Anchor Institutions and Food Resilience: A Multiple Streams Approach

Anchor institutions (AIs) play an essential role in food system resilience. We utilize Kingdon’s multiple streams approach (MSA) to analyze AIs’ food system resilience activities in Vermont. Drawing on a series of focus groups to understand activities to foster food system resilience. Local food supply chains can be a source of resilience; barriers such as labor and infrastructure shortages can be overcome through greater use of local food processing and distribution. The MSA lens suggests that Covid-19 can serve as a focusing event, incentivizing investment and leveraging the national mood for greater consumption and support for local food

Smallholder access to quality and diverse seed in Uganda: implications for food security

This policy briefs presents smallholder farmers' preferences and major challenges when accessing seed in Uganda. It reflects on the weaknesses of the formal and informal seed production and distribution systems and presents some practical recommendations for putting in place alternative and integrative seed quality control systems that can help fill in the gaps that the formal and informal systems cannot address separately

Implications of seed policies for on-farm agro-biodiversity in Ethiopia and Uganda

Across East Africa, national seed policies and commercial seed enterprises have focused on increasing farmers’ access to modern seed varieties. These new varieties are developed and delivered to farmers via the formal seed system, which is comprised of government and private sector seed breeders, processors, and vendors. However, the formal seed system only provides a small share (<20%) of smallholders’ seed in the region. Most farmers source seed from informal seed systems, including own-saved seed, exchanges with neighbors, and local seed markets. At the local level, informal seed systems are preferred by farmers because of proximity and local varietal preferences (e.g., crop variety tastes and suitability for local environmental conditions). At the national and regional levels, the conservation and use of local crop varieties through informal systems has also provided a wealth of crop genetic diversity increasingly recognized as critical for climate change adaptation. To evaluate how policies in East Africa impact seed systems we systematically code 117 provisions in 21 national seed policies in Ethiopia (n=11) and Uganda (n=10), highlighting the implications of current and proposed policies for the availability and accessibility of: (i) improved seed; (ii) quality-controlled seed; and (iii) genetically diverse local seed in both the formal and informal seed systems in each country

Public policy and the promise of digital credit for financial inclusion

Digital credit products are characterized by a lending process that is instantaneous, automated, and remote. While digital credit has the potential to reach less collateralized, less mobile, and more remote cohorts of borrowers, there are also risks in relying on digital credit for financial inclusion. This paper investigates the digital credit policy environment and the extent to which it may support pro-poor digital credit market development using two types of documents: a set of 23 regulatory documents specifically mentioning either digital or online credit or lending, and another set of 298 informal documents relevant to digital credit based on a systematic web search. After reviewing the literature on the effects of credit expansion and automated credit scoring, we summarize the characteristics of the current digital credit regulatory environment in low- and middle-income countries. Our findings suggest that few regulations specifically target digital credit markets, and that the current regulatory environment may not support the full potential of digital credit to reach historically underserved credit consumers. Most countries do not explicitly target financial inclusion as part of their digital credit policies. However, we do find evidence that informal web documents consider financial inclusion to a greater extent than formal regulatory documents

Differences in crop selection, resource constraints, and crop use values among female- and male-headed smallholder households in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda

A growing body of research suggests female- and male-headed households in low- and middle-income countries differ in terms of crop choices, access to resources for growing different crops, and values placed on crops for home consumption versus market sale. To better understand relationships between gender of the household head, household resources, individual values, and crop choices, we draw on original survey data collected from 1,001 rural households in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. Bivariate and multivariate analyses suggest that female-headed households are less likely to grow cash crops, reflecting a combina­tion of resource constraints and social norms. However, on average, female-headed households plant more diverse food crops per hectare of land to which they have access, consistent with past findings suggesting crop diversity is a strategy em­ployed by resource-constrained female-headed households to meet household food security needs. We also find that women surveyed on behalf of their households place a higher value on crops for food security, while men more frequently empha­size income potential. These results provide novel cross-country evidence on how female- and male-headed households, and women and men farmers within households, may prefer different crops and also face different levels of access to resources needed for market-oriented agriculture. Such findings support recent calls for development practitioners to carefully consider how market-oriented programs and policies may differentially affect female- and male-headed households and individuals residing within them. We also under­score the importance of collecting gender-disaggre­gated data to capture meaningful differences in preferences and constraints across women and men at the inter- and intra-household level

