FairPlanet • 8th August 2023

How to unlock African women’s power in the agri-food business

Countries across Africa are making progress towards gender equality in the agriculture sector, but challenges such as COVID-19 and conflict have undermined these efforts.

In fact, in 2021, Africa was the region with the highest global increase of people suffering from severe or moderate food insecurity. This inhibited progress affects the continent as a whole, with dire ramifications for women. Recognising women as agents of change and leveraging their contributions to Africa's agrifood systems

The Hill • 13th July 2023

Amid worsening global crises, children need a new safety net

From a myriad of armed conflicts to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the shocking impact of climate change and dire cost-of-living hardships, the world is living through a polycrisis that is impacting all corners of the world like never before.

Yet amid this all, we must not forget that it is children — especially those who are growing up alone, in fragile family environments or without adequate care — who suffer the most. It is therefore urgent to focus on providing a new safety

FairPlanet • 11th July 2023

Three ways the world is finally making progress on food waste

One of the most pressing global challenges is built on a paradox: more than 828 million people are facing hunger in the world today, yet one-third of all food produced for human consumption worldwide continues to be lost or wasted each year. From inadequate storage infrastructure to oddly shaped vegetables or simply misleading “sell by” dates, too much good food ends up in landfills.

Food banks are one solution that can play a critical role in both supporting people and reducing food waste. But

Agri-Pulse • 7th July 2023

Opinion: Insect-resistant cowpea two years on: Scaling a best-practice agricultural innovation to feed a growing African population

Two years ago, Nigeria commercialized SAMPEA 20-T, a breakthrough new variety of insect-resistant cowpea – a critical crop for nutrition and livelihoods throughout sub-Saharan Africa. This breakthrough not only illustrated how advances in crop innovation are reaching smallholder farmers – but also the significant work that remains in scaling uptake to reach more communities, more effectively.

Eaten by roughly 200 million Africans, predominantly in West Africa, cowpea is commonly referred to as

Farming First • 6th July 2023

From ‘Gateway to the West’, St. Louis blazes new trail as major agtech hub

Known originally as the “Gateway to the West” as it meets the confluence of the great Mississippi and Missouri Rivers, St. Louis is now increasingly recognized for the flow of scientific advancement that is transforming its role into that of a major agricultural technology capital.

Tackling rising global hunger in the context of complex challenges like climate change requires the right mix of research institutes, industry and start-up agility. Thankfully, this “frontier” spirit of innovation is

Fortune • 22nd June 2023

Malawi’s former president: ‘Africa’s food systems are in danger of failing due to high debt and climate change. A new financial pact can reverse this’

Agriculture is the cornerstone of African communities and economies. Not only is the majority of the continent’s working population employed in the sector, but just under a quarter of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP is generated by the work of its farmers. Yet, climate change is now undermining what progress has been made across the continent in the last few decades–with hunger, malnutrition, and poverty all on the rise.

Amidst these challenges, the significant debt servicing obligations that African

Al Jazeera • 17th June 2023

Foodbanks can help tackle East Africa’s hunger crises

Foodbanking builds on African traditions of generosity and communal help and can play a key role in redistributing food in times of drought.

Facing a sixth consecutive failed rainy season, countries in the Horn of Africa are staring at the region’s worst drought in at least 70 years. This, research shows, would not have happened without climate change.

As crops fail and livestock dies out, families are being forced to go without food. More than 20 million people now face severe levels of food

The Telegraph • 8th June 2023

A crop pandemic could devastate the Global South. Here’s how to limit the risk

While the spread of plant disease may be difficult to prevent, the consequences on food security and economies needn’t be. Donors, particularly in developed countries, which have access to many of these tools, must support the scaling up of essential disease monitoring and prevention systems in low- and middle-income countries.

After all, as we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic, preventing outbreaks anywhere is in everyone’s interests everywhere.

To begin with, donors and aid-giving countries s

Farming First • 26th May 2023

How a Data and AI Revolution is Helping Africa’s Farmers Build Resilience and Productivity Through More Accurate Predictions

Dr. Racine Ly, Director, Department of Data Management, Digital Products, and Technology, AKADEMIYA2063, discusses how the emerging technology revolution is helping Africa’s farmers build resilience through innovative crop production predictions.

From climate change and conflicts to health crises, plant disease, and pest outbreaks, Africa’s food production systems are constantly battling numerous threats. Countering these shocks would require accessible data and quality evidence, not only for A

African Business • 19th May 2023

African farmers have a data problem – but modern technology can help

From automated tractors, temperature and moisture sensors, all the way to aerial imagery and drones, farmers in most advanced agricultural systems are in an increasingly digital world, with a range of vital data available at the touch of a button.

