Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) is an important staple in Burkina Faso as well as many other countries in West Africa. Among the major cowpea pests affecting the crop are the legume pod borer (Maruca vitrata), flower thrips (Megalurothrips sjostedti), bruchids (Callosobruchus maculatus), and...

Food legumes play an important and diverse role in the farming systems and in the diets of poor people around the world. They are ideal crops for simultaneously achieving three developmental goals in targeted population—reducing poverty, improving human health and nutrition, and enhancing...

Although many countries have made significant progress in the last decade, poverty and malnutrition continue to be major problems in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Experts estimate that rising food prices have driven about 44 million people into poverty in developing countries since June 2010, as food...

This paper traces the trajectories of successful commercial smallholders operating under differing sets of market institutions. Analysis focuses on maize, cotton and horticulture, three widely marketed crops with strikingly different market institutions. Maize receives intensive government input...

In this paper we examine empirically the effect of Information and Communication Technologies on the adoption of improved rice varieties and its indirect effect on productivity with focus of the rural radio in Burkina Faso. The econometrics framework adopted is the Rubin Causal Model that has...

Smallholder agriculture is not achieving its pivotal role of attaining food security in developing countries like South Africa. In rural areas, smallholder farmer’s efficiencies have always been hindered mostly by some factors beyond their control such Agro-ecological factors. The challenge is...