Klara Fischer, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
The South African government has failed to reverse the decline in smallholder farming that began during apartheid. A different approach is needed to support smallholder livelihoods.
African governments must acknowledge the universal right to diverse and nutritious food if they are to end malnutrition. Five projects show how this can be done.
Governments in southern Africa don’t invest enough in weather forecasting and fail to work together to prepare for natural disasters, leaving the most vulnerable exposed to successive droughts.
Almost 25% of all farmland previously owned by white landowners has been restored, redistributed to black South Africans, or moved away to state ownership.
Joachim De Weerdt, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ; Channing Arndt, CGIAR System Organization; James Thurlow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ; Jan Duchoslav, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ; Joseph Glauber, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) ; Liangzhi You, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) , and Weston Anderson, University of Maryland
Food security experts recommend that rural farmers in Malawi be given access to irrigation systems to free them from reliance on rain, and find ways outside farming to earn an income.
Just three plant species – wheat, maize and rice – account for 60% of all food eaten globally. A crop science expert argues that many of Africa’s 30,000 edible plants must be revived.
The African Food Systems Transformation Collective says COP28 must enable transition from fossil-fuelled food systems and leverage indigenous knowledge so that all can sustainably access good food.
Professor of Climate Change, Food Systems and Health in the Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine