Zambia’s agriculture sector provides the main support for the rural economy. This assertion is based on the fact that about forty nine percent of the Zambian population depends on agriculture, primarily through smallholder production for their livelihoods and employment (CSO, 2014). Notwithstanding this fact, in 2015 the sector contributed 8.5 percent to the GDP and approximately 9.6 percent of national export earnings (CSO, 2015; World Bank, 2016). The potential for agricultural growth in Zambia is staggering.

Since 1996, a growing coalition of stakeholders from the private sector, government and donor communities has promoted a new package of agronomic practices for smallholders in Zambia. 

These factsheets present the relevant policy and institutional contexts with respect to land governance and food security. They have been updated in July 2012 and 2015/2016.

En menos de dos décadas, en Bolivia estamos viendo cómo, por un lado, se consolida un modelo agrario dominante de agricultura empresarial a gran escala y, por otro, la agricultura a pequeña escala de campesinos e indígenas, que todavía muchos creemos que es la que provee la mayor parte de los alimentoso que consumimos.

This article examines the evolution of policy recommendations concerning rural land issues since the formulation of the World Bank’s “Land Reform Policy Paper” in 1975. That paper set out three guiding principles: the desirability of owner-operated family farms; the need for markets to permit land to be transferred to more productive users; and the importance of an egalitarian asset distribution.

What is the future of food in South Africa? What might the food system look like in 2030, in terms of production, processing, distribution and consumption? Many people are asking similar questions and producing vision statements, policies and forecasts to enable anticipation and planning in a volatile system. They are all telling stories about the future – some optimistic, some dire. But these stories tend to be disconnected, narrated past each other to different audiences. The four scenarios contained in this document tell a more connected set of stories.

The vitally important provision of food through the food system is not a simple linear process, but a contested outcome of a complex system. This systematic literature review was undertaken to better understand the inherent complexity of this system and inform a long‐ term scenario‐planning process aimed at ensuring a food secure future in South Africa.  

This course has been developed in response to the concerns about increasing large-scale land acquisitions and the need to increase investment in agriculture. The objective is to provide guidance to government authorities engaged in investment promotion, approval, and monitoring activities at all stages of the investment cycle.

Globally, the conservation and tourism sector is being enthusiastically promoted as one of the key mechanisms to catalyze rural local economic development. This is particularly relevant in South Africa where tourism is considered an important sector for Black Economic Empowerment and community development. However, there is increasing concern that the impact of tourism and conservation on local communities is not always beneficial and can include a range of negative livelihoods consequences.

More than at any time in the past three decades, the world’s attention is focused this year on food and agriculture. A variety of factors have combined to raise food prices to the highest levels since the 1970 (in real terms), with serious implications for food security among poor populations around the world.

Poverty in Guatemala is high and deep. In 2000, over half of all Guatemalans lived in poverty. About 16 percent lived in extreme poverty. Available evidence suggests that poverty in Guatemala is higher than in other Central American countries. Although poverty has fallen over the past decade, its trend recently declined due to a series of economic shocks during 2001 and 2002. The drop of poverty incidence since 1990 is slightly slower than what would have been predicted given Guatemala's growth rates, suggesting that growth has not been particularly pro-poor.

The use of quality seed is a major component of increased yields in crop production. Quality seed and seed programs in a country does not emerge by happenstance; it is created by a combination of many factors that include variety development, seed production, quality control, processing, marketing, and governmental oversight. As the seed sector in a country matures, each of these factors becomes more important and plays a more important role in the growth of the agricultural sector. The seed program in Cambodia is interestingly different from that in many other developing countries.