Framework for analyzing the role of ICT on agricultural commercialization and household food security

This paper develops a framework for analysing the link between ICT application in smallholder agriculture, household commercialization, and food security. Lack of market information exacerbates the problem of low-level equilibrium poverty that locks smallholder producers into subsistence production where they typically trade in low volumes. The paper examines the effectiveness of ICT-based market information systems on smallholder market linkages in a broader context that encompasses, among others, different cultures, commodities, and farmer types. Investment in physical infrastructure and in providing access to inputs/assets that farmers need in order to facilitate the use of such information services is important

A Study of Household Food security and Adoption of Biofortified Crop Varieties in Tanzania: The Case of Orange- Fleshed Sweetpotato

Food insecurity has become a key issue in the field of development in recent years with major inadequate intake of vitamin A-rich foods. Specifically, vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains a major health problem among poor developing-country households, especially in Africa. Efforts to combat VAD currently focuses on food-based approach that entails breeding for crops that are rich in beta carotene, a precursor for Vitamin A. Success has been registered in sweetpotato, cassava and maize. Among these crops, the greatest effort has gone into promoting the production and consumption of orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP). These efforts include sensitization of farmers on the nutritional benefits of OFSP and the provision of clean sweetpotato planting materials. This study used a rich dataset collected from 732 farm households in Tanzania to assess of effect of household food insecurity and benefit awareness on the adoption of OFSP varieties. The study found that the household food security and awareness of the benefit of OFSP affect the decision to adopt OFSP varieties. It also found evidence that agroecology and farmer endowment with financial and physical assets affect the decision to grow OFSP varieties. It discusses lessons and policy implications of the findings for other countries

Market Intelligence and Incentive-Based Trait Ranking for Plant Breeding: A Sweetpotato Pilot in Uganda

Crop breeding programs must accelerate crop improvement, spur widespread adoption of new varieties and increase variety turnover they are to meet the diverse needs of their clients. More comprehensive quantitative approaches are needed to better inform breeding programs about the preferred traits among farmers and other actors. However, the ability of current breeding programs to meet the demands of their clients is limited by the lack of insights about value chain actor preference for individual or packages of traits. Ranking traits based on monetary incentives, rather than subjective values, represents a more comprehensive, consistent, and quantitative approach to inform breeding programs. We conducted a large pilot in Uganda to assess the implementation of a novel approach to trait ranking, using a uniquely large sample of diverse sweetpotato value chain actors. We found meaningful differences in trait ranking and heterogeneity among different actors using this approach. We also show our approach’s effectiveness at uncovering unmet demand for root quality traits and at characterizing the substantial trait demand heterogeneity among value chain players. Implementing this approach more broadly for sweetpotato and other crops would increase the effectiveness of breeding programs to improve food security in developing countries.Publishe

Final technical report of eARN Africa Project / eAgriculture Research Network : effectiveness of ICT-based interventions in linking African farmers to markets

Attempts to improve smallholder farmer access to efficient markets have recently shifted to ICT-based interventions. ICT-based market information services help reduce transaction costs in most of the study countries through: search and screening costs (easier to find a seller/buyer, and compare prices in distant markets); negotiation costs (costs of agreeing on the terms of exchange); and monitoring costs (costs of following up on the transaction arrangements). The eARN project contributed towards an ICT in Agriculture e-source book published by the World Bank titled: “ICT in Agriculture: Connecting smallholders to markets, networks and institutions.” eARN also supported and mentored participating researchers

Vulnerability to high risk sexual behaviour (HRSB) following exposure to war trauma as seen in post-conflict communities in eastern uganda: a qualitative study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Much of the literature on the relationship between conflict-related trauma and high risk sexual behaviour (HRSB) often focuses on refugees and not mass in-country displaced people due to armed conflicts. There is paucity of research about contexts underlying HRSB and HIV/AIDS in conflict and post-conflict communities in Uganda. Understanding factors that underpin vulnerability to HRSB in post-conflict communities is vital in designing HIV/AIDS prevention interventions. We explored the socio-cultural factors, social interactions, socio-cultural practices, social norms and social network structures that underlie war trauma and vulnerability to HRSB in a post-conflict population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We did a cross-sectional qualitative study of 3 sub-counties in <it>Katakwi </it>district and 1 in <it>Amuria </it>in Uganda between March and May 2009. We collected data using 8 FGDs, 32 key informant interviews and 16 in-depth interviews. We tape-recorded and transcribed the data. We followed thematic analysis principles to manage, analyse and interpret the data. We constantly identified and compared themes and sub-themes in the dataset as we read the transcripts. We used illuminating verbatim quotations to illustrate major findings.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The commonly identified HRSB behaviours include; transactional sex, sexual predation, multiple partners, early marriages and forced marriages. Breakdown of the social structure due to conflict had resulted in economic destruction and a perceived soaring of vulnerable people whose propensity to HRSB is high. Dishonour of sexual sanctity through transactional sex and practices like incest mirrored the consequence of exposure to conflict. HRSB was associated with concentration of people in camps where idleness and unemployment were the norm. Reports of girls and women who had been victims of rape and defilement by men with guns were common. Many people were known to have started to display persistent worries, hopelessness, and suicidal ideas and to abuse alcohol.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The study demonstrated that conflicts disrupt the socio-cultural set up of communities and destroy sources of people's livelihood. Post-conflict socio-economic reconstruction needs to encompass programmes that restructure people's morals and values through counselling. HIV/AIDS prevention programming in post-conflict communities should deal with socio-cultural disruptions that emerged during conflicts. Some of the disruptions if not dealt with, could become normalized yet they are predisposing factors to HRSB. Socio-economic vulnerability as a consequence of conflict seemed to be associated with HRSB through alterations in sexual morality. To pursue safer sexual health choices, people in post-conflict communities need life skills.</p

