An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?
An evolving paradigm of agricultural mechanization development: How much can Africa learn from Asia?

Author: Diao, Xinshen, ed.

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2020-12-07

Total Pages: 548

ISBN-13: 0896293807

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Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Putting Nigeria to Work
Putting Nigeria to Work

Author: Volker Treichel

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2010-06-17

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0821380737

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Public debate in Nigeria on the country s progress since its return to democracy in 1999 has been dominated by two seemingly opposite themes. The first theme is the strong growth performance of the non-oil economy. This success has been marked by sharp increases in agriculture, trade, and construction and by the emergence of new industries in the financial, telecommunications, and entertainment sectors, supported by sound macroeconomic policies and structural reforms. The second, opposing theme is the seeming failure of Nigeria s much improved economic performance to reduce unemployment, especially among the young. Rising levels of unemployment have increased militancy among the young and impacted negatively on public order. 'Putting Nigeria to Work: A Strategy for Employment and Growth' looks at the ways in which Nigeria s improved economic performance has impacted the labor market. A number of relevant factors are carefully examined and analyzed, including industrial policy and the investment environment, the effects of restrictive trade policies on growth, and the ability of the technical and vocational education system to address the country s skills gap. The book proposes a strategy that will allow Nigeria to increase the availability of quality jobs, reduce rising youth unemployment, and sustain and further accelerate the country s economic performance and growth. At the core of this strategy are targeted interventions aimed at removing binding constraints to growth in sectors of the economy that are already growing fast, but have the potential to grow faster and have significant employment-creating potential.

Transforming Nigeria’s agrifood system: Wealthier, but also healthier
Transforming Nigeria’s agrifood system: Wealthier, but also healthier

Author: Ecker, Olivier

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2021-11-19

Total Pages: 6

ISBN-13:

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Malnutrition, largely attributable to poor diets among both the rich and poor, presents a growing challenge in Nigeria. This brief considers the obstacles to food security and better nutrition, particularly the country’s macroeconomic instability, widespread poverty, and the need for greater investment and policy coherence to support dietary diversity. The authors describe how a policy shift to focus on consumer needs can transform the agrifood system to deliver healthier and more affordable diets for all Nigerians, as well as better and more secure rural livelihoods.

Toward Climate-Resilient Development in Nigeria
Toward Climate-Resilient Development in Nigeria

Author: Raffaello Cervigni

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2013-08-05

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0821399241

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If not addressed in time, climate change is expected to exacerbate Nigeria’s current vulnerability to weather swings and limit its ability to achieve and sustain the objectives of Vision 20:2020 [as defined in http://www.npc.gov.ng /home/doc.aspx?mCatID=68253]. The likely impacts include: • A long-term reduction in crop yields of 20–30 percent • Declining productivity of livestock, with adverse consequences on livelihoods • Increase in food imports (up to 40 percent for rice long term) • Worsening prospects for food security, particularly in the north and the southwest • A long-term decline in GDP of up to 4.5 percent The impacts may be worse if the economy diversifies away from agriculture more slowly than Vision 20:2020 anticipates, or if there is too little irrigation to counter the effects of rising temperatures on rain-fed yields. Equally important, investment decisions made on the basis of historical climate may be wrong: projects ignoring climate change might be either under- or over-designed, with losses (in terms of excess capital costs or foregone revenues) of 20–40 percent of initial capital in the case of irrigation or hydropower. Fortunately, there is a range of technological and management options that make sense, both to better handle current climate variability and to build resilience against a harsher climate: • By 2020 sustainable land management practices applied to 1 million hectares can offset most of the expected shorter-term yield decline; gradual extension of these practices to 50 percent of cropland, possibly combined with extra irrigation, can also counter-balance longer-term climate change impacts. • Climate-smart planning and design of irrigation and hydropower can more than halve the risks and related costs of making the wrong investment decision. The Federal Government could consider 10 short-term priority responses to build resilience to both current climate variability and future change through actions to improve climate governance across sectors, research and extension in agriculture, hydro-meteorological systems; integration of climate factors into the design of irrigation and hydropower projects, and mainstreaming climate concerns into priority programs, such as the Agriculture Transformation Agenda.

