All stakeholders, especially households that depend on agriculture, must come up with every avenue available to improve farm productivity in order to raise yields due to the constraints posed by climate change on food production systems.... more
All stakeholders, especially households that depend on agriculture, must come up with every avenue available to improve farm productivity in order to raise yields due to the constraints posed by climate change on food production systems. Sufficient increments in yields will address the challenges of food insecurity and malnutrition among vulnerable households, especially smallholder ones. Yield increases can be achieved sustainably through the deployment of various Climate Smart Integrated Pest Management (CS-IPM) practices, including good agronomic practices. Therefore, CS-IPM practices could be essential in ensuring better household welfare, including food security and nutrition. With such impact empirically documented, appropriate policy guidance can be realized in favor of CS-IPM practices at scale, thus helping to achieve sustainable food security and food systems. However, to this end, there is yet limited evidence on the real impact of CS-IPM practices on the various core soc...
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Through various applications, the importance of mobile technologies has been more evident in developing economies since the late 1990s. One such application has been mobile money services, where mobile network subscribers transfer money... more
Through various applications, the importance of mobile technologies has been more evident in developing economies since the late 1990s. One such application has been mobile money services, where mobile network subscribers transfer money electronically via a mobile phone, thus eliminating some of the developing countries' persistent barriers to financial services for instance financial market exclusion and remoteness. Despite mobile technologies' anticipated potential towards rural socio-economic development, there is however yet a very limited empirical focus on their welfare impacts. Using regression models and a panel data of 874 observations collected from predominantly coffee farmers in central Uganda, we argue that mobile money use has a positive impact on several income-enhancing mechanisms along the income pathway to smallholder household welfare. Compared to non-users, rural households using mobile money sell more of their coffee produce in a high-value form as shell...
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This study examined the determinants and impacts of mobile money (MM) usage on maize productivity and poverty likelihood (i.e., the probability of a household falling below the international poverty line at USD 1.9 per capita per day) in... more
This study examined the determinants and impacts of mobile money (MM) usage on maize productivity and poverty likelihood (i.e., the probability of a household falling below the international poverty line at USD 1.9 per capita per day) in the Mbeya Region, Tanzania. The analysis was conducted using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model on data from a random sample of 1310 households selected from seven districts in the region. Results of the ESR estimation show that MM usage is strongly and positively associated with the education level of the household head, asset ownership, credit access, input access, and social networks. MM usage is also significantly associated with increased maize productivity and a reduced poverty likelihood. Farmers who chose to use MM services increased their maize productivity by about 124 kg/acre and reduced their poverty likelihood by nearly 25 percentage points, as measured by the progress out of poverty index. These findings call for a targete...
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The COVID-19 pandemic, surprised many through its impact on the food systems, resulting in collapses in the food production value chains and in the integrated pest disease management sector with fatal outcomes in many places. However, the... more
The COVID-19 pandemic, surprised many through its impact on the food systems, resulting in collapses in the food production value chains and in the integrated pest disease management sector with fatal outcomes in many places. However, the impact of COVID-19 and the digital experience perspective on Integrating Pest Management (IPM) is still yet to be understood. In Africa, the impact was devastating, mostly for the vulnerable smallholder farm households, who were rendered unable to access markets to purchase inputs and sell their produce during the lockdown period. By using a holistic approach the paper reviews different Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs), digitalization, and how this enhanced the capacity of smallholder farmers resilient, and inform their smart-IPM practices in order to improve food systems' amidst climate change during and in the post-COVID-19 period. Different digital modalities were adopted to ensure continuous food production, access to inpu...
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector remains for youth a key pillar for income creation. However, few are attracted by agribusiness despite stakeholders’ efforts toward engaging youth in... more
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), entrepreneurship in the agriculture sector remains for youth a key pillar for income creation. However, few are attracted by agribusiness despite stakeholders’ efforts toward engaging youth in agriculture. Therefore, this study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial potential characteristics and youth desirability to start an enterprise in agriculture among 514 young people in Eastern DRC. This study revealed that youth in South Kivu have different entrepreneurship potential features and agribusiness desirability levels according to their gender and living area. Hence, the youth’s agribusiness desirability is motivated by an awareness of emerging agripreneurial activities, land ownership, parent involvement in farming activities as a role model, perceived agribusiness as an employment source, management-organizing and opportunistic competencies, market analysis, negotiating, and planning skills. Therefore, efforts to attract yout...
