Makarere University, Uganda - Statistics week: Using data to improve agriculture

Title: 

Statistics week: Using data to improve agriculture

Author:

Betty Kyakuwa

Published:

Makarere University, 18 November 2022

https://news.mak.ac.ug/2022/11/statistics-week-using-data-to-improve-agriculture/

From the news article:

* The School of Statistics and Planning yesterday rewarded and recognized the contribution of some of its staff members.

* Speaking at the opening of the conference, Prof. Buyinza Mukadasi, who represented the Vice Chancellor, said it is important to use agriculture statistics to inform better planning that can cause transformation in the entire agriculture production chain.

 

Hokkaido University, Japan - ‘Zero Hunger’ SDG: How this university became a leader [University World News, June 2022]

Title:

‘Zero Hunger’ SDG: How this university became a leader 

 

Author:

Suvendrini Kakuchi  

 

Published:

University World News, 29 June 2022 

https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=20220620104642182

 

From the article:

Hokkaido University, one of Japan’s oldest national universities situated on Japan’s northern-most island amid large swathes of farmland and originally established as a college to promote agricultural productivity and food security in a cold climate, has emerged as world class in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa - Time to go back to the basics of African nutrition to solve the continent’s food insecurity problem

Title:

Time to go back to the basics of African nutrition to solve the continent’s food insecurity problem

 

Published:

Wits Business School, 1 June 2022

https://www.wbs.ac.za/news/time-to-go-back-to-the-basics-of-african-nutrition-to-solve-the-continents-food-insecurity-problem.php

 

From the article:

The impacts of climate change, violent conflicts and rising global food prices due to supply chain constraints are currently some of the main threats to food security on the African continent. To combat this persisting challenge, Professor Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba (PLO) – the founder of the PLO Lumumba Foundation – says it is time for Africa to return to its roots and explore the basics of African nutrition.

 

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), South Africa - Food security for needy students

Title:

Food security for needy students 

 

Author:

Kwanele Butana

 

Published:

Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), 27 May 2022

https://www.cput.ac.za/newsroom/news/article/4484/food-security-for-needy-students

From the news article:

* Hundreds of needy students in CPUT residences will continue benefitting from food vouchers and parcels organised by the Division of Student Affairs.

 

* “Currently, DSA uses its own budget which it reorganises to provide vouchers to the value of R300 or R400 and food parcels amounting to R500. This is really an interim measure which we are really struggling to sustain.” 

 

* He called for any form of assistance for the project.

 

University of Johannesburg (UJ), South Africa - UJ secures grant to advance land and agrarian reform in South Africa

Title: 

UJ secures grant to advance land and agrarian reform in South Africa  

 

Published: 

University of Johannesburg (UJ), 18 March 2022 

https://www.uj.ac.za/news/uj-secure-grant-to-advance-land-and-agrarian-reform-in-south-africa/   

 

From the article: 

The Centre for Sociological Research and Practice (CSRP) within the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Johannesburg (UJ)  has secured a R4 million grant from the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS). 

 

Valorizing staple crop residues through mushroom production to improve food security in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo [Scholarly Article - Journal of Agriculture and Food Research February 2022]

Title:

Valorizing staple crop residues through mushroom production to improve food security in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo  

 

Authors:  

Orthence K.Kazige, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo 

Géant B.Chuma, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique,Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo 

Annifa S.Lusambya, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique,Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo  

Jean M.Mondo, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo

 Alphonse Z.Balezi, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo 

SylvainMapatano, DIOBASS Platform in Kivu, Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo 

& 

Gustave N.Mushagalusa, Faculty of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Université Evangélique en Afrique, Bukavu, South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo  

 

Published: 

Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 25 February 2022 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666154322000187   

 

Abstract: 

Food security is challenged by low agricultural productivity in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This study aimed at contributing to food security of rural households in South-Kivu by valorizing residues of four staple crops, including cassava, maize, banana, and common bean. The study was conducted in two steps: (1) monitoring of farmers' fields throughout the cropping season to record weight of crop residues and yields, and (2) assessment of the potential of staple crop residues for mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) production. Results showed that the four major staple crops had low yields and low biomass productivity in the study area. Residues of these staple crops were mainly used by farmers as fodder, compost, incinerated, or left on the farm for nutrient recycling. In addition to target plant parts (tubers or grains), cassava and common bean leaves were harvested for household consumption (as vegetables) or traded at local markets for income generation. Substrates based on maize residues, combined with cow manure as additive, gave the highest yield of P. ostreatus (2.4 kg kg−1) compared to residues of other three staple crops. In contrast, substrates from banana leaves had consistently lowest yields, regardless of used additives (1.1 and 1.2 kg kg−1 with soybean flour and cow manure, respectively). This study showed that valorizing residues of staple crops could help improve households’ food security and income in rural areas of eastern DRC. This practice should, therefore, be encouraged and scaled across the country and other parts of the world facing food shortages and poverty.

AFRICA - How Russia-Ukraine conflict could influence Africa’s food supplies [The Conversation, February 2022]

Title:

How Russia-Ukraine conflict could influence Africa’s food supplies

 

Author:

Wandile Sihlobo 

Senior Fellow, Department of Agricultural Economics, Stellenbosch University

 

Published:

The Conversation, 24 February 2022

https://theconversation.com/how-russia-ukraine-conflict-could-influence-africas-food-supplies-177843 

 

From the article:

Wheat and other grains are back at the heart of geopolitics following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both countries play a major role in the global agricultural market. African leaders must pay attention. 

 

The future of farming: Who will produce our food? [Scholarly Article - Food Security, 2021]

Title:

The future of farming: Who will produce our food? 

