Four multilateral development banks and financial institutions pledged close to US$17 billion in financing on Friday during a high-level forum, in a bold bid to address rising hunger on the African continent and to improve food security. Continue reading
Farmers are warning that the UK government needs to act fast to ensure a supply of seasonal migrant labour after Brexit. Arrivals are already dropping, and they warn farms could move or close down. Lucy Fielder reports. Continue reading
LUSAKA, Sept 7 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Repeated failed crops caused by worsening drought have forced Christine Mwenda, a small-scale farmer in Zambia’s central Mumbwa region, to do what was previously unthinkable.
Continue reading
Hunger is again stalking Malawi, with 2.8 million people at risk in a country recently lauded for slashing malnutrition rates. Floods and drought have hit the staple maize crop, exposing the fragility of Malawi’s progress, which was partly rooted in a fertilizer grant for small-scale farmers that the cash-strapped government, now starved of donor funds, can ill afford.
Continue reading
The World Food Programme (WFP) has raised concern about food security in southern Africa where an estimated 14 million people are facing hunger following prolonged dry spells that led to a poor harvest last year. The weather condition is said to have been worsened by El Nino, a pattern which typically brings drier conditions to Southern Africa and wetter ones to East Africa.
Malawi faces its most severe food crisis in a decade, blamed on extreme flooding and late, erratic rains, putting millions at risk of malnutrition and hunger.