the Effects of COVID-19 on Food Systems and Rural Livelihoods in Kenya
December 6, 2021 / COVID Country Report Impact Assessment Publications Kenya confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on 12 March 2020. Like many governments across the world, the Kenyan government implemented various measures aimed at slowing down local spread of the virus and cushioning the population against the negative economic
APRA Malawi research team shares research findings
December 6, 2021 / APRA blog FAC blog Since 2016, the APRA Malawi team has been working to understand the underlying factors of smallholder commercialisation in the groundnut value chain in Mchinji and Ntchisi. Now, following the publication of their research findings, the team is turning its attention
APRA Working Paper 76: Long-Term Patterns of Change in the Commercialisation of Cocoa in Ghana: Forest Frontiers and Technological Transformation
December 6, 2021 / Publications Working Papers Written by: Kojo Amanor, Joseph Yaro and Joseph Teye The commercialisation of cocoa production in Ghana has a long history dating back to the nineteenth century. The process of commercial development in cocoa is well documented and provides an alternative