Policies and practices that support inclusive market systems, agricultural production, services and trade are fundamental to economic development and poverty reduction.
Markets and Trade
Jan 15, 2019
While the green revolution helped reduce world hunger, it did not result in equal reductions in malnutrition. People do not just need food; they need diverse, quality foods, of which animal-based foods are critical.
Jan 11, 2019
Resilience is increasingly recognized as a powerful concept to help practitioners, academics and policymakers better understand how people respond to shocks and stressors and how those responses can be linked to longer-term positive or negative development outcomes, such as wellbeing or food (in)...
Jan 10, 2019
“Resilience isn’t an outcome,” said Greg Collins, USAID Resilience Coordinator, at a recent Wilson Center event on measuring resilience; it is “the ability to manage adversity and change without compromising future well-being.” The wide array of individual factors that contribute to building...
Jan 09, 2019
Food security is affected by economic and climate-related shocks, as well as conflict. Strengthening social and institutional systems and conflict management skills can mitigate these shocks, improving resilience and creating means to negotiate communal tensions.
Jan 08, 2019
After 40 years of working with smallholder farmers in developing countries in a career spanning Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, I have to tell you: smallholder farmers work really hard! In many instances, they work the earth with crude hand tools under a hot sun and in near-drought conditions. They...
Dec 21, 2018
Small-scale farmers play a critical role in the global food system. Their success depends on having adequate resources to manage the risks of growing food crops, engaging with profitable and equitable markets, and a governance environment that supports small-scale farmers.
Dec 17, 2018
To feed the world’s growing population, food production, quality and safety must be improved, and post-harvest losses must be reduced. Effective research and development (R&D) is the key to achieving these goals.
Dec 17, 2018
In 2018, USAID produced a series of knowledge products to help global mission staff better integrate agricultural finance into mission activity within the context of the U.S. Government's Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS). These knowledge products are designed to help USAID staff better...
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Dec 13, 2018
Farmer-led irrigation offers one of sub-Saharan Africa’s brightest prospects for defeating chronic hunger and making good on the promise of a more sustainable future. In many countries, the number of smallholders using their own pumps or other methods to irrigate crops already exceeds, by far, the...
Dec 12, 2018
The war in Syria forced Mouhamad El Sheli and his family to flee their bombed-out home in Homs into life as refugees in neighboring Lebanon. “We moved here with no job …meaning we didn’t have anything,” says the 28-year-old father of three young children. “I worked any job, olive picking,...
Jan 15, 2019
While the green revolution helped reduce world hunger, it did not result in equal reductions in malnutrition. People do not just need food; they need diverse, quality foods, of which animal-based foods are critical.
Jan 11, 2019
Resilience is increasingly recognized as a powerful concept to help practitioners, academics and policymakers better understand how people respond to shocks and stressors and how those responses can be linked to longer-term positive or negative development outcomes, such as wellbeing or food (in)...
Jan 10, 2019
“Resilience isn’t an outcome,” said Greg Collins, USAID Resilience Coordinator, at a recent Wilson Center event on measuring resilience; it is “the ability to manage adversity and change without compromising future well-being.” The wide array of individual factors that contribute to building...
Jan 09, 2019
Food security is affected by economic and climate-related shocks, as well as conflict. Strengthening social and institutional systems and conflict management skills can mitigate these shocks, improving resilience and creating means to negotiate communal tensions.
Jan 08, 2019
After 40 years of working with smallholder farmers in developing countries in a career spanning Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, I have to tell you: smallholder farmers work really hard! In many instances, they work the earth with crude hand tools under a hot sun and in near-drought conditions. They...
Dec 21, 2018
Small-scale farmers play a critical role in the global food system. Their success depends on having adequate resources to manage the risks of growing food crops, engaging with profitable and equitable markets, and a governance environment that supports small-scale farmers.
Dec 17, 2018
To feed the world’s growing population, food production, quality and safety must be improved, and post-harvest losses must be reduced. Effective research and development (R&D) is the key to achieving these goals.
Dec 17, 2018
In 2018, USAID produced a series of knowledge products to help global mission staff better integrate agricultural finance into mission activity within the context of the U.S. Government's Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS). These knowledge products are designed to help USAID staff better...
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Dec 13, 2018
Farmer-led irrigation offers one of sub-Saharan Africa’s brightest prospects for defeating chronic hunger and making good on the promise of a more sustainable future. In many countries, the number of smallholders using their own pumps or other methods to irrigate crops already exceeds, by far, the...
