We define marginal farmers as those who are ‘farming yet hungry’. These are people for whom farming is a major livelihood activity, yet who have insufficient assets to produce a surplus from their agricultural activities and whose non-farm activities are insufficiently reliable or remunerative for them to rely on market purchases for adequate food intake. This group, distant from centres of power and influence, has long suffered neglect by policy makers. Furthermore development aid to agriculture has declined over the past 30 years.

The current awareness by governments on the importance of food policy creates an important opportunity to direct attention to this group of producers with potential positive outcomes for rural poverty reduction and urban food supply.

This research provides evidence of the challenges faced by marginal farmers in four districts (Iringa Rural, Kilosa, Lindi Rural and Mtwara Rural) in Tanzania. It assesses the extent to which government and donor policies and practices are helping marginal farmers meet those challenges through District Agricultural Development Plans (DADPs) and makes recommendations on increasing the effectiveness of these plans.

There are 1.3 billion smallholder farmers in the developing world. Most farm small areas of poor quality land and cannot grow enough food to feed their families, let alone earn an income.
This document is a case study from four districts in Tanzania (Iringa Rural, Kilosa, Lindi Rural and Mtwara Rural).

This document is assessing the inclusion of marginal farmers in Zambia’s Comprehensive Afircan Agriculture Development Propgrammes (CAADP) roundtable discussion.

The central role agriculture must play in Africa’s battle to eradicate poverty and hunger, the
African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AU/NEPAD) has placed top priority on
agricultural development, challenging African governments to boost budgetary allocations for agriculture to 10% of total spending, up from their current level of 6%.

Through CAADP, adopted in 2003 by African Heads of State and Government at the AU Summit in Maputo, AU/NEPAD has provided an African vision and strategic framework for boosting agricultural productivity and growth. The framework aims at increasing agricultural growth to at least 6% per year, thereby enabling income growth and wealth creation sufficient to reduce poverty by 50% by 2015.

Concern Worldwide has pioneered an emergency project in The Kerio Valley in Kenya.

It works through a mobile phone operator, Safaricom, which runs a money transfer scheme called m-Pesa. This allows people to send cash from one part of the country to another, by paying money to an agent who then sends a text message to the recipient, who collects the cash from a second agent.

Concern has taken things one step further by funding cash distributions to some of Kenya's poorest people. It is the latest example of mobile phones helping people in remote areas of the developing world.

In 2005/6 and 2006/7, Concern Worldwide in Malawi designed and delivered two emergency social
transfer programmes that were evaluated as innovative and effective, and have advanced thinking onbest practice and what is feasible, both in emergency contexts and in the delivery of predictable (nonemergency)social protection.

This paper reviews the key innovative features of these interventions – the ‘Food and Cash Transfers’ project (FACT) and the ‘Dowa Emergency Cash Transfers’ project (DECT) – and extracts broader lessons for social protection practice.

The Thematic Research Project on Supporting Local Government Planning within the Context of Government Decentralisation was commissioned by Concern Worldwide on behalf of all five Irish International NGOs receiving funding from the Irish Government under the Multi Annual Programme Scheme (MAPS).  (22 Dec 2007)

An approach to operate sustainable microfinance for poor and extreme poor through Community Based Organisation in Bangladesh A paper to be presented in a Development’s future conference to be organised from 24-25 November 2007 at National University of Ireland Galway  (18 Nov 2007)

Concern Worldwide, in association with the International Institute for Environment and Development and a group of UK-based international NGOs, commissioned an examination of the issue of vulnerability in the Sahel and produced this groundbreaking and challenging piece of research.  (14 Nov 2007)

Concern Worldwide, in association with the International Institute for Environment and Development and a group of UK-based international NGOs, commissioned an examination of the issue of vulnerability in the Sahel and produced this groundbreaking and challenging piece of research. (In French)  (14 Nov 2007)