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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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African mass markets as platforms for addressing hunger and malnutrition
What makes African territorial markets impossible to underestimate is not just their power to aggregate diverse commodities from every corner.…
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Promoting low input, climate conscious food systems through territorial markets
If agroecology is about rebuilding soil health, enhancing biodiversity and reducing dependence on costly external inputs, then African territorial markets…
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Africa can feed itself and also be a source of food aid for the whole world
The World Food Program’s 2026 Global Outlook projects 318 million people will face crisis levels of hunger this year and…
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When interpretation is more important than statistics
While collecting statistics through crop and livestock assessments is necessary, the most important missing link is interpreting and analyzing what…
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Webs of interdependencies keep African informal economies more resilient
When you see traders in African territorial markets like Mbare in Harare selling Kapenta fish (Matemba), soya chunks, plastic packaging,…
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Headaches and pathways of translating infrastructure into better lives
While infrastructure like road highways and irrigation systems continue to receive much attention, funding and media coverage, it has taken…
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How African territorial markets are quietly rewriting socio-economic rules
Being self-organized for decades has enabled most African territorial markets to write their own socio-economic rules in ways that are…
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Making market infrastructure fit for purpose through consultative processes
One of the major reasons why African countries are littered with abandoned market sheds intended for the poor is because…
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The underestimated role of traditional medicine in shaping local wellbeing
In most African communities, traditional medicine and indigenous herbs are in integral component of local well-being. Any conversation about local…
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What does knowledge mean when African scholars are not keen to understand informal economies?
If African scholars were more interested in studying informal economies and territorial markets, by now, there would be abundant literature…
