Food security

A women’s co-operative in Malawi shows that people can learn to help themselves with great results.

In her article titled ‘Working for a better future for all in Malawi’, Isabel Conway writes that determined to rise above bare subsistence and hunger, 200 women now belong to the thriving Kangamowa Cooperative that provides low interest loans to the needy and ploughs any profits into extending their agri-business activities.

She adds that the potholed track winds past huddles of thatched mud huts and squalid stalls selling withered vegetables and maize.

Dowa District Agriculture Office has called on non-governmental organisations working in food security projects in the district to support households in irrigation farming.

Dowa District Agriculture Development officer, Eliya Yamikani, says the onset of the 2014 /15 rain season was characterised by erratic and sporadic rainfall leading to some wash-aways in the district's extension planning areas.

The World Bank Group's Board of Executive Directors has approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit in the amount of US$50 million to boost Mozambique's efforts to increase access to food and better nutrition for its people, and to promote market-based agriculture and private sector investment.

This financing is the second of a series of three agriculture budget support operations that finance a medium-term agriculture sector reform program in Mozambique.

A group of youth activists condemned the Namibian government's intention to approve the lease of 10 000 hectares of fertile land to a Chinese company wanting to grow tobacco for export.

Group leader, Job Amupanda, argues that, "It is our submission that to allocate more land for tobacco than is allocated for food production is a deviation from the policy direction taken by the Namibian government through its Agriculture Ministry, which leans towards eradicating limitations to Namibia's capacity to provide food security and adequate levels of nutrition."

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the impacts of climate change will significantly affect food security, water availability, human health and ultimately economic growth in Africa.
 
The report, which is under discussion at the opening of the four day Climate Change Dialogue at Gallagher Estate in Midrand, found that Africa's climate is already changing and the impacts are already being felt.
 

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says sustainable fisheries and aquaculture are crucial to food security and nutrition.
 
FAO director-general, José Graziano da Silva, opened a meeting of the world's only inter-governmental forum on fisheries and aquaculture issues, calling for urgent action to address climate change and other threats to sustainable fisheries and fish stocks.
 

Farming is labour intensive and needs individuals with a passion for the industry, young farmers who are attending courses in Delmas said.

Buhle Academy, a non-governmental organisation started in year 2000, has already produced more than 3000 farmers.

One of the students, 20-year-old Thami Mthethwa from Soweto is attending a vegetable production course. Mthethwa attended a farmers’ expo last year in Nasrec and developed an interest in farming.

The United Nation World Food Programme (WFP) says global warming plays a big role in food security.
 
WFP Southern Africa spokesperson, David Orr points out that there has been an increase in flooding in Southern Africa.
 
Orr, who adds that the crop land has been pushed back by desert and drought has increased worldwide, says that the WFP is helping poor African nations with projects like building dams, irrigation canals and water harvesting systems, in the global fight against poverty.