9 pages, This paper compares the supply and demand of agricultural technologies related to maize crop in Sussundenga district, Mozambique. The field work was carried out in February and March 2018 and comprises of a survey of 140 households’ maize growers, interviews with 15 agricultural technicians and six focus group meetings (four with maize growers and two with agricultural technicians). Data analysis was done using Bardin’s content analysis and descriptive statistics. The results reveal that agricultural research and rural extension focus more on supplying technologies related to maize production. But farmers have holistic expectations that go beyond production technologies to include the entire marketing chain. It makes the technical support provided with little use to maize growers. Besides it, there are also farmers’ unanswered demands and the supply of non-demanded technologies. It means that there is a mismatch between supply and demand of maize farming technologies. Agricultural research and rural extension organizations are suggested to supply not only agricultural technologies that maximize crop yield, but also services that help households improve their ability to store agricultural products and to sell it when prices are high. These actions have the potential to improve agricultural market performance and make the agricultural technologies more useful to maize growers.
13 pages, HIV Aids has had a major impact on resource-limited African rural Sub-Saharan communities, especially upon women who typically experience greater gender inequity, have fewer assets and greater food insecurity and vulnerability. Coordinated interventions in crop productivity, nutrition, AIDS treatment, and livelihood security can have significant positive impacts on individuals and households; however their impact upon gender relations and social equity is unclear. Qualitative interviews and an integrative model of factors influencing women’s empowerment are used to examine this issue in four villages of the Miracle Project in Zambia and Malawi. Although some local agency and NGO programs existed in these villages prior to project inception, female respondents reported improvements in crop productivity and income, some initiation of new enterprises, improvement in ownership of assets and housing quality and access or re- access to kinship or community based mutual assistance networks from which they had been excluded. Consumption of the introduced quality protein maize and products from home processing of soyabeans were cited as improving household nutrition. Together with increased accessibility to retroviral drugs, women’s health has improved; levels of poverty and stigmatisation have reduced and allowed many to display an improved degree of empowerment.