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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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What if policies are highly over-rated?
Policy makers in developing countries are often blamed for lacking the vision to craft appropriate agricultural policies that can guarantee…
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Why do cities consume more food than rural communities?
While 70 percent of the population in most African countries live in rural areas, the bulk of food produced in…
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Who will be future winners and losers in African Agriculture
While many African countries are competing to lure investors into their agriculture sector, a lot still needs to be done…
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How and why transacting is a small part of market linkages
Reducing market linkages to transactions is one of the major reasons why efforts to integrate smallholder farmers into value chains…
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How can developing countries valuate their fluid economies?
A major headache for many developing countries is developing criteria for valuating highly fluid and transitory economic activities that are…
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The importance of closing knowledge gaps in African agriculture
Efforts to modernize African agriculture continue to focus on the supply-side at the expense of the demand side. In addition…
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How climate change is inspiring intelligent experimentation at grassroots
During times of socio-economic stability, farmers and entrepreneurs can afford to rely on one commodity or value chain. Not when…
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The elusive quest for defining a business case
If defining and executing a business case was easy, many farmers and traders in developing countries would have become business…
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What if big organizations no longer have monopoly on knowledge?
Unprecedented disruption affecting the food retail sector across the globe is also spilling over into the knowledge industry. For some…
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How can the predatory nature of development efforts be tamed?
Many rural communities in low income countries are fed up with the predatory nature of external development initiatives. According to…