Yet, despite increasing threats such as climate change and the spread of new pests and diseases, farmers in Africa with access to data remains limited – often passed down from the previous generation or fellow farmers – to inform what and how they gro

BusinessGreen • 8th May 2023

Lessons from Peru: How food firms joined forces with 'potato guardians' to protect biodiversity

Dotted across the country's highland regions, the lives of Peruvian smallholder potato farmers would, at first glance, seem remote from the concerns of multinational agri-food businesses. Yet, with...

Inter Press Service • 3rd May 2023

How the Rise of Timor-Leste’s Aquaculture Sector Is a Blueprint for Other Small Island Nations

How the Rise of Timor-Leste’s Aquaculture Sector Is a Blueprint for Other Small Island Nations

PENANG, Malaysia, May 3 2023 (IPS) - For Timor-Leste, as with most other islands in the Pacific, fortunes are to be found in fish – an equity food available to all regardless of status.


Nevertheless, the island is highly exposed to the impacts of climate change, hampering domestic food production and contributing to Timor-Leste’s ranking of 110th out of 121 countries for malnutrition. Meanwhile, th

Mongabay • 26th January 2023

In wake of ‘natural’ disasters, not reducing biodiversity loss is a big missed opportunity (commentary)

Floods, heatwaves, droughts, and wildfires – a changing climate is bringing with it ever more frequent and destructive so-called “natural” disasters, often impacting the most vulnerable areas and communities of the world.

Amidst these rising impacts, the role of nature is too often framed as “creating” such events. Yet, as both science and traditional knowledge attest, nature is not only our best defense against climate-related hazards, it is also a bountiful source of benefits and advantages f

The Hill • 25th January 2023

What food banks need to prevent the worst of the coming recession

After a year of rising inflation and shocks to supply chains during 2022, little relief is expected in 2023, with many of the world’s economies now staring down the prospect of recession in the coming year.

So much so, as countries and international businesses gathered at Davos, the World Economic Forum is called for “bold collective action” to address the “sheer number of ongoing crises.”

Ultimately, the access to healthy food will be at the forefront of the coming economic upset, with acute

CNBC Africa • 10th January 2023

The African innovations unlocking new pathways to scale access to climate finance

Climate change has reduced productivity growth of African food systems by 34 per cent since 1961. Still, continued warming to 2C this century could cause crop yields to fall by up to 20 per cent by 2030, endangering countless lives and livelihoods alike. In the face of this urgent challenge, there remains a huge gap in Africa’s current climate adaptation funding, estimated to be within the region of US$41.3 billion – annually – for the entire continent. To bridge this climate finance gap, Africa

Context (TRF) • 3rd January 2023

Here’s where Africa can find the food revamp cash it needs | Context

From Rwanda to Benin to Zimbabwe, African countries are finding ways to source climate change adaptation funds at home

While African countries have nearly doubled their annual public expenditure in agriculture since the mid-1990s, absolute funding levels have started to stagnate and decline. This is happening at a time when the continent also faces a climate adaptation finance gap of some $41.3 billion.

While high-income countries must continue to meet their obligations to fund climate adaptat

Ottawa Citizen • 16th December 2022

How to minimize food waste, help food banks and feed more people

From Thanksgiving turkeys to Christmas dinners, seasonal meals are, for many, the centrepiece of our holiday season.

Yet, with the heightened focus on food that this time of year brings, there also comes an often-unseen consequence that remains unaddressed in the world’s most developed economies: massive food waste.

CNBC Africa • 24th November 2022

Food banks in Africa: a novel solution to the continent’s hunger and climate crises

Yet, when this land fails, due to climate stress and persistent drought rendering swathes of pastureland unviable for the grazing of livestock, the specter of hunger and deprivation follows close behind. However, for many of the Maasai, relief has come from what some might consider an unexpected source: food banks. Traversing inaccessible terrain and the interference of wild elephants, the refrigerated trucks of Food Banking Kenya are able to overcome numerous obstacles with the support of local

Al Jazeera • 10th November 2022

Livestock is a form of climate justice in the Global South

Global North perceptions of the livestock sector should not be imposed on poor countries that suffer from undernutrition.

As the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) proceeds in Egypt, few seem to be acknowledging that the elephant in the room is actually a cow. The livestock sector has faced global scrutiny for its contribution to climate change, but is reducing livestock production actually a fair, or even an honest, climate outcome?

The answer is less than straightforward w

Context (TRF) • 19th October 2022

It’s time for climate compensation at COP27 | Context

Rich nations should demonstrate their commitment to human rights, climate justice, and social equity with loss and damage funding

The scales of climate loss and damage are heavily weighted against the most vulnerable low-emitting economies, with an ever-growing disparity between the proportionate cost of climate change to high- versus low-income countries.

Moreover, this disaster has devastated Pakistan’s largest employment sector – agriculture – which will cause reverberations throughout live