Social Seed Networks for Climate Change Adaptation in Western Kenya: Results from a study to better understand farmers’ primary sources of seed information in the Nyando Climate-Smart Villages

Kenyan smallholder farmers are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including increased temperatures and variability in precipitation, which results in shorter growing seasons in most areas of East Africa (Adhikari et al. 2015). One strategy for adapting to these climactic changes is to utilise genetic resources to mitigate the effects of abiotic and biotic stresses (IPCC 2014). Farmers could benefit from accessing and exchanging genetic resources, seed, and the information needed to use those resources effectively. Farmers’ seed networks are believed to supply about 80% of seed to farmers in Kenya, where, for example, 75-80% of seed used by farmers’ is from ‘informal’ systems. Farmer seed networks are important for accessing seed and providing genetic diversity that is vital for resilience (Louwaars et al., 2013). Research in East Africa has suggested that community-generated information sharing might support more effective farmer response to the changing seasonal and weather patterns associated with climate change (Comes et al. 2015). However, little is known about the farmers’ social seed networks in supporting adaptation to climate change in Kenya

Social Seed Networks and Climate Change Adaptation in Central Tanzania: Results from a study to better understand farmers’ primary sources of seed information in Dodoma and Singida Districts, Tanzania

Tanzanian smallholder farmers are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, especially the resultant rainfall variability. One strategy for adapting to the changing climate is to utilise genetic seed sources to resist abiotic and biotic stressors. Another strategy is to access and exchange genetic resources, seed, and the information needed to use those resources effectively. In Tanzania, ‘farmer managed’ seed networks are believed to supply about 80-90 percent of seeds to farmers (Below et al., 2015). Farmer seed networks are an important element of seed access because they are resilient and work to maintain and conserve crop genetic diversity. Research in East Africa has suggested that community-generated information sharing might support more effective farmer response to the changing seasonal and weather patterns associated with climate change (Balama et al., 2013)

Social Seed Networks for Climate Change Adaptation in Uganda: Strategies to Improve Access to Genetic Diversity and Information. Results from a study to better understand farmers’ primary sources of seed and information in the Hoima Climate-Smart Villages

Climate change poses serious threats to smallholder farmers in Uganda. For instance, rains often start late in the season and end early, reducing the growing season. Increasing and maintaining genetic diversity is one way of combatting these climatic change-related threats (IPCC, 2014). Farmers often manage, select, and conserve genetic diversity according to their needs, but climate change is quickly eroding this genetic diversity. Accessing genetic resources and related information is therefore paramount to farmers’ ability to cope with the effects of climate change. Farmers’ seed networks are a crucial element of access to seed because they are resilient and help to maintain and conserve crop genetic diversity (Pautasso et al. 2013). In Uganda, 85% of the seed is from ‘informal’ sources consisting of seed saved from own farm as well as seed obtained from neighbours and other local sources. Research in East Africa has suggested that community-generated information sharing might support more effective farmer response to the changing seasonal and weather patterns associated with climate change (Adhikari et al. 2015). However, the influence of Ugandan farmers’ social networks in supporting adaptation to climate change is not well known

Social seed networks and climate change adaptation in East Africa

Our study investigates the routes of information flow through which smallholder exchange seed and information. We then examine how these exchanges among farmer networks can be improved. In order to examine the characteristics of these networks, our study analyzed household-level survey data collected by Bioversity International from sites in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Current seed sources and climate adaptation strategies were determined by creating summary statistics from the survey data. UCINET network analyses were conducted to acquire a more specific understanding of the current social networks among farmers. Seed networks were categorized by country, gender, and crop and then analyzed to determine where the distribution of seed and information can be improved and utilized