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 have failed to transform agriculture…
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 now more prevalent. Employment creation…
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 to infrastructure-driven agribusiness models, there…
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 climate change is announcing itself…
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 people. In spite of persistent…
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 of the world’s biggest knowledge…
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 the WordWeb dictionary, a predatory…
Of premature technology and information overload
Hundreds of mobile applications and technology platforms are launched in Africa almost every day, thanks to the promise of digital-fueled progress. Unfortunately most of the…
Two hopes for African Agriculture and rural development in 2019
The fact that countries which have moved toward middle-income status have started by transforming their agriculture sector is no longer debatable. Unfortunately, out of 54…
Invisible trends and emerging good practices in African Agriculture
Attempts to use African agriculture as a catalyst for economic revival and growth have focused mainly on mechanizing production and luring young people into farming.…