Browsing: Food Security

Coronavirus has brought enormous setbacks, suffering, and forecasts of a global depression ahead following the closure of so many economies for so long.  However, if there has been one area where it has exposed our global fragility, that area has been food. 

Certainly, the curfews, lockdowns and workplace closures delivered an uptick in power cuts, but there is no great clamour about our energy infrastructure now being under threat of failure. Likewise, with water, it remains far from accessible to all, but it has not been plundered by this year’s pandemic. Shelter could take a hit on joblessness and unpaid rents. But the elephant in the room is definitely food. 

That fact has not gone unremarked. At the level of international geopolitics, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned us all that we are moving into a famine of what it has called ‘biblical’ proportions, by which, it is …

The Tanzania Horticultural Association (Taha) is reporting an increase in revenue from the export of avocados which until now were not considered key export cash crop. 

However growing demand in the US and Europe has seen the sub-sector increase revenue to US$23 million annually. 

Tanzania is the second largest producer of avocado fruit in Africa second only to Kenya. Over the past five years, avocado exports have leap-frogged from 1,877 tonnes in 2014 to 9,000 tonnes in 2019 and were it not for the COVID-19 outbreak, this figure was expected to go higher. 

Also Read: COVID-19 response must target African agriculture and the rural poor

Kenya is already doing much better with its estimated annual output of about 190,000 tonnes as the country exports an average of 10,000 metric tonnes annually. 

In Tanzania, there are about 10,000 farmers of the crop who …

With such an initiative, smallholder farmers who suffer the brunt of inadequate resources can be prepared in readiness for planting no matter the season.…

Africa’s food security is dependent on reliable harvests from smallholder farmers who make up a large percentage of the food sources on the continent.…

The practice emphasizes protecting the soil’s top layer which is the most vulnerable to degradation through erosion and leaching.…

According to the UN-FAO, the diversity of bees and other pollinators is falling worldwide and Africa is no exception. …

With the continent continually racked with hunger and poverty, Africa could turn around its economy by adopting cassava production.…

Close to three million Kenyans are at risk of facing starvation as the impact of Covid-19 and locust invasion on food security escalates. According to the latest report from  World Bank, despite the government’s efforts to mitigate the impact of corona virus on food security, millions are at risk. 

The Report says food security in Kenya is facing twin shocks from restrictions in place due to the Covid-19 crisis and the earlier locust attack, contributing to a spike in food prices. 

“While Kenya’s cereal producing counties were spared the first-round of the locust invasion, there is high probability that the second-round towards mid-year could impact major food growing areas. The government is implementing a number of measures to mitigate the impact of the corona virus on food security and food prices,” the report states. 

Kenya relies heavily on maize, wheat, rice and Irish potatoes for food.   It is estimated that …

Heading into the future, the current farm-to-factory or farm-to-market processes which are expensive will be eliminated.…

Liquid Telecom plans to equip 5,000 western Kenyan farmers with the sensors and app by the end of 2019…