Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Ghana: can contract farming help smallholder farmers build resilience to climate change?

Ghana: can contract farming help smallholder farmers build resilience to climate change?

In northern Ghana, many smallholder farmers who grow crops on less than one hectare of land each are entering into contract farming. This gives them guaranteed buyers for their crops. Human geographer and climate change adaptation expert Frederick Dapilah has found that contract farming offers many lessons about building resilience in the face of climate change. FREDERICK DAPILAH, Senior Lecturer, Department of Community Development, SD Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies What is contract farming? Contract farming is when farmers grow crops to meet contracts they have signed with buyers. They agree on a fixed price upfront. As…
Read More
No perfect solution: Africa’s smallholder farmers must use both traditional and new practices

No perfect solution: Africa’s smallholder farmers must use both traditional and new practices

AS an agricultural and environmental scientist, I’ve worked for decades exploring the practical challenges that smallholder farmers encounter in East Africa. These include controlling weeds that can choke their crops and looking for new ways to deal with pests or diseases that threaten their harvests. Author RATEMO MICHIEKA, Professor , University of Nairobi I focus on smallholder agriculture because most of the food in the region is generated by farms that are only a few acres or hectares in size. And, while African economies are diversifying, most Africans still depend on crops and livestock production for income. Across the region…
Read More
Rwandan farmers pin hopes on new tech to tackle food losses

Rwandan farmers pin hopes on new tech to tackle food losses

AIMABLE TWAHIRWA Rwanda is trying to reduce post-harvest loss by relying on new technologies to increase the amount of food available for consumption and help smallholder farmers confront some challenges caused by the overproduction of staple crops. For over 20 years, Cyriaque Sembagare, a maize grower from Kinigi, a mountainous village in Northern Rwanda, had survived on farming to feed his extended family but struggled with the loss of a significant portion of his harvest to rot. High levels of aflatoxin prevent farmers in remote rural Rwanda from selling maize to high-value buyers. “I have been selling maize on the…
Read More