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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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Why we must assess knowledge uptake in agriculture and rural development
While a lot of resources have gone into producing and pushing information to farmers and rural people, there has not…
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How can we measure the cost of lost knowledge in the agriculture sector?
One of the enduring challenges in African agriculture is defining effective metrics to measure the value of knowledge. In most…
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From individual rewards to community incentives
Socio-economic challenges facing many developing countries are revealing the shortcomings of rewarding individual performance. Most problems have become so complex…
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African agriculture is witnessing a shift from physical to value chain collateral
While African financial institutions are still stuck with traditional banking models invented in the West, African agricultural value chains have…
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How can agricultural policy makers stay ahead of trends?
The way public and private institutions have been set up in most developing countries does not create space for adequately…
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How informal markets are redefining agricultural extension
Given their openness and competitive nature, informal agriculture markets enable farmers to see their knowledge gaps. This shows up in…
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From acronyms and buzzwords to building local institutions
In spite of promises surrounding mobile technology, African communities still face enormous barriers to accessing reliable, relevant and usable information…
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How do we stop financial inclusion from becoming financial slavery
Financial inclusion has become one of the buzzwords in many African countries including Zimbabwe. It is as if financial institutions,…
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How can Africans move from chatting to serious wealth creation?
Like any other innovation, the explosion of ICTs and social media has come with merits and demerits in most developing…
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Why producers should always get a clear view of the competitive landscape
While African countries seem to be encouraging their farmers to produce for exporting to developed countries, those countries are looking…
