Most maize production relies on natural rainfall, making it vulnerable to changing rainfall patterns.
Shutterstock
Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be a boon for maize crops in tropical growing regions like those found in much of Africa.
Kenya is expected to import 700,000 tonnes of maize for 2022/23.
Getty Images
Changes in maize production could create complications for Kenya, sub-Saharan Africa’s major importer, because of its policy on genetically modified maize.
African-owned food retailers are increasing their footprints across the continent.
FG TRADE/Getty Images
Commitments made on the global stage must now be followed through with policy and regulatory reform at national, regional and continental levels.
Small-scale farming creates more jobs in South Africa.This one is in Soweto, Johannesburg.
Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images/Getty Images
The new initiative reproduces the core weaknesses of post-apartheid state land and agricultural policy. These have done little to improve the livelihoods of the poor.
Hard work and poor prospects for smallholder farming households in Africa.
Swathi Sridharan (formerly ICRISAT, Bulawayo)
Smallholder farming might not be able to generate enough value on its own, but farmers still need support.
A woman and baby on a bicycle taxi in Salima, Malawi. Some Malawian men are becoming more involved in childcare.
EPA-EFE
While not all men are willing to become involved in women and children’s health, some situations force them take on ‘women’s work’.
Aerial view of Port Louis, Mauritius.
Supplied by author
A significant change in political mentality is required to shore up one of Africa’s leading lights.
Digitisation includes the delivery of agronomic advice and information via text messaging and interactive voice response.
www.cta.int/
There have been some positive strides made in getting smallholders involved in digital agriculture in Africa
Children play in a cabbage patch near their home in Modderspruit, near Rustenburg, South Africa.
EFE-EPA/Halden Krog
The abandonment of crop farming fields isn’t new. But some researchers say it’s accelerated in the last two decades.
Fresh produce at a market in Blantyre, Malawi.
Supplied
Across Africa less than 10% of the population is connected to a sewer system. But the waste could be used elsewhere.
Zimbabwe erupted in violent protest after the government doubled the price of petrol.
EPA-EFE/Aaron Ufumeli
President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s decision to double the price of petrol shows very poor judgement and bad leadership.
Medium-scale African farmers are relatively wealthy and influential.
BOULENGER Xavier/Shutterstock
Medium-scale farms are an important driver of agricultural and rural transformation in much of Africa.
Communities in South Africa’s North West Province are embroiled in battles with chiefs over land.
EPA/Jon Hrusa
South Africa has made progress towards interrupting the looting of land by chiefs, state officials and mining capital.
Hunger is a daily reality across large parts of Africa.
Jon Hrusa/EPA
It’s one thing to come up with food security plans. But implementing them is tough.
Rice fields in Madagascar. There is a project in the country to increase climate resilience in the rice sector.
Shutterstock
The private-sector plays an increasing role helping agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa adapt to a changing climate.
Africa’s waterways, like the Barotse floodplain in Zambia, must be properly managed.
Bioversity International/E.Hermanowicz
African countries need to urgently develop coherent and strategic policies around water, land and agriculture.
Satellite data includes digital imagery of factors that affect farming.
Shutterstock/Solcan Design
Big data can be used to properly advise smallholder farmers in Africa and help guide pest monitoring efforts.
A woman harvests groundnuts in Malawi. Land ownership does not automatically empower women.
ILRI/Flickr
We found that even when women own land, their husbands are still perceived as household heads.
Pastoralists on a dry plain in central Mali, one of the seven Sahel countries hit by a wave of deadly attacks.
EPA/Nic Bothma
A big rise in armed attacks in the Sahel - and the intensity of the attacks in recent years - is now seen as a major source of concern.
A man walks through a greenhouse in October 2017 at a learning centre in Uganda where sustainable agriculture techniques, such as drought-resistant crops and tree planting, are taught.
(AP Photo/Adelle Kalakouti)
At present on the African continent, the politics of persuasion are especially consequential in the area of agri-food research and development.