Catholic Relief Services Publications: Agriculture
A Cooperating Sponsor’s Field Guide to USAID Environmental Compliance Procedures (Second Edition) Burpee, G., Harrigan. P., Remington, T. February 2000
This Field Guide is a companion to the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Environmental Documentation Manual (EDM). The EDM was written to help Title II food aid development programs meet USAID environmental regulations, prepare required paperwork, and promote development of environmentally sound programs. The EDM contains detailed instructions for a compliance process that may seem daunting at first glance. Using this Field Guide as a summary, dividing activities into manageable steps, seeking occasional advice from experts, and by relying on common sense and good judgment, the environmental review process will be easier than previously thought.
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - Who Are We and What We Do, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs -Overview of Seed Systems Under Stress Project: Case Studies, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs -Understanding Seed Security, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - Agrobiodiversity and Seed Relief, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - Using Seed Aid to Give Farmers Access to Seed of New Varieties, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - Understanding Seed Systems Used by Small Farmers in Africa: Focus on Markets, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - Assessing Seed System Security, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs -Seed Relief Responses: an Overview, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - The Power of Evaluation, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
Seed Aid for Seed Security—Advice for Practitioners: Ten Practice Briefs - Developing a Seed-Aid Proposal: A Rapid Review Checklist for Practitioners, L. Sperling, T. Remington and J. Haugen. 2006
Seed aid needs to be improved. Case studies show seed-based agricultural recovery is more complex than commonly assumed. These Briefs offer advice on how to sustain and strengthen seed systems during disaster response and recovery periods. Up-to-date technical information addresses issues such as introducing new varieties, protecting agrobiodiversity, and exploiting market opportunities during periods of acute and chronic stress. Specific aid-response tools are also offered, including methods for assessing seed system security, guidelines for learning-focused evaluations, and checklists to ensure quality in seed-aid proposal development. The briefs were prepared by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Catholic Relief Services (CRS), with CARE®–Norway (CN).
Language: English
The Resilient Family Farm: Supporting Agricultural development and Rural Economic Growth. Burpee, G. & K. Wilson. 2004
The Resilient Family Farm is not intended as a technical guide. It is a primer for those who contribute - or plan to contribute - to rural development. It is for donors who would like to understand better the challenges of farm lief. It is for practioners in all development sectors whose work in some way touches on the smallest farm families.
Language: English
The Organization and Development of Farmer Groups for Agroenterprise: Conclusions from a CRS & RII-CIAT Study Tour in Asia, Africa and Latin America
The Organization and Development of Farmer Groups for Agroenterprise: Conclusions from a CRS & RII CIAT Study Tour in Asia, Africa and Latin America Marco Aldana, Gaye Burpee, Geoff Heinrich, Tom Remington, and Kim Wilson 2007 This is the second of two CRS publications that present the case for a portfolio of basic skills to prepare poor farmers for market engagement. A multi-country Study Tour organized by CRS and RII-CIAT explored how support to farmer groups could be improved and expanded to reach more of the rural poor and prepare them for agroenterprise development. The Study Tour discovered that a common feature of the farmer groups visited was a drive to acquire and combine five basic “skills sets” that even the poorest groups were incorporating; group management, financial skills, marketing skills, experimentation and innovation skills for accessing new technology and sustainable production and natural resource management skills.
Language: English
CRS Seed Vouchers & Fairs Using Markets in Disaster Response, Edited by: P.Bramel, T.Remington, M. Mcneil. 2005
Over the past twenty years, Seeds & Tools (now called Direct Seed Distribution) has become the standard approach to agricultural recovery from disaster. However, rather than leading to sustainable recovery and greater resilience, Seeds & Tools became expensive annual or at least biennial events. Increasingly, both donors and seed aid practitioners began questioning the effectiveness of this approach. But ‘what to do?’ If not Seeds & Tools, then what? Building on key seed aid evaluations in Zimbabwe, Rwanda and Kenya, a more nuanced understanding of seed security and seed systems emerged. CRS accepted a suggestion made by Louise Sperling of CIAT that if the seed security problem was one of access to seed and not availability of seed or seed quality, then perhaps vouchers would be more effec
Language: English
Preparing Farmer Groups to Engage Successfully with Markets: A Field Guide to Five Key Skill Sets; A product of the CRS and RII-CIAT Agroenterprise Study Tour Group 2007
This field guide provides pointers for program managers and field staff on how to foster several crucial skill sets for preparing groups of poor farmers who are at a very early stage of engaging with markets and who aspire to successful agroenterprise development. The five key skill sets considered in this field guide include: group organization and management; internal savings and lending; experimentation and innovation (knowing how to access and apply new technology); basic marketing skills; and sustainable production (including improved natural resource management). The rationale for the focus on these particular skill sets can be found in the associated CRS and RII-CIAT working paper on the “Organization and Development of Farmer Groups for Agroenterprise: Conclusions from a CRS and RII-CIAT Study Tour in Asia, Africa and Latin America” available on this website.
Language: English
Seed Voucher & Fair Manual. CRS 2002
This manual describes a new approach to post emergency seed distribution in Africa, where farmers receive not free seed but vouchers that can be exchanged for seed at a specially organized seed fair. Seed fairs rely on commercial seed firms, as well as local seed producers and traders. This approach allows farmers to choose what crops varieties and quantities they want. The manual provides an overview of seed systems and their components, and describes how to plan and implement the seed voucher/seed fair approach. The examples quoted are from southern Sudan, but the approach can be adapted for use in other disaster-affected areas as well.
