The majority of Ugandans rely on farming for their incomes, but the country’s agriculture sector, dominated by smallholder farmers, has historically had low economic support and output. The purpose of the Feed the Future Uganda Commodity Production and Marketing Activity was to reduce poverty and promote the long-term prosperity of rural Ugandan families by increasing the…
Many women and children in the Khatlon region of Tajikistan lack access to sufficient vitamin A, iron, zinc, iodine, and proteins, which has led to a 31 percent stunting rate. USAID’s Feed the Future Tajikistan Agriculture and Water Activity (TAWA) works to reduce these nutrition deficiencies, supporting farmers in nutrition-sensitive agriculture sectors so they can…
Middleman — the very term itself is associated with extra hoops to jump through, farmers being cheated, and limited value being offered to farmers and value chains generally. The idea of cutting out the middleman is frequently thought of as a selling point, casting these intermediaries as the “bad guys” of the value chain, worth…
Although the agriculture sector employs more than half of Haiti’s population and offers one of the only ways for people in rural communities to support themselves, the sector struggles to achieve consistently higher yields and sales. “Feed the Future Haiti Chanje Lavi Plantè,” which means “Changing Lives” in Haitian Creole, confronted this issue by increasing…
More than 80 percent of the people living in southern Afghanistan work in agriculture, and one-third of the region’s gross domestic product comes from the production of crops and livestock. However, in recent years, agricultural productivity has fallen significantly behind neighboring countries — in some cases these numbers are historically low. USAID’s Regional Agricultural Development…
The Feed the Future Uganda Commodity Production and Marketing (CPM) activity began in 2013 and ran for five years. CPM works to increase productivity and income of rural families so they can lift themselves out of poverty and thrive. The activity harnesses market forces and uses innovative methods to increase the quantity and quality of coffee, maize, and beans that…
The USAID Pakistan FIRMS Project, implemented by Chemonics, strove to enhance the competitiveness of the small and medium-sized firms that represent 90 percent all enterprises, employ an estimated 80 percent of the non-agricultural labor force, and account for approximately 40 percent of GDP. FIRMS provided enterprise-level assistance, worked to improve the business enabling environment, and…
Michael Brown and Ailey Hughes propose that despite increasing informality of ownership, land tenure in Rwanda is “secure enough” to incentivize smallholder investment in land, but the emerging threats arising from the implementation of agricultural policies could constrain the country’s development gains in the future. Recommendations are offered to the Government of Rwanda.
Chemonics implemented the SLDP project from December 22, 2010 to August 21, 2016, and it grew to be a project rich in innovation and learning. As a beneficiary of USAID’s patience, flexibility, and creativity, SLDP changed its management methodology and approach in its third year to realize its original goals of creating economic growth in local regions. In this way, SLDP adapted, learned lessons, and adopted new solutions as it evolved.…
Youth engagement in agriculture is an important component of many agricultural development programs. Why is it so important to reach youth? Firstly, the current population that’s engaged in agriculture in Uganda has an average age of around 65 years old. As that population stops farming in the next five to 10 years, who will feed…
In its first 25 years of independence from the Soviet Union, Georgia’s successes have set it apart from others in the region, yet the country still faces an array of challenges, including entrenched poverty for much of the rural population. Many impoverished rural households depend on subsistence farming and lack the technical skills and financing…
The Feed the Future Uganda Youth Leadership for Agriculture Activity facilitated linkages by influencing the youth employment and workforce development ecosystem. The activity identified private sector actors looking to hire youth and determined the skills gap between private sector demand and youth ability. The facilitation approach to youth workforce development built the right relationships among…