Disasters are increasing worldwide, with more devastating effects than ever before. While the absolute number of disasters around the world has almost doubled since the 1980s, the average number of natural disasters in Middle East and North Africa (MNA) has almost tripled over the same period of time. In the MNA, the interplay of natural disasters, rapid urbanization, water scarcity, and climate change has emerged as a serious challenge for policy and planning.

In Ethiopia, village surveys were conducted in six villages and two expert workshops were organized to discuss the organization of the study and to evaluate the draft results. Based on household surveys, focus group discussions, and institutional stakeholder interviews, we assessed household vulnerability, analyzed the strategies households adopt to reduce the hazards faced, and evaluated the assistance households receive from institutions. Vulnerability profiles were formulated, which show that household vulnerability differs substantially among and within villages.

This report summarizes the findings of the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa (CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and growth in African agriculture through the identification of products and production systems that can underpin rapid development of a competitive commercial agriculture.

This Policy Memorandum provides policy advice to the government of Liberia (GOL) in an effort to mainstream gender issues in policies, programs, and projects supporting agricultural production and value-chain development. It is organized as follows. Section I reviews women's roles in Liberian agriculture and agricultural value chains, drawing on a variety of data sources, including the 2007 Core Welfare Indicator Questionnaire Survey (CWIQ) and the two rounds of the Comprehensive Food Security and Nutrition Survey (CFSNS, 2006 and 2008).

At an average above 6.0 percent per year over the past two decades, Uganda' s growth rate was impressive by all standards. In parallel, poverty declined significantly, not only in urban areas, but also to some extent within the rural areas. This combination was possible because the key drivers of growth were labor-intensive services sectors, some of which are agriculture based. In fact, Uganda's growth process has reduced overall poverty faster than what has been observed in many other developing countries.

This paper sheds light on how to harvest the "youth dividend" in Sub-Saharan Africa by creating jobs in agriculture. The agriculture that attracts the youth will have to be profitable, competitive, and dynamic. These are the same characteristics needed for agriculture to deliver growth, to improve food security, and to preserve a fragile natural environment.

The rural space is home to 53 percent of Nigeria's population and more than 70 percent of its poor. While it is well understood in Nigeria that financial exclusion of the rural population stunts development, still fewer than 2 percent of rural households have access to any sort of institutional finance.

Farmers in Asia like to grow cassava because the crop will tolerate long dry periods and poor soils, and will produce reasonable yields with little inputs. Most farmers realize, however, that cassava production on slopes can cause severe erosion, while production without fertilizer inputs may lead to a decline in soil productivity. Research has shown that cassava yields can be maintained for many years with adequate application of fertilizers, and that there are various ways to reduce erosion.

The poster briefs the introducing and utility of education materials and teaching notes on multi‐stakeholder innovation processes and how they work, results and outputs and who the legacy products are useful for. 

This chapter explores the interrelationships between economic change and environmental issues, by showing how aspiration, education, and migration are variously connected to a loss of agroecological knowledges for rural young people. It reviews a series of case studies from Vietnam, India, and China on the implications for rural youth of changed aspirations and ecological and economic stress. The economic and cultural pressures of globalization mean young people increasingly aspire for a life outside of agrarian- and natural resource-based livelihoods.