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An estimated 202 million hectares of land suitable for farming remain uncultivated in Africa, despite near-constant calls for the region to intensify its agricultural production to keep up with the food demands of a rapidly growing population. So why is so much potentially productive land not being used for agriculture? In many areas, unreliable rainfall and poor soil fertility make the land, while cultivable, difficult to farm.

Data M web , created by the European Commission- Joint Research Centre, Institute of Perspective Technological Studies (Seville, Spain) thorough work with the PROGNOZ software company, provides an easy mechanism to visualize multiple datasets related to food security and nutrition.  Data M stands for Data on Agriculture, Trade, and Models, and the online data repository allows visualization in a number of ways, pulling data from a number of International Organizations (e, g., FAO and World Bank) and other relevant sources .

This blog was originally posted on the World Bank's Development Impact blog . Written by World Bank Senior Economist David Evans , co-authored by Lead Economist Markus Goldstein and Research Analyst Anna Popova .

Over the past decade, Ethiopia’s agricultural productivity has exploded, particularly for cereal crops. This expansion in agriculture has led to impressive economic growth, but it’s unclear exactly what is behind the advance in productivity. Additionally, Ethiopian agriculture relies heavily on smallholder farmers, and some researchers are concerned that the recent growth may not be sustainable on the country’s increasingly small landholdings.

Seasonal agricultural changes can impact rural households’ diets and income, affecting their long-term health and welfare. Changes in diet quality are of particular concern, as diets lower in nutritional diversity have been shown to increase the risk of chronic undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and cancer and cardiovascular disease.