food security
Land preps to build resilience for Zambia farmers
Southern African countries find themselves at a crossroads regarding how they navigate food security by capacitating smallholders. As the year ends, the agriculture season begins in earnest with land preparation, and governments are racing to ensure available arable hectarage is ready for planting. In Zambia, agencies are incorporating land[...]
Food security and nutrition 4: Agroecology
In the previous three sections we looked at the role smallholder farmers play in agriculture, food security and nutrition in Africa, the challenges they face, and some solutions offered by external role-players, such as the African Development Bank (AfDB). That offers one set of solutions that can surely work[...]
Food security and nutrition part 3: Challenges facing smallholder productivity
Smallholder farmers in Africa face a number of challenges that negatively affect their productivity. These farmers, who cultivate plots of land often smaller than two hectares, are burdened by immense challenges that limit them to barely producing enough food to keep their own families alive. These challenges increase the[...]
Food security and nutrition 2: Smallholder farmers and food security in Africa
Africa is facing serious food security threats with thousands of children in many countries on the continent facing famine and/or suffering from the results of malnutrition. Children bear the brunt of food poverty, which refers to the types of food they eat. Millions of children, especially the youngest, poorest[...]
Agroforestry part 2: Benefits of agroforestry
Research has shown that agroforestry in Africa offers more benefits to the farmer and the environment than forestry and agriculture. Agroforestry is an agricultural system in which trees and shrubs are grown along with crops and livestock farming. The system integrates all these parts to produce food while sustainably[...]