The situation analysis and perspectives on food security West Africa shows a widening gap between the needs of consumption and nutrition and food availability at Global countries, households and individuals. Low gains productivity in food production and import capacity are the major constraints...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/16/10.

Evaluating the impact on market performance of investments in agricultural market information systems (MIS) face several methodological challenges. These fall into two broad categories: (a) defining the dimensions of market performance to measure (which is a function of whom the MIS is designed...

A key role for USAID and its partners is to identify how their resources can best contribute to increasing the capacity of the private and public sectors in Mali to scale up their investments, and increase the impact of those investments, in relation to the food security dimensions of...

This paper provides a systematic definition of food security, focusing on its different dimensions; examines the nature and magnitude of the different dimensions of food insecurity in developing countries; discusses the difficult tradeoffs that policy makers face in trying to address food...

In spite of vast expanses of the country’s land currently being uncultivated, there is increasing evidence that a surprisingly high share of rural smallholder households face land constraints that adversely affect their productivity and ability to participate in agricultural supply chains.

Though Zambia has considerable agricultural potential, the sector’s contribution to growth and poverty reduction has been limited. The sector remains one of the most important employers of labour and remains the main source of livelihood for most rural households in Zambia. Thus key...

Rapid urbanization in Zambia means that increasingly heavy demands are being placed on urban food marketing systems. Investment in these systems has been woefully inadequate for many decades, creating supply bottlenecks and health hazards that work against the interests of both farmers and...