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Why the elite should stop imposing their expectations on smallholder farmers
Bankers expect smallholder farmers to repay loans at a particular interest. For economists, African smallholder farmers are supposed to master…
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How to move from ordinary to best agricultural practices
‘Best practice’ is not even a mouthful but what it means in practice remains unclear to many people who use…
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Nine types of agricultural-related entrepreneurs in developing countries
eMKambo has invested time and effort in understanding and classifying different archetypes of entrepreneurs in developing countries. While this effort…
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The character-building role of African ‘informal’ economies
People who co-exist with Kombi drivers in Zimbabwe, Matatu drivers in Nairobi’s traffic jammed roads, boda-boda motorcyclists in Kampala and…
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Nudging universities in developing countries to harness community based inquiry
Contrary to prevailing formal approaches, knowledge sharing in most rural African communities is embedded in the way people work. For…
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Asking and answering fundamental questions through informal markets
Street markets or roadside food markets have remained a permanent feature in most developing countries. The fact that these markets…
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Stimulating more value by tracking what is happening
Tracking local activities and keeping daily updates does not just enable communities to practice what they preach. It also helps…
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The merits of an effective marketplace for agricultural evidence
Discovering and maintaining agricultural commodities markets is not enough for developing countries. They have to build a culture of synthesizing…
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Informal food markets as platforms for sharing aspirations and frustrations
An under-appreciated advantage of African informal food markets is how they allow farmers, traders, consumers and other actors to emotionally…
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African informal food markets as better expressions of democracy
African countries are full of human rights interventions that focus mostly on partisan political rights ignoring the rights of local…
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The sum of community knowledge is greater than the sum of individual expert knowledge
While it is true that community knowledge is broader and deeper, most African farming communities hesitate to make decisions without…
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Revisiting the role of informal markets in distributing income
Informal markets have existed for centuries, as contexts where communities make sense of their resources and exchange value. However, urbanization…
