What's New

As the global population continues to grow and become more urbanized, smallholder farmers will play a critical role in feeding the world. Despite their importance to global food security, however, these farmers face daunting challenges in the form of climate change, price volatility, limited access to credit and insurance, and inadequate access to nutritious food. And addressing these challenges effectively is complicated even further by the fact that small farmers have widely varying needs, advantages, and abilities.

ReSAKSS-Africa (Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System) website is now ready with enhanced features to track progress in implementing the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), including the target of allocating 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture.

The European Union could be on the road to more stringent biofuel regulations. In a hard-won compromise, the European Parliament’s Environmental (ENVI) Committee on July 11 voted to cap the transportation industry’s use of first-generation biofuels at 5.5% and to require reporting of the indirect land use changes (ILUC) caused by biofuel production. The vote also calls for countries and suppliers to promote the use of alternative biofuel sources, such as algae and straw.

Many of today's young Africans grew up watching their parents sow and dig tirelessly on their farms, using tools that give you a backache just by looking at them.

With this in mind, can we really blame youngsters for not wanting to become smallholder farmers as adults?

Just like young people in other parts of the world, African youths want something better. They want something their parents didn’t have. This is why many head for cities in search of a better life where they don’t have to worry if the rains will come just in time to save the drying crops.

Cross-posted from IFPRI.org and Tim Thomas' Much Ado About Something blog
By IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Alex De Pinto