The more crops farmers grow, the more food, nutrition and income secure they are – study

It is common for smallholder farmers in Africa to grow multiple crops on their farms. However, policies do not often consider crop diversity as an option for fostering innovation in agriculture.

Researchers set out to examine how crop diversity relates to household food security and income derived from the sale of multiple crops. To find out whether specialization or diversification is a better strategy for agricultural development, a study was recently carried out in Northern Ghana by Mauricio Bellon from Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO, Mexico); and researchers from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA,  Ghana), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI, USA), and University of Naples Federico II (Italy).

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