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Improved food security and nutrition remain a notable global challenge. Yet, food security and nutrition are areas of strategic importance regarding the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The increasingly weakening global food... more
Improved food security and nutrition remain a notable global challenge. Yet, food security and nutrition are areas of strategic importance regarding the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The increasingly weakening global food production systems pose a threat to sustainable improved food security and nutrition. Consequently, a significant population remains chronically hungry and severely malnourished. As a remedy, farm production diversity (FPD) remains a viable pathway through which household nutrition can be improved. However, evidence is mixed, or unavailable on how FPD is associated with key nutrition indicators like household dietary diversity, energy, iron, zinc, and vitamin A (micronutrients). We use the Uganda National Panel Survey (UNPS) data for rural households to analyze differential associations of sub-components of FPD on dietary diversity, energy, and micronutrient intake. Panel data models reveal that indeed crop species count, and animal species count (...
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Increasing global food insecurity amidst a growing population and diminishing production resources renders the currently dominant linear production model insufficient to combat such challenges. Hence, a circular bioeconomy (CBE) model... more
Increasing global food insecurity amidst a growing population and diminishing production resources renders the currently dominant linear production model insufficient to combat such challenges. Hence, a circular bioeconomy (CBE) model that ensures more conservative use of resources has become essential. Specifically, a CBE model that focuses on recycling and reusing organic waste is essential to close nutrient loops and establish more resilient rural-urban nexus food systems. However, the CBE status quo in many African food systems is not established. Moreover, scientific evidence on CBE in Africa is almost inexistent, thus limiting policy guidance to achieving circular food systems. Using a sample of about 2,100 farmers and consumers from key food value chains (cassava in Rwanda, coffee in DRC, and bananas in Ethiopia), we explored existing CBE practices; awareness, knowledge, and support for CBE practices; consumers’ opinions on eating foods grown on processed organic waste (CBE f...
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Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an approach that identifies actions needed to transform and reorganize agricultural systems to effectively support agricultural development and ensure food security in the face of climate change. In this... more
Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) is an approach that identifies actions needed to transform and reorganize agricultural systems to effectively support agricultural development and ensure food security in the face of climate change. In this study, we assessed farmers’ perception of climate change, available CSA practices (CSAP) and the determinants of CSAP adoption in northern Benin. A list of CSAP was generated from a workshop with different stakeholders. Face-to-face interviews were then carried out with 368 farmers selected based on stratified random sampling in the study area. Binomial generalized mixed-effect models were run to analyze the relation between socio-demographic characteristics and the use of CSAP. CSAP were evaluated using a three-point Likert scale and the frequency of agreement with the statement that the selected practices meet the pillars of CSA. More than 60% of farmers had heard about climate change, and more than 80% had observed changes in temperature, rainfa...
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Mobile phone (MP) technologies have been widely adopted in developing countries. Previous research has shown MP use to enhance market access through information exchange and market price integration. However, the impact of MP use on... more
Mobile phone (MP) technologies have been widely adopted in developing countries. Previous research has shown MP use to enhance market access through information exchange and market price integration. However, the impact of MP use on several smallholder welfare aspects has barely been investigated. In particular, we are not aware of any studies that have analyzed the effects of MP use on gender equity and nutrition – two welfare dimensions of particular importance in the context of United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs). We address the gap by using a two wave balanced panel data from smallholder farm households in Uganda to examine the impact of MP use on household incomes, gender, and nutrition. Using regression models, we find that, MP use is positively and significantly associated with improvements in household income, women empowerment, and dietary diversity. Gender disaggregated analysis shows that female MP use bears stronger associations. Female MP Use’s positive...
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Improved food security (quantities of food available to households for consumption) and nutrition security (quality of food available to households) remain global problems. Yet, food and nutrition security are areas of strategic... more
Improved food security (quantities of food available to households for consumption) and nutrition security (quality of food available to households) remain global problems. Yet, food and nutrition security are areas of strategic importance with regard to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The changing global food production systems pose a threat to sustainable improved food and nutrition security. Consequently, a significant population globally remains chronically hungry. Some evidence points to market access as pivotal to enhancing food and nutrition security, whereas other evidence points to own farm production diversity. Mixed evidence creates knowledge gaps that worsen with disjointed insufficient empirical works on the global agriculture-nutrition nexus. Using national household panel survey data from Uganda, and panel regression models, we find that farm production diversity is associated with both improved food and nutrition security. We identified that markets and own f...
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Hunger and malnutrition are key global challenges whose understanding is instrumental to their elimination, thus realization of important sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, understanding linkages between farm production... more
Hunger and malnutrition are key global challenges whose understanding is instrumental to their elimination, thus realization of important sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, understanding linkages between farm production diversity (FPD) and household micronutrient intake is important in mapping micronutrient deficiencies and hidden hunger. Such understanding would inform appropriate interventions against malnutrition. Unfortunately, empirical literature is scarce to sufficiently inform such understanding. Using nationally representative panel survey data covering about 3300 households, we study linkages between FPD and nutrition, and associated impact pathways. We analyze data using panel regression models. Results show that at least half of sample was deficient in daily energy, iron, zinc, and vitamin A intake vis-a-vis FAO recommendations. Deficiencies were most severe (85%) with vitamin A. Positive and significant associations (about 1% for each added crop/livestock sp...
