With only a few months remaining, Zambia still has a long way to achieving the millennium development goal of halving the number of stunted children by the end of 2015. Almost half of the children in Zambia remain undernourished and 40% of them have stunted growth, a long term malnutrition...

This paper assesses the relationship between agricultural productivity and market participation and performance following an increase in market prices in Mozambique. We use panel data before and after the change in price regime to identify the relative importance of market access/participation...

This study compares models for university engagement with private and public sector employers in Africa. It compares engagement models in countries with more developed food systems (South Africa) and a sample of selected African countries with less developed food systems - Kenya, Uganda,...

This study focuses on the skills requirements and the development thereof among 109 interviewed formal sector agribusiness companies in Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Mozambique, and South Africa. The study was conducted in the context of anticipated dramatic changes in Africa’s food consumption...

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been rapidly urbanizing for many years. Current estimates from the UN are that urban population growth in East Africa is over 4% per year, while in Southern Africa, which has higher urbanization levels, the growth is estimated at 2%. Overall in East and Southern...

The development of improved agricultural technologies has tremendous potential for improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Conservation agriculture (CA) has been widely promoted to improve farmers’ productivity and decrease their vulnerability to climate change....

Many of the agricultural input subsidy programs (ISPs) currently being implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa include among their objectives raising farm incomes and reducing rural poverty. However, there is a dearth of empirical evidence on the extent to which ISPs are achieving these objectives....

Crop income is the predominant source of income for most rural Mozambican households, accounting for 73% of rural household income on average in 2002, and greater than 80% of the total income of the poorest 40% of rural households. While the Government of Mozambique recognizes the need to...

This paper traces the trajectories of successful commercial smallholders operating under differing sets of market institutions. Analysis focuses on maize, cotton, and horticulture, three widely marketed crops with strikingly different market institutions. Maize receives intensive government...

Many agricultural policy discussions in Zambia revolve around the cost of producing maize. Despite the importance of having accurate estimates of production costs, smallholders’ cost of maize production in Zambia remain poorly understood. Various estimates are provided by interested parties,...