 

Authors:

Ken E. Giller, Thomas Delaune, João Vasco Silva, Katrien Descheemaeker, Gerrie van de Ven, Antonius G.T. Schut, Mark van Wijk, James Hammond, Zvi Hochman, Godfrey Taulya, Regis Chikowo, Sudha Narayanan, Avinash Kishore, Fabrizio Bresciani, Heitor Mancini Teixeira, Jens A. Andersson & Martin K. van Ittersum 

 

Published:

Food Security, 3 September 2021

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-021-01184-6

 

Abstract:

Achieving SDG2 (zero hunger) in a situation of rapid global population growth requires a continued focus on food production. Farming not merely needs to sustainably produce nutritious diets, but should also provide livelihoods for farmers, while retaining natural ecosystems and services. Rather than focusing on production principles, this article explores the interrelations between farms and farming systems in the global food system. Evaluating farming systems around the world, we reveal a bewildering diversity. While family farms predominate, these range in size from less than 0.1 ha to more than 10,000 ha, and from hand hoe use to machine-based cultivation, enabling one person to plant more than 500 ha in a day. Yet, farming in different parts of the world is highly interdependent, not least because prices paid for farm produce are largely determined by global markets. Furthermore, the economic viability of farming is a problem, globally. We highlight trends in major regions of the world and explore possible trajectories for the future and ask: Who are the farmers of the future? Changing patterns of land ownership, rental and exchange mean that the concept of ‘what is a farm’ becomes increasingly fluid. Next to declining employment and rural depopulation, we also foresee more environmentally-friendly, less external input dependent, regionalised production systems. This may require the reversal of a global trend towards increasing specialisation to a recoupling of arable and livestock farming, not least for the resilience it provides. It might also require a slow-down or reversal of the widespread trend of scale enlargement in agriculture. Next to this trend of scale enlargement, small farms persist in Asia: consolidation of farms proceeds at a snail’s pace in South-east Asia and 70% of farms in India are ‘ultra-small’ – less than 0.05 ha. Also in Africa, where we find smallholder farms are much smaller than often assumed (< 1 ha), farming households are often food insecure. A raft of pro-poor policies and investments are needed to stimulate small-scale agriculture as part of a broader focus on rural development to address persistent poverty and hunger. Smallholder farms will remain an important source of food and income, and a social safety net in absence of alternative livelihood security. But with limited possibilities for smallholders to ‘step-up’, the agricultural engine of growth appears to be broken. Smallholder agriculture cannot deliver the rate of economic growth currently assumed by many policy initiatives in Africa.

SOMALIA - Somalia is facing another food crisis: here’s why – and what can be done to stop the cycle [The Conversation, 29 April 2021]

Title:

Somalia is facing another food crisis: here’s why – and what can be done to stop the cycle

 

Authors:

Paul Porter, Professor Emeritus, Cropping Systems Agronomist, University of Minnesota

&

Hussein Haji, Executive Director of the Somali Agriculture Technical Group and Lecturer, City University of Mogadishu

[Contributor: Ryan Gavin, PhD Student, University of Minnesota]

 

Published:

The Conversation, 29 April 2021

https://theconversation.com/somalia-is-facing-another-food-crisis-heres-why-and-what-can-be-done-to-stop-the-cycle-159240

 

From the article:

Since the fall of Siad Barre’s regime in 1991, which led to a prolonged period of civil unrest, Somalia has been in a near-constant state of food insecurity. It also suffered two famines – in 1992 and 2011.

 

To what extent does climate change affect food insecurity? What we found in Lesotho - by Friederike Otto & Jasper Verschuur

Title:

To what extent does climate change affect food insecurity? What we found in Lesotho

 

Authors:

Friederike Otto 

Associate Director, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford  

&

Jasper Verschuur 

DPhil Student, University of Oxford

 

Published:

The Conversation, 15 March 2021

https://theconversation.com/to-what-extent-does-climate-change-affect-food-insecurity-what-we-found-in-lesotho-156527

 

From the article:

The food security situation in Lesotho can be classified as precarious. The country produces only 30% of maize – the main staple food – domestically. The predominantly rainfed agriculture makes it vulnerable to drought impacts. The remaining maize to meet domestic food demand is being imported from neighbouring country South Africa, with maize prices in Lesotho strongly influenced by maize prices in South Africa.

NASA Contractor Signs Deal to Build Greenhouses in Earth’s Orbit: "COVID and the climate change really opened our eyes to the fragility of food security in both the developing and the developed world." [The Byte, 2021]

Title:

NASA Contractor Signs Deal to Build Greenhouses in Earth’s Orbit: "COVID and the climate change really opened our eyes to the fragility of food security in both the developing and the developed world." 

 

Author:

Dan Robitzki

 

Published:

The Byte, 12 February 2021

https://futurism.com/the-byte/nasa-contractor-build-greenhouse-earth-orbit

 

From the article:

Private space company Nanoracks recently signed a deal with investors in the United Arab Emirates to build orbital greenhouses and grow extremely-resilient crops out in space.

 

BBC News Video, 25 June 2020 - Preventing a plague: Fighting Kenya's locusts

Title of video:
Preventing a plague: Fighting Kenya's locusts

Published:
BBC News, 25 June 2020
[Video 7:30]
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-53170894/preventing-a-plague-fighting-kenya-s-locusts

Description:
There are increasing fears for food security in East Africa, with mounting evidence of a new wave of desert locusts.

Earlier in the year, billions of the insects destroyed crops across the region – with the UN warning a second generation would be even more destructive.

Now, despite international efforts, those fears appear to be coming to pass.

When the first wave hit, Albert Lemasulani gave up his life to fight the swarms - leaving his family, his goats and his newborn son behind to try and prevent a plague.