| WFP and The Rockefeller Foundation boost national school meals programme |
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The World Food Programme and The Rockefeller Foundation are playing a key role in changing nutritional attitudes and behaviour with the introduction of a pilot project to integrate fortified wholegrain maize into the diets of children in 18 schools in Nyamagabe and Nyaruguru districts of southern Rwanda. Access to nutritious foods is a key component of the Government’s priority to reduce malnutrition rates in the country from 33 percent to 20 percent by 2030. Results from the pilot are impressive, with 73 percent of children now aware of the nutritional benefits of eating fortified wholegrain foods and 97 percent preferring it to the refined equivalent.Read more
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How is the modernization of agricultural supply chains affecting employment opportunities for women and the lives of their families? The Economics department of Wageningen University is looking for a PhD candidate for a project at the nexus of agricultural modernization, employment, and family outcomes in Africa. The project will combine remote sensing data, machine learning techniques, and household surveys and will be a collaboration between the Economics department and the Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing. We are looking for a PhD candidate of African nationality, to be nominated for the Wageningen University Africa Talent Programme. With this programme, Wageningen aims to attract the most talented scientists from Africa by offering a 4-year, full-time PhD position. For more information on the programme and eligibility please. Read more
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| The State of Food & Agriculture 2021 |
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The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns that adequate food supplies would not reach consumers as supply chains faced multiple shocks and stresses. Ensuring agrifood systems could perform well during the pandemic was a key concern, and these experiences have led to increased analysis of these systems. After all, the preservation of agrifood systems helps to ensure food security, nutrition and the livelihoods of millions of people. The pandemic also created an opportunity to promote further interest in ensuring diversity and connectivity, both key for resilient agrifood systems. Read more
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| SUSTAIN Pro: addressing livelihood inequality, ecosystem degradation and agricultural challenges in key growth corridors in Tanzania and Mozambique |
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The programme will be implemented in the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT) of Tanzania and the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor in Mozambique. In Tanzania, the programme will operate in the Kilombero and Ihemi clusters with the SAGCOT Centre as strategic partner. SUSTAIN Pro builds on the achievements of SUSTAIN Phase I, implemented in both countries from 2014 to 2019. Read more
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| World Food Prize Nominations Now Open For 2023! |
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The World Food Prize Foundation is seeking its 2023 Laureate – an individual in the food and agriculture space, who has significantly advanced global food security. Eligible candidates and their achievements must be: - INDIVIDUAL: The World Food Prize is awarded annually to an individual who has made a significant achievement in furthering food security. - MEASURABLE: The individual’s achievement must be measurable in terms of reducing poverty, hunger or suffering, or enhancing health, nutrition, quality of life and well-being. - IMPACTFUL: The breadth of the impact of the individual’s work will be considered, along with the complexity of the problem addressed. - INNOVATIVE: The selection committee will also take into consideration the level of ingenuity and determination to succeed shown by nominees. Read more
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| FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 |
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A world facing escalating threats demands that we act without delay to safeguard life, transform our agri-food systems to future-proof our planet and lock in sustainable outcomes. FAO Strategic Framework 2022-31 articulates FAO’s vision of a sustainable and food secure world for all, in the context of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development. Read more
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| Food Policy Special Issue: Applying Behavioral Science to Agriculture, Food, and Agri-Environmental Policy |
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“Food Policy is extending a call for papers for a special issue on “Dairy Development and Nutrition in the Developing World”, with submissions due August 31st, 2022. This issue, guest-edited by Derek Headey, Harold Alderman and John Hoddinott, seeks to extend the evidence base on dairy’s impact on diet quality and nutrition outcomes, as well as avenues for overcoming the significant economic, food safety and environmental challenges involved in scaling up dairy consumption in developing countries. The editors encourage the use of a diverse range of methods for addressing these issues (household surveys, simulation models, case studies, systematic reviews) and welcome submissions from a range of relevant disciplines, including nutrition, economics and other sciences, provided studies are accessible to scientists from different disciplines. However, papers are strongly encouraged to address the following themes. Read more
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| Rural Employment in Africa : Trends and Challenges |
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Africa’s rural population continues to expand rapidly and labor productivity in agriculture and many rural off farm activities remains low. This paper uses the lens of a dual economy and the associated patterns of agricultural, rural, and structural transformation to review the evolution of Africa’s rural employment and its inclusiveness. Many African countries still find themselves in an early stage of the agricultural and rural transformation. Given smaller sectoral productivity gaps than commonly assumed, greater size effects and larger spillovers, investment in agriculture and the rural off-farm economy remains warranted to broker the transition to more and more productive rural employment. The key policy questions thus become how best to invest in the agri-food system (on and increasingly also off the farm) and how best to generate demand for nonagricultural goods and services which rural households can competitively produce. Informing these choices continues to present a major research agenda, with digitization, the imperative of greening and intra-African liberalization raising many unarticulated and undocumented opportunities and challenges. Read more
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| Ugandan Farmer Champions Vertical Farming to Ensure Women Benefit from the Agricultural Sector |
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In Uganda, smallholder farmers champion agricultural productivity, and women constitute 76 per cent of agricultural labour. Hence, women play a vital role in the sector. Logically, a higher number should result in higher output, but this is not the case; women’s productivity is relatively poor compared to men. This is because, in addition to the responsibilities shared by all smallholder farmers, such as the rippling effect of climate change and a lack of access to agricultural resources, the burden faced by women farmers is exacerbated by cultural norms. In many African communities, women are still not allowed to own lands and have less decision-making power. This is why Lilian Nakigozi ventured in vertical farming and established Women Smiles Uganda (WSU) in 2018. Read more
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| How Blockchain Transformed Zimbabwe’s Beef Export Market |
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Like many African countries, agriculture is the economic mainstay of Zimbabwe. Agricultural activities contribute 40 per cent of total export earnings and approximately 17 per cent to GDP in the country. In 2018, their agricultural sector experienced a change in fortune with the outbreak of a tick-borne disease that caused the death of 50,000 cattle. Zimbabwe is renowned for the quality of its beef and export strength. Beef from Zimbabwe is one of the best globally, and it only falls second to Scotch beef from Scotland. At a time, Zimbabwe’s beef cattle herd raked in about $50 million yearly from exports to the lucrative European market, like the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Read more
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African Association of Agricultural Economists c/o University of Nairobi, C.A.V.S, Upper Kabete Campus Loresho Ridge Road, Nairobi, Kenya |
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