Have households’ livelihoods and food security rebounded from COVID-19 shocks in Nigeria? Results from a follow-up phone survey
Have households’ livelihoods and food security rebounded from COVID-19 shocks in Nigeria? Results from a follow-up phone survey

Author: Balana, Bedru

Publisher:

Published: 2021-11-30

Total Pages: 43

ISBN-13:

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The effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on households’ income, jobs, and food security have continued despite perceptible reductions in transmission and lifting of restrictive policy measures in several countries. To assess these effects on Nigerian households, we collected household data in the initial three months after the outbreak of the pandemic (July 2020). To track the changes since the first survey, we conducted a follow-up phone survey with the same households a year later (July 2021). We undertook a comparative analysis between the two surveys focusing on key variables such as income loss, job loss, food security, and dietary diversity. The study also investigated how changes in income, wealth/endowments, social capital, safety net programs, and recurrent conflicts affected the severity of food insecurity amid the pandemic. We found that both income and jobs have rebounded significantly (by 50 percentage points) compared to the baseline results. In terms of food insecurity, households with “severely food insecure” situations dropped from 73 percent in the first survey to 65 percent in the follow-up survey. We also found a 5-percentage point improvement in the household dietary diversity scale in the follow-up survey. However, households reported an increase of more than 70 percent in conflicts or insecurity threats amid the pandemic. This affected farm investment decisions in 44 percent of smallholder farmers surveyed. While income loss significantly worsened households’ food insecurity; livestock ownership and social capital cushioned households from falling into a more severe food insecurity situation. However, safety net programs provided by the government and NGOs did not significantly protect households from falling into severe food insecurity amid the pandemic. We suggest four policy propositions: prioritize investment in job creation to curb income loss; enable households to build their wealth base (e.g., land tenure security or livestock) to enhance resilience to shocks; revisit targeting approaches of safety net programs to enhance effectiveness of such programs; and finally, devise and implement conflict resolutions to induce investment and enhance productivity.

Low-Carbon Development
Low-Carbon Development

Author: Raffaello Cervigni

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2013-08-05

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 0821399268

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The Federal Government of Nigeria has adopted an ambitious strategy to make Nigeria the world’s 20th largest economy by 2020. Sustaining such a pace of growth will entail rapid expansion of the level of activity in key carbon-emitting sectors, such as power, oil and gas, agriculture and transport. In the absence of policies to accompany economic growth with a reduced carbon foot-print, emissions of greenhouse gases could more than double in the next two decades. This study finds that there are several options for Nigeria to achieve the development objectives of vision 20:2020 and beyond, but stabilizing emissions at 2010 levels, and with domestic benefits in the order of 2 percent of GDP. These benefits include cheaper and more diversified electricity sources; more efficient operation of the oil and gas industry; more productive and climate –resilient agriculture; and better transport services, resulting in fuel economies, better air quality, and reduced congestion. The study outlines several actions that the Federal Government could undertake to facilitate the transition towards a low carbon economy, including enhanced governance for climate action, integration of climate consideration in the Agriculture Transformation Agenda, promotion of energy efficiency programs, scale-up of low carbon technologies in power generation (such as renewables an combined cycle gas turbines), and enhance vehicle fuel efficiency.

Development Strategies Reconsidered
Development Strategies Reconsidered

Author: John John Prior Lewis

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 9780878559916

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"First rate, comprehensive analysis-presented in a manner that makes it extremely valuable to policymakers."--Robert N. Nathan, Robert Nathan Associates In this volume, policy syntheses are proposed to reconcile the goals of growth, equity, and adjustment, to strike fresh balances between agricultural and industrial promotion and between capital and other inputs, and to reflect the interplay of democracy and development. This volume includes contributions by John P. Lewis, Irma Adelman, John W. Mellor, Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Leopoldo Solis, Aurelio Montemayor, Colin I. Bradford, Jr., Alex Duncan, and Atul Kohli.

Strategies for restructuring the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria: Process, opportunities, and lessons
Strategies for restructuring the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria: Process, opportunities, and lessons

Author: Ajoni, K.

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2017-07-02

Total Pages: 57

ISBN-13:

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This paper aims to develop specific strategies for reforming the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) for achieving greater efficiency, effectiveness, impact, and sustainability through its constituent institutions. Based on a two-year consultative and interactive process of internal discussion, external learning, and analysis of various restructuring options, this paper proposes specific interventions for promoting results-based approaches to priority setting, resource mobilization and allocation, effective implementation of research programs, enhanced and timely delivery of results, mon-itoring and evaluation, impact assessment, and improved networking among domestic and international partners. The paper recommends a phased approach to ARCN reforms, beginning with organizational transformation and capacity strengthening at all levels. In addition, issues, challenges, and opportunities for sustainable funding, integration of re-search, extension, education, and the regulatory mandates of ARCN are discussed. Finally, an implementation plan for restructuring ARCN is presented.