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Climate change continues to pose a serious challenge to mankind. Given their socio-economic and vulnerable situations, resource-poor farmers will be hard hit and likely to be the most affected group in Africa – a continent that will bear the full brunt of inclement weather conditions. The purpose of this paper is to address the questions of how local farmers read and predict the weather, and how best they can collaborate with weather scientists in adapting to climate change and variability in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.

A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in sampling a total of 592 households heads (both men and women) in eight rural communities in the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

Analysis indicates that about 80 per cent of the farmers had a good knowledge of weather forecasting. In a knowledge validation workshop organised and implemented in early August 2012, farmers and scientists identified a nine-point agenda and strategies for addressing the challenges posed by climate change to community well-being and agricultural production. Knowledge sharing, installation of community weather stations and local-level capacity building are amongst the strategies identified.

The research is only limited to the Okavango Delta, Botswana.

The paper emanates from original field research. The outcome of the paper provides pertinent information for policy formulation on how best to enhance small farmers’ adaptation to climate change.

Rural entrepreneurship development and employment generation are fundamental to enhancing local-level progress and transformation. Achieving gainful employment in rural communities contributes immensely to the realisation of the potential of people living in remote communities. The purpose of this paper is to present a ten-stage practical approach for enhancing rural entrepreneurship development as a major driver of local community transformation and development.

The action research was preceded by a preliminary study, which identified some crucial factors associated with the success of rural entrepreneurial activities in rural Lagos, Nigeria. The research, which is an offshoot of the earlier field survey, was designed to engage viable community-based organisations (CBOs) in Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and Lekki communities for the implementation of context-specific rural entrepreneurship development projects through the provision of “non-serviceable” revolving loans.

Successful funded rural entrepreneurs and CBOs served as veritable models for driving entrepreneurship development and employment promotion in rural Lagos, Nigeria. Projects funded included artisanal fisheries, barbering salons, piggeries and snail production.

The projects which generated employment opportunities for rural youths and other able-bodied community members serve as a strategy for lifting people out of poverty. The action research was designed to inform rural development policy in Nigeria and other similar economies in the south.

The study outlines a step-by-step process of entrepreneurship development project implementation.

Poverty, inequality and unemployment challenges need to be adequately addressed if sustainable human development is to be achieved. Although these key issues are not mutually exclusive, the purpose of this paper is to identify factors influencing rural employment promotion (REP) in southern Nigeria.

A multi‐stage sampling procedure was used to select 60 rural communities in southern Nigeria. In all, 300 interviewees were sampled and interviewed using structured and unstructured interview schedules. Descriptive statistical techniques such as frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation, etc. were used to describe and summarise the data. Probit analysis was employed to make deductions through the use of STATA package.

The result showed a pseudo R² value of 0.3581, which is quite reasonable for qualitative dependent variable models. At p 0.01 level of significance, education (z=2.02), farm size (z=2.39) positively influenced the drive towards rural employment generation. Also, at p 0.01 level, the availability of banking institutions (z=1.94) and support from the family members (z=2.17) did strongly predict REP. Other predictors of REP were the disaggregated units of project type/orientation, which are production (z=1.67) and service‐oriented ventures (z=1.98) and they both had strong and positive influence on REP at p 0.05 and 0.01 levels of significance, respectively.

The research only focused on south‐western Nigeria. Other geo‐political and ecological zones in the country would need future research exploration to allow for a country‐level generalisation of findings on rural employment.

The findings of the study have practical implication for future employment initiative/project implementation in Nigeria and in similar socio‐ecological contexts elsewhere. They serve as a baseline on which future research and development work could rely.

The information generated in the study could serve as working tools for pro‐poor policy conceptualisation, formulation and implementation in developing economies and probably elsewhere. If genuinely implemented, it could enhance rural peoples’ well‐being and quality of life.

As an original research, the paper offers new insights on crucial issues that influence rural employment promotion in Nigeria and probably elsewhere with similar (socio‐cultural, ecological, political and economic) contexts in the South.

Agricultural intensification is central to the Green Revolution (GR) programme. This initiative, which dates back to the early 1940s, revolves around the development of high-yielding and disease-resistant seed varieties that aims at bringing about efficient and secure food production. The purpose of this paper is to present a brief genesis and thrust of the GR. Focusing on Nigeria as a typical African case, the discourse addresses the political economy of the Nigerian agriculture, outlines the features of the Nigerian GR and highlights some crucial issues debated during the 2008 Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) conference for a uniquely African GR as a pro-poor development strategy.

Using a critical discourse analysis and case study design, the paper analyses the political and bureaucratic lapses associated with the introduction and implementation of the reform.

Although wary of some of the socio-political and environmental issues surrounding the production of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) and high external inputs (HEIs) in the push for a new African GR, the paper reports the proceedings of the Salzburg conference as a likely platform for the formulation of new pro-poor policies in the context of the African GR. If sincerely and properly implemented, the paper argues that an African-oriented GR framework is conceived as a possible policy window to address the challenges of the continent ' s poor majority.

The policy issues raised in the paper would serve as a pool of information from which policy conceptualisation, formulation and implementation could be derived for the good of the African agrarian economies and poor majority.

Highlighted issues on the debates on a “uniquely” African GR during the SGS conference provide original insights to the implementation of agrarian reforms in Africa. The paper is valuable to policy makers and other stakeholders in re-shaping the agricultural sector in the continent.