Many of the undernourished people on the planet obtain their entitlements to food via agricultural-based livelihood strategies, often on underperforming croplands and smallholdings. In this context, expanding cropland extent is not a viable strategy for smallholders to meet their food needs. Therefore, attention must shift to increasing productivity on existing plots and ensuring yield gaps do ...

Smallholder agriculture involves millions of farmers worldwide. A methodical utilization of their traditional knowledge in modern breeding efforts may help the production of locally adapted varieties better addressing their needs. In this study, a combination of participatory approaches, genomics, and quantitative genetics is used to trace the genetic basis of smallholder farmer preferences of ...

In this paper, we analyze the factors that influence the productivity of maize among smallholder farmers, given that unfavourable output and input market conditions throughout the 1990s have compelled smallholder farmers into unsustainable agricultural intensification. We use farm-household survey data in order to compare the productivity of smallholder maize production under integrated (ISFM) ...

Information asymmetry has traditionally constrained smallholder farmers' access to markets. Past studies indicate that it inhibits adoption of modern technologies that have the capacity to enhance productivity of smallholder farms. Hence, farm productivity and agricultural transformation has been stifled, leaving smallholder famers in grinding poverty. Improved smallholder farmers' access to ma...

The study was conducted in Assosa district of Benishangul-Gumuz regional state, western Ethiopia, to assess major farm enterprises, agricultural risks and demand for micro-insurance services. Two peasant associations namely, Selga-23 and Kushmengel were selected to represent settler and native farming communities, respectively. Using simple randomized techniques, 86 respondents were selected fo...

the main purpose of this study was to identify driving factors of application of renewable energies in smallholder farming systems of the tafresh county. a descriptive survey method was used for collecting the data. the statistical population of the study consisted of 2470 small farmers working in the smallholder farming systems of the region, in which 300 people were selected as sample using t...

Contract farming has been subject to intense debates regarding its role in development. Opponents argue that large agribusiness companies generally exploit the low labour costs of smallholders and transfer production risks to farmers, while smallholder farmers are often excluded from contract farming schemes. This means that such schemes result in greater income inequality and social tensions i...

Decades of low agricultural sector performance, particularly in land and labour productivity, is recognised as the main reason for the current food and nutrition challenges the continent faces. And yet, the continent’s prospects of addressing these challenges are inextricably linked to whether Africa reverses the negative trend in smallholder agriculture. So, what are the major challenges facin...

........................................................................................................................2 INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................3 THE NATIONAL MAIZE ECONOMY.............................................................................4 GUATEMALA’S AGRICULTURE AND MAIN MAIZE PRODUC...

This paper defi nes three types of typical certifi ed farms in Kenyan export production: smallholder farms, large-scale contracted farms, and exporter-owned farms. It assesses their economic performance, compares the fi nancial cost of compliance with the EurepGAP standard, and analyses transaction costs. Results show that larger farms are not generally performing more effi ciently compared to ...