Investment Opportunities for Livestock in the North Eastern Province of Kenya: A Synthesis of Existing Knowledge

Pastoralism is the dominant livelihood activity in the North Eastern Province (NEP) of Kenya. It is supplemented only by a limited amount of agriculture along the rivers. The province faces various developmental challenges including chronic poverty and food insecurity, low human capital and poor health standards, high vulnerability to climate change, poor infrastructure, insecurity and low crop and livestock productivity. This study synthesises existing knowledge and provides recommendations on livestock investments to increase incomes, create employment and reduce food insecurity in the province. It examines investment opportunities in livestock and presents scenarios that meet the objectives of Kenya’s 2030 vision. Four scenarios are analysed. The first scenario consists of the business-as-usual case: a vision of the state of the livestock sector, and its contribution to NEP and national economy, if the current trajectory is maintained. The second scenario outlines a strategy that focuses on catering to domestic demand for livestock products. The third scenario focuses on feeding foreign demand for live animals, while the fourth scenario investigates the possibilities of a livestock sector driven by exports of processed livestock products. Also in these investment scenarios, the broad-based growth contribution to the economy is discussed. The analysis indicates that all three alternative scenarios have far better impacts on pastoralists’ income and employment than the ‘business-as-usual’ scenario. The second scenario is found to have the largest favourable impact. Besides creating jobs and income opportunities, it provides alternatives to meet the growing livestock product consumption spurred by population increase, rising incomes and urbanization in Kenya. However, there are several requirements for this scenario to work and yield the desired impact. The need for creating a favourable investment climate is discussed and specific roles of the public and private sectors are explained

Local Government Revenue Mobilisation in Anglophone Africa

This paper examines opportunities and constraints facing local revenue mobilisation in anglophone Africa, with an emphasis on urban settings. It discusses specific revenue instruments and their effects on economic efficiency, income distribution and accountability. In particular, it addresses political and administrative constraints facing various revenue instruments and factors affecting citizens’ compliance. The analysis is illustrated with examples from across anglophone Africa. A general conclusion emerging from the study is that local revenues mobilised in most local government authorities in Africa are necessary but not sufficient to develop and supply adequate services for the fast-growing population. On this basis, areas for further research on local government revenue mobilisation in Africa are identifiedDfI

Building Support for Taxation in Developing Countries: Experimental Evidence from Mexico

In spite of the importance of taxation for political and economic development, we know relatively little about the conditions under which citizens might not exact a political cost on leaders for adopting a particular tax. Drawing on insights from the literature on institutional design, this article examines how certain features of taxes – such as allowing for civil society oversight, sunset provisions that make the duration of taxes finite, and earmark mechanisms that direct tax revenue for a specific purpose – affect political support behind them. It also evaluates the role of three important aspects of the fiscal exchange, namely trust in government, perceptions of the public good, and level of income. Based on an original survey experiment focusing on the provision of public safety in Mexico, I find that these design features increase political support for taxation, especially among those with low trust in government, perceptions of high quality of the public good, and low income. These findings have important implications for Mexico, as well as a number of other countries that have both low levels of extraction and increased public spending imperatives

Synopsis, 2013 annual trends and outlook report: Tracking key CAADP indicators and implementation

This Issue Note presents the current status and trends captured by key Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) indicators that ReSAKSS has been tracking since 2008, at continental and regional levels. ReSAKSS was established by the CAADP Partnership Platform, and later endorsed by the African Union Conference of agricultural ministers, to serve as the formal CAADP review and learning platform, charged with tracking 30 core CAADP indicators. The data for the current indicators are published in the ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlook Reports (ATORs) and on the ReSAKSS website (www.resakss.org), where they can be accessed in the form of maps and graphs and can be freely downloaded in excel format and used for analysis.Non-PRIFPRI1; ReSAKSSDSGD; WCAO; ESA

Access of Eastern African Farmers to Domestic and International Markets: Opportunities and Constraints

This paper reviews the opportunities and challenges that Eastern African farmers face in accessing domestic, regional and international markets. With rising population and incomes, domestic markets offer great opportunities for farmers. However, because of structural, institutional and organizational constraints, small scale rural farmers may not benefit much from domestic urban markets unless they are organized and trained to meet the high quality product standards demanded by urban consumers and supermarkets. ECA countries stand to gain more by investing in commodities that are consumed within the region, than from traditional cash crops destined for international markets. Regional integration offers opportunities for larger markets and efficiency gains and this is happening, although countries still have to do more to ease the flow of goods across the region, including joint investments in infrastructure to link markets, harmonizing trade policies, and removing trade barriers that limit cross-border trade. Access to international markets remains constrained because of trade distorting practices in developed countries, especially tariff peaks and tariff escalation, domestic support to their farmers, and export subsidies. All these practices render African products uncompetitive, discourage investments in agro-industries, thus limiting growth in jobs and incomes, and slow down the pace of economic growth and overall poverty reduction. African countries stand to gain more from liberal trade policies than from aid from developed countries

Agricultural Productivity Constraints in Uganda: Implications for Investment

Uganda has put emphasis on the agricultural sector as a strategy for raising rural incomes and reducing rural poverty. The Plan for Modernization of Agriculture (PMA) was designed in 2000 for this purpose. However, available secondary data show that crop yields are low despite the availability of productivity- enhancing technologies on the market. The study uses household data from four rural districts selected from two ago-ecological zones to explore profitability and productivity of two technologies: improved maize varieties and improved cattle breed. The research findings indicate that growing improved maize is more profitable than local maize across all farm sizes. Similarly, improved cattle breeds (exotic and cross breeds) are more profitable and more productive than indigenous cattle. The findings suggest the need to strengthen the PMA interventions, especially under the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) in order to promote the adopting of improved technologies. The results further reveal that the farming system in northern Uganda is as productive as the coffee-banana farming system. Therefore, the poverty situation in northern Uganda is not dues to low productivity or profitability of agriculture, but perhaps due to exogenous factors such as the war that has afflicted the area since the late 1980s

Tracking key CAADP indicators and implementation

Non-PRIFPRI1; ReSAKSS; C Improving markets and tradeDSGD; WCAO; ESA