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Farmers and pastoralists throughout Africa could soon be confronting a dual threat, thanks to this year’s potentially record-breaking El Niño phenomenon. The weather system has the potential to cause both severe drought and significant flooding throughout the continent, leading to reduced or damaged crops, income losses, and increased food insecurity for many of the region’s poorest populations.

African governments need to establish policies and infrastructure to increase fertilizer access and use, concluded a roundtable meeting between IFPRI and the African Fertilizer and Agribusiness Partnership (AFAP), held in Johannesburg in July. Participants agreed that increasing the use of fertilizers is critical in expanding sustainable agricultural production in the region and is in line with the goals of the 2006 Abuja Declaration regarding the use of fertilizers to stimulate a “green revolution” in Africa.

This study (a joint undertaking by a number of researchers and published in World Development), conducts a meta-analysis which aims to expose the nature and magnitude of post-harvest losses in Sub-Saharan Africa, and to identify gaps in their assessment and mitigation. Post-harvest losses (PHL) are a crucial factor that affects food security and nutrition across the region.

The following post by IFPRI senior researcher Alejandro Nin Pratt was originally published on ASTI News and Notes .

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 .