Smallholder farmers in low-income contexts face a variety of challenges while attempting to boost their productivity so as to escape subsistence-level farming and poverty. One of these is access to affordable key agricultural inputs (seeds and fertilizer) in a timely fashion. This access, unfortunately, is often the exception rather than the norm which then leads […]
With 90% of the data in the world today having been created in the last 2 years this, it appears, is the era of data revolution. According to IBM, 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are collected every day. The presence of this data is important for necessary development to effectively take place in any country. […]
On October 15th, we celebrate the International Day of Rural Women. The role of women as key players in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is with time becoming more evident. So much so that World Food Day is also celebrated on 16th October followed closely by International Day for Eradication of Poverty on […]
Data coordination has presented a challenge to Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) implementers for a long time. This is now more acute with the larger number of indicators in the new framework. CAADP aims to fight poverty and hunger through strengthening agricultural transformation which includes paying close attention to areas such as: investment in Agriculture, tripling Intra-African […]
The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) is a worldwide network of institutions and governments supporting open data within the agriculture and nutrition space. LDRI has been part of GODAN since 2016 and is actively involved in the Capacity Development Working Group as well as the Government of Kenya’s GODAN National Steering Committee. We […]
This short survey is part of a broader effort to understand the kinds of data stakeholders in the agriculture sector want most. Please click on this link to participate https://docs.google.com/a/developlocal.org/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftLnfqFKJ4q2dplCdWYkzmgJKWV0iPFpXJd27YixVP6LCQ4w/viewform. Your participation is highly appreciated. Participants will receive an advance copy of our report on data needs for Africa’s stakeholders and also receive advance invitations to […]
Agriculture and nutrition open data, especially its role in supporting progress towards the achievement of SDG2, formed the central theme of this year’s GODAN Summit in New York city. It was a rich experience bringing together like-minded individuals and organisations working towards improving agriculture to end hunger and extreme poverty around the world. It was a […]
Africa relies on rain fed agriculture to feed its people and millions of others around the world. Rain, however, isn’t always the most reliable partner in this endeavour. Realisation of agricultural transformation in Africa will need the continent to make some changes. The World Bank, the International Water Management Institute and many others estimate rain […]
‘Pessimism around poor agricultural performance coupled with optimism about its potential and its necessity as an engine of growth and development combine to inform many of the most popular agriculture centred policy recommendations for Africa’ (Oya, 2010:85). Indeed as Oya notes, literature on determinants of agricultural policy in Africa often gravitate towards two polarizing views. […]
Located within the drought-prone Sahel region, Senegal is heavily reliant on rain fed agriculture despite the irregular rainfall that characterizes the region making resilience building a priority. The reliance on rain fed agriculture, only 5% of agricultural land is under irrigation, results in high fluctuation in production output adversely affecting many families. Agriculture (including forestry, […]
The challenge of food security is one that successive Kenyan government administrations have grappled with since independence. With only 10.2% of arable land in Kenya, discussions on food security are a norm in the country. These deliberations fall within the greater African ambit. Despite having larger tracts of undeveloped land, Africa’s soils have poor soil structure, unable […]