83 research outputs found
How community initiatives are making a difference in goat farmers’ lives in Central Mozambique
In risk prone farming areas like Marara District, goats are a profitable and resilient source of income. A goat restocking and pass-on approach – providing goats to extremely poor farmers who would then pass on the goats’ first offspring to other farmers – was developed, thus enabling the farmers to participate in local development pathways via goat farming.
Benefits were identified at different levels of participation. Selling goats enables smallholder farmers with the means to pay for food, education, human
health and farm labor, enabling them to transition to a better livelihood. For communities, an activity such as restocking strengthens their capacity to respond to threats (drought, theft) by building a common knowledge base and developing assets. Stakeholder networks bring goat market partners closer for cost-effective collection and sale/purchase of goat
Nudging sustainability transitions in Central Mozambique
An Agricultural Innovation Platform (AIP) facilitates and accelerates transition of
farmers from subsistence farming to socially inclusive, environmentally sound
and market-oriented farming.
AIPs adapt interventions around interlinked levers in the food value chains, with
entry points based on a good understanding of farming systems and input/output
market requirements. Learning activities around these entry points strengthen
stakeholder networks.
Capacitating farmers through stakeholder networks, using mutual learning and
additional technical training sessions, improves their self-organization and helps
them become entrepreneurs, with the private sector as business mentors and
government and extension as facilitators and support.
Prospects for change in complex farming systems often appear few and
uncertain, leaving farmers feeling helpless in the face of challenges. AIPs
demonstrate that small interventions around significant leverage points will have
far-reaching benefits.
With time, stakeholders facilitate multiple changes through AIPs, magnifying
the impact and paving the way for initiatives beyond a project’s lifespan. The
‘AIP experience’ changes their self-perception, resilience, motivation and
empowerment forever
Goat restocking and pass on as a critical entry point to help vulnerable farmers
In risk prone farming areas like Marara District, goats are a profitable and resilient
source of income. A goat restocking and pass-on approach – providing goats
to extremely poor farmers who would then pass on the goats’ first offspring to
other farmers – was developed, thus enabling the farmers to participate in local
development pathways via goat farming.
Benefits were identified at different levels of participation. Selling goats
enables smallholder farmers with the means to pay for food, education, human
health and farm labor, enabling them to transition to a better livelihood. For
communities, an activity such as restocking strengthens their capacity to respond
to threats (drought, theft) by building a common knowledge base and developing
assets. Stakeholder networks bring goat market partners closer for cost-effective
collection and sale/purchase of goats
Barriers to effective climate change policy development and implementation in West Africa
This Info Note explores major barriers for effective climate change policy implementation in Ghana, Mali and Senegal with a particular focus on agriculture and food systems. It aims to provide insights to researchers, policy makers and development practitioners working on climate change issues and activities as to what hampers successful climate policy implementation in West Africa and how identified barriers could be over-come
Using flock simulations for modern goat market systems in Central Mozambique
In marginal and high-risk farming areas like Marara District in Central
Mozambique, goats are a quick investment pathway for smallholder farmers and
can enhance the benefits from agriculture.
The current goat value chain involving sales at the feira (informal goat sales
venues), with unscrupulous intermediaries, does not enhance the development
of smallholder farmers. Those with small flocks cannot participate in goat
markets while those with large flocks are not motivated to use their flocks
more productively. As a result, the entire community operates below potential.
Goat farmers and buyers are far apart, both geographically and in terms of
understanding and co-operation.
Enhancing communities’ capacity to organize and manage decentralized goat
markets can benefit smallholder farmers immensely. Volumes and quality of goat
sales can be increased by addressing the needs and interests of owners of larger
and smaller flocks alike within the same community.
A community-based goat market system builds social responsibility and helps
communities to manage risk. The private sector has also expressed an interest to
invest for enhancing communities’ technical capacity..
Nudging sustainability transitions in Central Mozambique
An Agricultural Innovation Platform (AIP) facilitates and accelerates transition of
farmers from subsistence farming to socially inclusive, environmentally sound
and market-oriented farming.
AIPs adapt interventions around interlinked levers in the food value chains, with
entry points based on a good understanding of farming systems and input/output
market requirements. Learning activities around these entry points strengthen
stakeholder networks.
Capacitating farmers through stakeholder networks, using mutual learning and
additional technical training sessions, improves their self-organization and helps
them become entrepreneurs, with the private sector as business mentors and
government and extension as facilitators and support.
Prospects for change in complex farming systems often appear few and
uncertain, leaving farmers feeling helpless in the face of challenges. AIPs
demonstrate that small interventions around significant leverage points will have
far-reaching benefits.
With time, stakeholders facilitate multiple changes through AIPs, magnifying
the impact and paving the way for initiatives beyond a project’s lifespan. The
‘AIP experience’ changes their self-perception, resilience, motivation and
empowerment forever
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Identification of the Abundant Hydroxyproline-Rich Glycoproteins in the Root Walls of Wild-Type Arabidopsis, an ext3 Mutant Line, and Its Phenotypic Revertant
Extensins are members of the cell wall hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein (HRGP) superfamily that form covalently cross-linked networks in primary cell walls. A knockout mutation in EXT3 (AT1G21310), the gene coding EXTENSIN 3 (EXT3) in Arabidopsis Landsberg erecta resulted in a lethal phenotype, although about 20% of the knockout plants have an apparently normal phenotype (ANP). In this study the root cell wall HRGP components of wild-type, ANP and the ext3 mutant seedlings were characterized by peptide fractionation of trypsin digested anhydrous hydrogen fluoride deglycosylated wall residues and by sequencing using LC-MS/MS. Several HRGPs, including EXT3, were identified in the wild-type root walls but not in walls of the ANP and lethal mutant. Indeed the ANP walls and walls of mutants displaying the lethal phenotype possessed HRGPs, but the profiles suggest that changes in the amount and perhaps type may account for the corresponding phenotypes
Re-designing smallholder farming futures for reduced vulnerability to climate change in semi-arid southern Africa
Climate change will impact the productivity of maize-based crop-livestock systems and the food security of smallholders depending on them in semi-arid southern Africa. Earlier results from testing climate change adaptation options showed that incremental improvements in fertilizer application rates, use of adapted maize cultivars or introduction of forage production are insufficient for substantial improvement of smallholder livelihoods (Masikati et al., 2015). In this paper we therefore explored effects of more transformative system re-design on households’ vulnerability to climate change, farm net returns and poverty rates. We tested the hypothesis that packages tailored to specific farm situations are more effective than blanket recommendations..
Towards resilient and profitable farming systems in Central Mozambique using an open innovation platform approach
Farmers in Central Mozambique do not benefit adequately from growing markets for
crops and livestock. Ecological, economic and social barriers are intertwined:
• Absence of functional markets restricting farmers from investing in agriculture;
• Lack of incentives to improve agricultural practices resulting in unavailability of
biomass limiting surplus;
• Lack of motivation to engage in social organization;
As a consequence, farmers lose the ability to respond to market opportunities and to
adapt to different forms of shocks that threaten their livelihoods. Innovation platforms
(IPs) help to address some of the barriers and underlying dynamics, but do not tackle the
root causes impeding transition from subsistence to sustainable, market-oriented farming..
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