Bringing Greener Pastures Back Home

Across Africa, agriculture accounts for 80 percent of employment but land degradation is leaving families and young people without food or income security and thus forcing them to search for greener pastures. ...

Irrigation Offers the Best Protection As Climate Change Pummels Agriculture

The changing climate and extreme weather events are affecting agricultural productivity in Africa to such an extent that a panel of experts are urging governments to prioritise and invest in irrigation to ensure food security. Increased heat spells, coupled with flash flooding and frequent droughts, are making farming impossible and unprofitable as many African smallholder […]

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Shaping a New Food System with Hydroponics

The Future Is Hydroponics partners with growers, businesses, and community leaders that share their values to deliver as much quality information as possible. They want to encourage young people to pursue purposeful work and forge new careers in hydroponics, and also inspire families to grow their own food year-round. “We believe in a future where […]

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Changing the Gender Bias in Agriculture

Women entrepreneurs are playing an important role in transforming global food security for economic growth, but they have to work twice as hard as men to succeed in agribusiness. “Agriculture and agribusiness are generally perceived as run by men,” entrepreneur and Director of the Nairobi-based African Women in Agribusiness Network (AWAN) Beatrice Gakuba, told IPS. She noted […]

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Climate-Smart Solutions Promote Peace In South Sudan

Over the course of the last six years a number of peace agreements have been signed, and as a result, many young people who had been recruited by rebel groups have begun returning home. In order to reintegrate them into normal life, the government wants them to start engaging in income-generating activities. ...

How A Digital Idea Turned Into A Viable Business To Help Smallholder Farmers

Six years ago while wondering how best to use her engineering skills, Tanzanian ICT entrepreneur Rose Funja decided to enter an innovation competition. Years later she has turned a digital idea into a viable business that helps smallholder farmers across the East African nation access credit ...

DRC Farmers in “Schools Without Walls” Learn to Increase Harvest

It was almost four years ago in 2015 that members of Farmer’s Frame of Idiofa (FFI), a farmers group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), produced a mere eight tonnes of sweet potatoes on two hectares of land. But the main reason for the low yield had not necessarily been a climate-related one, but […]

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Making Agriculture Cool

At every conference she has attended on the youth, Nawsheen Hosenally has been frustrated to hear that agriculture is not ‘cool’. The 29-year-old graduate in agricultural extension and information systems knew she wanted to do something to redeem the image of agriculture among young people. So the Mauritian and her Burkanibe, journalist husband decided to co-founded […]

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How the Weather is Yielding Resilience for Zambia’s Smallholder Farmers

By Friday Phiri at IPSfFood Sustainability Just having better information about when and for how long it will rain is proving the difference between success and failure among Zambia’s smallholder farmers. Empowered with timely information about the weather ahead of the 2017/18 farming season, 56-year-old Fainess Muzyamba of Pemba district ditched her traditional maize crop for sweet […]

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