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3 items
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Land grab or development opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa
This report is a step towards filling this gap. The outcome of a collaboration between IIED, FAO and IFAD, the report discusses key trends and drivers in land acquisitions, the contractual arrangements underpinning them and the
way these are negotiated, as well as the early impacts on land access for rural people in recipient countries. The report looks at large-scale land acquisitions, broadly defined as acquisitions (whether purchases, leases or other) of land areas over 1,000 ha. While international land deals are emerging as a global phenomenon, this report focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. -
Parklands for buffering climate risk and sustaining agricultural production in the Sahel of West Africa
In the Sahelian zone of West Africa, crops grown under a discontinuous cover of scattered trees dominate many landscapes and constitute the so-called parklands. These systems reflect the ecological knowledge of the farmers of such risk prone environments. Agroforestry parklands are playing an important role, through trees and shrubs providing soil cover that reduces erosion and buffers the impacts of climate change. They also provide green fodder that complements crop residues for livestock feeds, and fruits and leaves for human consumption and for income generation. The interactions between various components of the system influence the ecosystem service functions of trees of parklands (provisioning, regulating and supporting services) in several ways. These ecosystem functions have beenat the center of the local ecological knowledge guiding the management options of the farmers and have also attracted the attention of scientists. Findings revealed new challenges that call for production options ensuring increased and diversified productivity of the systems while preserving the environment. Research on such challenges must adopt an inclusive approach based on local knowledge supported by science-based analyses of the socio-ecological systems in the face of high population pressure and climate change.
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Analysis of Digital Agriculture Extension and Advisory Services in Niger : Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) Project
The Sustainable Opportunities for Increasing Livelihoods with Soils (SOILS) Consortium led by the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) intends to establish a technology park in Niger. The park will function as information and training service center and project agricultural information and innovations to accelerate dissemination and scaling efforts, provide training to farmers and other agricultural value chain actors. The SOILS Consortium in collaboration with the Feed the Future Developing Local Extension Capacity (DLEC) project conducted this study to analyze the digital agricultural extension and advisory services in Niger to support creation of the technology park and to provide insights and recommendations on how the SOILS Consortium can better use digital extension platforms and services to increase the reach of their activities.