Agenda:
Introduction to CCAFS and CGIAR: Why food loss and waste? - Lini Wollenberg
The Food Loss and Waste Calculator and how it can be used to mitigate climate change - Jan Broeze
Understanding Smallholder Farmers’ Post-Harvest Behaviors: Evidence from Malawi - Tabitha Nindi
Effects of Amending Soil with Organic Matter on Population Change of Aspergillus flavus and Antagonistic Microbiome: and on Aflatoxin Contamination of Groundnut in Malawi - Norah Machinjiri
This paper presents the impacts of a participatory agroecological development project on food security and wealth levels. The Malawi Farmer to Farmer Agroecology project (MAFFA) encourages farmer experimentation, community involvement and farmer-to-farmer teaching on agroecology, nutrition and gender equity. Recent international assessments of agriculture have highlighted the urgent need for changes in farming practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, due to land degradation, high levels of food insecurity and anticipated climate change impacts.
While smallholder farmers are the primary food producers in Southern Africa, contributing to 90 percent of food production in some countries, often systems in the region do not support profitability for them. WFP is working across Southern Africa to address bottlenecks in food systems to enhance the resilience of smallholder farmers. This factsheet gives an overview of WFP’s approach to smallholder farmers.
This brief explores the evidence on the relationships between food aid transfers and investments in climate adaptive agriculture using data from Ethiopia, Malawi and United Republic of Tanzania. Four climate adaptive agricultural investments are considered, namely: adoption of cereal-legume intercropping, use of organic fertilizers such as manure and compost, construction of soil and water conservation structures in fields, and investments in livestock diversification.
Le renforcement des capacités est maintenant d’une actualité brûlante en Afrique. Avec d’autres bailleurs de fonds, la banque recherche des moyens appropriés de collaborer avec les gouvernements africains pour les rendre mieux à même de mettre en oeuvre des programmes de développement sur tout le continent. Étant donné le caractère rural de la plupart des économies africaines et la concentration de pauvres dans les zones rurales, il est urgent de renforcer les capacités pour promouvoir le développement agricole.
Le principal défi des systèmes alimentaires africains à l’avenir sera de fournir de la nourriture à une population en croissance rapide dont les régimes alimentaires et les préférences alimentaires évoluent. Alors que la population européenne diminue, les consommateurs exigeant des aliments produits de manière écologiquement et socialement responsable, la population africaine va plus que doubler entre 2020 et 2050, la demande alimentaire augmentant encore plus en raison des changements alimentaires.
The main challenge for African food systems in the future will be to provide food for a rapidly growing population with changing diets and food preferences. Whilst the population of Europe is decreasing, with consumers demanding food that is produced in an environmentally and socially responsible way, Africa’s population will more than double between 2020 and 2050, with food demand increasing even more as a result of dietary changes.
Agriculture and food supply face a repositioning in the context of challenges associated with the Millennium Development Goals. From a development perspective it is of central importance to identify the role that the sector should perform in the fight against poverty and in a world that is increasingly urbanized.
The increasing complexity of technology development and adoption is rapidly changing the effectiveness of scientific and technological policies. Complex technologies are developed and disseminated by networks of agents. The impact of these networks depends on the assets they command, their learning routines, the socio-economic environment in which they operate and their history.
This policy brief deals with the following points: (i) Given the importance of agriculture and the rural medium for countries’ growth and development, policy makers must strengthen the institutional structure of rural extension and increase public and private investment; (ii) Abundant natural resources, knowledge, technology, and extensionists are not enough.