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Uganda has seen substantial poverty reduction, but reported measures are awed because the o cial poverty line is based on a single national food poverty line that was constructed using 1993 data. We use regional consumption patterns to... more
Uganda has seen substantial poverty reduction, but reported measures are awed because the o cial poverty line is based on a single national food poverty line that was constructed using 1993 data. We use regional consumption patterns to construct poverty lines that account for location speci c diets and adjust these poverty lines such that they pass revealed preference tests. In doing so, we estimate poverty in Uganda using the 2005/06 and 2009/10 Uganda National Household Survey and the 2010/11 round of the Uganda National Panel Survey. We nd poverty to be higher in general, and reductions in poverty were slower than o cial gures suggest. We also nd that poverty is highest in regions that consume relatively more matooke and maize, while the North seems to enjoy cheap calories, making them less poor than ofcially reported. However, the gure from the North hides signi cant heterogeneity, and poverty reduction in the North is very slow.
In the past two decades, since around 1995, mobile phone (MP) technologies have been widely adopted in developing countries – with the highest penetration rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, to levels of about 89% for adults. Previous research... more
In the past two decades, since around 1995, mobile phone (MP) technologies have been widely adopted in developing countries – with the highest penetration rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, to levels of about 89% for adults. Previous research has shown MP use to enhance market access through information exchange and market price integration – availing timely updates on prices of inputs and outputs. Various applications of MP technologies, for instance mobile money (MM) services, where money is transferred electronically between the sender and the receiver using mobile phones, have also cropped up and are widely predicted to have life-enhancing effects for rural households. More specifically, the available literature has shown that MM services can contribute to welfare gains in smallholder farm households via several pathways. One important pathway for MM-related welfare gains are higher remittances received by MM users from relatives and friends. However, the impact of MP use and many of ...
Through various applications, the importance of mobile technologies has been more evident in developing economies since the late 1990s. One such application has been mobile money services, where mobile network subscribers transfer money... more
Through various applications, the importance of mobile technologies has been more evident in developing economies since the late 1990s. One such application has been mobile money services, where mobile network subscribers transfer money electronically via a mobile phone, thus eliminating some of the developing countries’ persistent barriers to financial services for instance financial market exclusion and remoteness. Despite mobile technologies’ anticipated potential towards rural socio-economic development, there is however yet a very limited empirical focus on their welfare impacts. Using regression models and a panel data of 874 observations collected from predominantly coffee farmers in central Uganda, we argue that mobile money use has a positive impact on several income-enhancing mechanisms along the income pathway to smallholder household welfare. Compared to non-users, rural households using mobile money sell more of their coffee produce in a high-value form as shelled beans...
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has applied the concept of ‘circular bioeconomy’ to design solutions to address the degradation of natural resources, nutrient-depleted farming systems, hunger, and poverty in... more
The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) has applied the concept of ‘circular bioeconomy’ to design solutions to address the degradation of natural resources, nutrient-depleted farming systems, hunger, and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Over the past decade, IITA has implemented ten circular bioeconomy focused research for development (R4D) interventions in several countries in the region. This article aims to assess the contributions of IITA’s circular bioeconomy focused innovations towards economic, social, and environmental outcomes using the outcome tracking approach, and identify areas for strengthening existing circular bioeconomy R4D interventions using the gap analysis method. Data used for the study came from secondary sources available in the public domain. Results indicate that IITA’s circular bioeconomy interventions led to ten technological innovations (bio-products) that translated into five economic, social, and environmental outcomes, includin...
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The substantial existence of malnutrition globally, especially in developing countries, has usually driven policy initiatives to focus on improving household food security and nutrition primarily through prioritizing farm production... more
The substantial existence of malnutrition globally, especially in developing countries, has usually driven policy initiatives to focus on improving household food security and nutrition primarily through prioritizing farm production diversity. Although indeed some empirical evidence has pointed to farm production diversity remedying malnutrition, other evidence has pointed to markets. Therefore, evidence is mixed and may be country or region variant. To contribute to closing such a gap in the literature, we used three waves of national panel survey data from Uganda and panel regression models to investigate associations between farm production diversity and dietary diversity, as well as impact pathways. We found that farm production diversity was positively and significantly associated with household dietary diversity. Farm production diversity influenced dietary diversity through own farm production, and market consumption food security pathways. The own farm production pathway sho...
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Use of ICTs by smallholder farmers in accessing agricultural market information