Curated Content

This manual is intended to support trainers who are helping Farmer Organisations (FOs) and their members in Sub-Saharan Africa to improve the quality of their grain. In so doing, it is expected that the income earning opportunities and the food security of the learners’
households will be increased. Learning how to supply quality grain to WFP and other buyers is a corner stone of the capacity building activities provided by the Purchase for Progress (P4P) initiative. P4P is a partnership of many actors and stakeholders spanning the sectors of smallholder development, market development and food assistance brought together around the WFP food demand platform. By developing the capacity to sell to an institutional buyer such as WFP, smallholder farmers through organizations can acquire the knowledge, skills and confidence needed for engaging with formal markets.
To date, PHHS training for P4P has not been standardised across countries, and only limited opportunity has been taken to capitalise on best practice for both the method of delivery or for training material content. For this reason, WFP had a vision of a core training package
that could be used across P4P countries but would at the same time retain sufficient flexibility to cater for local variations, local languages and the specific needs of different FOs.

The potential of forage legumes to increase the productivity of crop–livestock systems has been studied by ILCA under different ecological and management conditions. In the Ethiopian highlands, species within the Vicia, Trifolium and Medicago genera show promise. Among these the Vicia genus stands out with its relatively high dry-matter yields, high N content, and consistently high residual effects which make it very attractive for intercropping. In the subhumid zone of West Africa, Stylosanthes species show good potential, especially if the danger from anthracnose can be eliminated. Of the various legume–cereal technologies tested, the cut-and- carry method, intercropping, sequential cropping and alley farming are most likely to be adopted by farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

With the concept climate-smart agriculture (CSA) being relatively new, there is a need to test and develop practical and systematic methodologies and approaches for documenting and evaluating CSA practices in the field. The implementation of CCAFS’ Climate-Smart Villages (CSV) involves identifying, assessing and selecting climate-smart farming practices. This report contains three sections: (i) a framework for identifying and assessing CSA in the field with a long list of CSA indicators in identifying and monitoring CSA interventions; (ii) cost-benefit analysis of some selected climate-smart farming systems; and (iii) the participatory process of prioritizing CSA options with the villagers. The work builds on our experiences from the My Loi CSV and its scaling domains in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province, in the north-central region of Viet Nam.

Of the more than one billion global poor, 75 percent live in rural areas and most of these people depend on agriculture to survive. Enhancing farmers’ and agricultural workers’ livelihoods is thus key to addressing global poverty. While there are many problems, poor farmers regularly identify the most important as: 1) access to credit, 2) access to better market prices and 3) access to credible, relevant information.

The aspect of information access has received increasing attention, especially in terms of the potential role of Information Communication Technology (ICT) to connect farmers with the information they need. ICT has already been shown to have the capacity to dramatically expand communication and improve access to information (and facilitate monetary transfers). However, the question more recently has been, how can the promise of ICT be realistically harnessed to help the world’s rural poor?

4R Nutrient Stewardship is a new innovative approach for fertilizer best management practices adopted by the world’s fertilizer industry. This approach considers economic, social and environmental dimensions of nutrient management and is essential to sustainability of agricultural systems. The concept is simple—apply the right source of nutrient, at the right rate, at the right time and in the right place—but the implementation isknowledge‐intensive and site‐specific

The Compendium provides examples of more than 20 different approaches of how agricultural extension can support climate-smart agriculture, with contributions from seventeen institutions and over 30 contributors worldwide.

The book contains seven chapters that exhaustively covers the subject matter and make a smart proposition on the plausible pathway to ensure that agricultural technologies delivers a vibrant and economically sustainable agrarian sector.

The CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) is a broad alliance of research-for-development stakeholders and partners. The shared purpose is to tap the underutilized potential of root, tuber, and banana crops for improving nutrition and food security, increasing incomes and fostering greater gender equity – especially amongst the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. CGIAR is a global research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 Research Centers in close collaboration with hundreds of partners across the globe.

This document is the product of 30 years of practical eld experience in several countries across all continents, and the work of a large number of development actors and practitioners. Farmer Field School programmes in these countries have been implemented and developed with and by farmers, with support and contributions from local and national governments, farmers’ organizations, NGOs, scientists and with contributions from several development partners: Australia, the European Commission, the Global Environment Facility, IFAD, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, the World Bank and many others.

Dominant weed species in smallholder farming systems are broadleaved annuals and perennials, and grasses. The most common and difficult to control broadleaved weed species on smallholder farms are Commelina benghalensis (Wandering dew), Ricardia scabra (Mexican clover), Cyperus esculentis (Yellow nutsedge), Cyperus rotundus (Purple nutsedge) and Striga asiatica (Witchweed). The common grasses on smallholder farms are Eleusine indica (Rapoko grass) and Cynodon dactylon (Couch grass). These weed species are found in all agro- ecological regions of Zimbabwe and other southern African countries.