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Developing sustainable agro-input market systems for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa: upgrading through innovation

Practitioner handbooks

Year of publication 2022

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 392 p.

Author Duong, G.; Neven, D.;

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (stand-alone)

ISBN 978-92-5-137381-1

Synopsis (short abstract) Sustainable impacts at scale require the adoption of upgraded practices by large numbers of market actors and their continued usage of these practices in the long term. This behavioural change, in turn, is driven by actors’ capacities and incentives to adopt and sustain upgrades. A systems approach can help us understand the constraints that prevent market actors from changing their behaviour and thus improving their performance and the sustainability of the system in which they operate. Applying a systems approach to sustainable agro-input market systems development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this handbook provides an analytical framework to uncover what hinders farmers’ optimal adoption of agro inputs in crop production and a toolbox of innovative solutions to these constraints. The analytical framework presents a two-step analysis using a sequence of six yes/no questions followed by a root-cause analysis to identify why farmers do not adopt agro-inputs in an optimal way. Based on this, the toolbox provides six groups of solutions to address the problems that prevent farmers’ behavioural change (to adopt agro-inputs optimally). The analytical framework and solutions build on 70 empirical cases on improving agro-input market systems in SSA. All cases are either driven by or have a strong involvement of privatesector agro-input actors. Additionally, the cases demonstrate proven or potential positive impacts on the adoption of agro-inputs by farmers. These positive impacts are assessed in terms of the economic, social, and environmental sustainability, and the resilience over time of the solutions included in the cases.

Cite this content as:

Duong, G. & Neven, D. 2022. Developing sustainable agro-input market systems for farmers in sub-Saharan Africa: upgrading through innovation. Rome, FAO.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cc3394en

Language English

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