Socializing One Health: an innovative strategy to investigate social and behavioral risks of emerging viral threats

In an effort to strengthen global capacity to prevent, detect, and control infectious diseases in animals and people, the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) PREDICT project funded development of regional, national, and local One Health capacities for early disease detection, rapid response, disease control, and risk reduction. From the outset, the EPT approach was inclusive of social science research methods designed to understand the contexts and behaviors of communities living and working at human-animal-environment interfaces considered high-risk for virus emergence. Using qualitative and quantitative approaches, PREDICT behavioral research aimed to identify and assess a range of socio-cultural behaviors that could be influential in zoonotic disease emergence, amplification, and transmission. This broad approach to behavioral risk characterization enabled us to identify and characterize human activities that could be linked to the transmission dynamics of new and emerging viruses. This paper provides a discussion of implementation of a social science approach within a zoonotic surveillance framework. We conducted in-depth ethnographic interviews and focus groups to better understand the individual- and community-level knowledge, attitudes, and practices that potentially put participants at risk for zoonotic disease transmission from the animals they live and work with, across 6 interface domains. When we asked highly-exposed individuals (ie. bushmeat hunters, wildlife or guano farmers) about the risk they perceived in their occupational activities, most did not perceive it to be risky, whether because it was normalized by years (or generations) of doing such an activity, or due to lack of information about potential risks. Integrating the social sciences allows investigations of the specific human activities that are hypothesized to drive disease emergence, amplification, and transmission, in order to better substantiate behavioral disease drivers, along with the social dimensions of infection and transmission dynamics. Understanding these dynamics is critical to achieving health security--the protection from threats to health-- which requires investments in both collective and individual health security. Involving behavioral sciences into zoonotic disease surveillance allowed us to push toward fuller community integration and engagement and toward dialogue and implementation of recommendations for disease prevention and improved health security

Value chain analysis of the Kenyan poultry industry: The case of Kiambu, Kilifi, Vihiga, and Nakuru Districts

The Kenyan poultry industry is characterized by dualism, comprised of both smallholder and large-scale poultry producers. The industry is characterized by two main production systems namely (i) the commercial hybrid poultry production system and (ii) the indigenous poultry production system. This study examines the poultry industry in Kenya with the aim of identifying the actors, assessing poultry and poultry product flows, and highlighting some of the policies and regulations relevant to potential outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Kenya.Non-PRIFPRI2; GRP40MTI

The role of Non-State Actors in the Implementation of Social Protection Policies and Programme in Uganda

Drawing from the quantitative and qualitative data collected from the two districts of Uganda, the paper examines the extent to which social protection initiatives in particular the formal and informal policies, regulations and accountability mechanisms of selected social protection interventions influences the demand, design and implementation of programs and consequently the degree of effectiveness it has in addressing gendered vulnerability to poverty. The findings indicate that social protection has become an important strategy for reducing household vulnerability to poverty. Social protection is not only provided by the state but also nonstate actors of various categories are increasingly playing a significant role in addressing the different aspects of vulnerability employing different strategies or approaches. The study has shown that governance of non-state actors (NSAs), in particular formal and informal policies and regulations as well as the accountability mechanisms have significant implications for effective delivery of social protection services in particular ensuring that vulnerable poor needs, interest, concerns and priorities are addressed. Therefore, this study explores key ideas needed in the current debate on the development and implementation of social protection policies and programmes against household gendered vulnerability to poverty in Uganda and proposes the development of innovative development policies and programmes that strengthens the pro-poor implementation of social protection along with more comprehensive schemes on poverty reduction

Can the Implementation of Social Protection Policies and Programme Reducing Households and Community Vulnerability to Poverty in Uganda?

The existence of disconnected and overlapping research findings on who are the vulnerable groups in postconflict communities of Uganda continues to mingle around the mind of scholarly researchers, policy and decision makers. Most of these groups have had specific research studies conducted and strategic policies designed to address the findings. This article tries to provide an approach to understanding of the concept of vulnerability from social protection perspective. In this regards, the paper looks at and reviews available text on who are vulnerable group in Ugandan context and then focus on more general issues of poverty and vulnerability at household and community level. It further examines the causes of household and community vulnerability to poverty and suggests what social protection interventions provided by the state and non-state actors in reducing their vulnerability to poverty can do. The vulnerable communities reviewed are those households and communities members emerging from inter-intra-conflicts in northern and eastern Uganda. The article begins with an overview of poverty trends and distribution and identifies who are the vulnerable poor in the context of Uganda. For this paper, we define or identify vulnerable households as those persons living in one roof of a home and are always susceptible to shocks and risks such as limited access to education, health facilities, shelter, safe and clean drinking waters, while the paper identifies vulnerable communities as those communities with no or existing poor social infrastructures such as medical facilities, bad roads and old building school structures