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El Niño-Driven Drought Continues to Threaten Livelihoods, Food Security throughout Southern Africa
South Africa is in the throes of the worst drought in 30 years, according to a recent BBC article . Driven by the on-going El Niño cycle , below average rainfall and above average temperatures have limited crop development and water availability throughout the region.
Healthy diets from sustainable food systems all year round – a case study captured on film in Zambia
This blog post originally appeared on the Bioversity International blog . It details one of many nutrition-related projects being conducted by CG centers under the Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH) program.
A 3-year research-for-development initiative in the Barotse floodplain, Zambia, supported by the CGIAR research programs Aquatic Agricultural Systems and Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, brought scientists and community members together to improve food and nutrition security all year round.
Online Dialogue Highlights Challenges, Opportunities for Fertilizer Use
Africa’s fertilizer markets face significant constraints on both the supply and the demand side, including a lack of infrastructure, high costs to both produce and use, and low public-private investment. However, the challenges of climate change and population growth are now encouraging many governments to tackle much-needed market reforms.
These were some of the takeaway messages from last week’s virtual dialogue on fertilizer use in Africa, held on December 10.
The dialogue addressed four questions:
Armed Conflict and Hunger
The latest Global Hunger Index (GHI) was released this week by the International Food Policy Research Institute, Welthungerhilfe, and Concern Worldwide. Presenting an annual, multidimensional measure of national, regional, and global hunger, the 2015 GHI utilizes data and projections from various UN agencies for 2010-2016 and provides scores from 9.9 or lower to denote “low” hunger to 35-49.9 to denote “alarming” hunger. (For more information about the 2015 GHI and overall global results, please read this new post on the global Food Security Portal.)
The Challenge of Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Africa South of the Sahara
The following post by IFPRI senior researcher Alejandro Nin Pratt was originally published on ASTI News and Notes .