Dec 12, 2018
The war in Syria forced Mouhamad El Sheli and his family to flee their bombed-out home in Homs into life as refugees in neighboring Lebanon. “We moved here with no job …meaning we didn’t have anything,” says the 28-year-old father of three young children. “I worked any job, olive picking,...
Dec 05, 2018
On International Volunteer Day, and as the Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) winds down its operations, we would like to highlight what we have learned through this unique partnership, as well as thank our incredible NGO members and volunteers, who have contributed so much to our...
Dec 05, 2018
Convincing smallholder farmers to break with tradition is not easy after generations of steady production and familiarity. But as climate factors are increasingly affecting yields and quality, many farmers are open to investing in new inputs or services. Fernando Mendez, manager of Servicios de...
Dec 04, 2018
Smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa lose up to a third of their grain after harvest, because they often use poor grain storage technologies and ineffective drying practices. Staples like maize stored on-farm are exposed to infestation by insects and fungi. These can lead to contamination with...
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Nov 20, 2018
Delivering agricultural technologies and services to smallholders through a network of entrepreneurs has the dual benefit of creating jobs and improving access for farmers, stimulating a cycle of economic growth. Women in particular are drivers of community change and often an untapped resource in...
Nov 14, 2018
Do you have great photos depicting global agriculture and food security that you want to share with the development community? We want to hear from you! The Agrilinks 2018 Photo Challenge, open to all, is a great opportunity to share your work or that of your organization with our community of 15,...
Nov 07, 2018
Between March and July of 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service's (FAS) Food Safety Network (FSN) program undertook a scoping to assess the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) capacity building needs of select Global Food Security Strategy (GFSS) focus countries...
Nov 06, 2018
ABOUT R&R Working with the Renovation & Rehabilitation Collective Action Network of the Sustainable Coffee Challenge (SCC), USAID funded the development of an in-depth guidebook for supply chain actors, donors and NGOs interested in helping farmers renovate their aging and diseased coffee...
Oct 31, 2018
This post explores how building the right regulatory environment is key to lowering risk and uncertainty around product development, facilitating the introduction of new technologies into the market, and supporting the growth of new industries.
Oct 29, 2018
This post was written by Lydia Mbevi, a gender & social inclusion expert at ACDI/VOCA. Based in Northern Kenya’s Isiolo township, the Tawakal Women’s Group is a vibrant social and economic network for women doing business in a marginalized region. The regular meetings the women hold are not...
Oct 26, 2018
The first post , second post , third post , fourth post , and fifth post in this series are an attempt to convey how Nuru’s approach to rural livelihood development reaches farmers with knowledge, technology and opportunities that they demand and need. It requires intentional co-creation processes...
The USAID Bureau for Food Security's Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Division invites you to the fourth installment in our Feed the Future MEL Webinar Series . New Indicators: Sales, finance, and investment indicators In October 2017, a revised set of Feed the Future indicators was...
Agriculture is an inherently risky activity. This risk exposure can make and keep farmers poor. Agricultural index insurance can help farmers avoid costly coping mechanisms and unlock opportunities for increased investment and greater resilience, but such positive development impacts largely depend...
Improving staple crop production is widely viewed as crucial for increasing food security and reducing poverty in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). However, smallholder households in SSA who cultivate maize and other grains face two major post‐harvest challenges. First, pests cause post‐harvest loss of up...
Despite the potential for intra-regional trade of grains to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa, in practice, these commercial transactions have been fraught with logistics challenges and non-tariff barriers. USAID's Trade and Investment Hubs are working to overcome these issues in...
Investing in resilience and a more proactive response to avert humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa could reduce the cost to international donors by 30 percent, while also protecting billions of dollars of income and assets for households and communities impacted by droughts.
Join us in person, or online, for this event to learn more about the keys to commercializing agricultural research.
USAID LandLinks is working to support private sector partners to de-risk investments and secure legitimate land rights in order to improve livelihoods and other outcomes for communities affected by investments. Join us, along with Agrilinks, Microlinks , and a panel of experts, for an interactive...
As smallholder-based agricultural systems struggle to adapt to rapid changes in weather and other factors, this discussion will present lessons and approaches on aligning private sector investment with the research and donor community.
