CIFOR–ICRAF publishes over 750 publications every year on agroforestry, forests and climate change, landscape restoration, rights, forest policy and much more – in multiple languages.

CIFOR–ICRAF addresses local challenges and opportunities while providing solutions to global problems for forests, landscapes, people and the planet.

We deliver actionable evidence and solutions to transform how land is used and how food is produced: conserving and restoring ecosystems, responding to the global climate, malnutrition, biodiversity and desertification crises. In short, improving people’s lives.

Emerging development of Agriculture in East Africa: markets, soils and innovations

Export citation

Based on a coordinated panel study of more than 2,400 households in three countries—Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia—this book provides unprecedented insight into how agricultural productivity can be improved. Its vast coverage of over 240 different communities offers a wide variety of policy, market and agro-climatic contexts, thus enabling more certain conclusions to be drawn about which strategies are more probably universal or context-specific. Emerging Development of Agriculture in East Africa offers case studies that find promise in many new innovations. Farmers in Uganda have quickly learned the management of NERICA rice (a new upland rice variety), which is being disseminated in a limited way in the region. Also in Uganda, farmers living in more remote areas have improved access to markets due to the expansion of mobile phones. In Kenya, improved milk marketing systems have increased efficiency and led to tangible increases in the adoption of dairy production technologies. And the adoption of intensive dairy production systems in Kenya and Uganda are providing significant amounts of manure and positively impacting yields of maize and banana. Despite the success of these innovations, many of their impacts are limited in terms of depth (size of impact per household) and breadth (number of households). Therefore, each chapter details key constraints to improved impact and the potential policy strategies to overcome them. Many recommendations concern the improvement of markets, which is imperative to increasing agricultural productivity and reducing poverty. Particular emphasis is placed on the role of technology to induce institutional and market change, as was evident in Asia’s Green Revolution. Altogether, the studies in the book suggest that, in addition to improving markets and the output / input price ratio, it is essential to improve technology (e.g. varieties or water management) so that fertilizer and other inputs can earn a higher return.
    Publication year

    2011

    Authors

    Yamano T; Otsuka K; Place F

    Language

    English

    Keywords

    agriculture, innovation, marketing

    Geographic

    Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda

Related publications