Based on the premise that smallholders often get excluded as markets become more commercial, this paper draws lessons from the Cassava: Adding Value for Africa (C:AVA) Project by exploring the main issues and challenges facing extension service partners in five African countries (Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi). These lessons include issues around competiveness in the supply of raw material, assisting smallholders to produce value-added products competitively, working with a range of partners at different stages in the value chain to take pilot studies to scale, ensuring and maintaining quality, selecting appropriate technologies for different circumstances, anticipating negative effects of the market environment on smallholders and ensuring that strategies for ensuring benefits for women and other disadvantaged groups are incorporated into extension service operations. It concluded that one strategy does not work in all countries and, while positive government support for cassava development is helpful, the real challenge is in the need to target markets according to realisable capacities of the smallholder actors in the value chain.

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In Uganda, agricultural commercialization has been promoted to reduce poverty and improve household food security. South-western Uganda, the major producer of potato, has been considered the food basket of the country but it has one of the highest prevalence rates of stunting in children under 5. This study considered potato enterprise as a key pathway for enhancing household food and nutrition security because it has become a major income source and staple in the diets of many households in the area and most urban areas in the country. The objective was to determine factors that influence farm household nutrition and food security outcomes. Through a survey, data were collected from 434 randomly selected potato farmer households. Descriptive and econometric methods were used in data analysis. Results show that household dietary diversity score was low (3.2) for most (57%) of the households. Only 38% were food secure. The main factors enhancing household nutrition outcomes were size of land, livestock units owned, proportion of household income spent on food, and education of household head, while farmer's experience in potato production had a negative effect. The size of land owned, crop diversification, income from potato, age and education of household head, and a famer being male enhanced household food security outcomes. The study recommends promoting improved production practices to maximize land productivity, integration of livestock in potato production, and training women and men in household food and nutrition and related use of income.