By Busani Bafana

Improved maize varieties could boost crop yields in drought-prone areas in the south of Zimbabwe. / Busani Bafana

BULAWAYO, Oct 21 (IPS) – As controlled field trials of a genetically modified (GM) crop are about to begin in five African countries amidst promises of improved crops grown under poor conditions, critics are [...]

Decades of shifting cultivation by rural farmers have threatened forests in the district of Karonga in northern Malawi.

By Kelvin Kachingwe

Strong GDP growth has not overcome poverty in Zambia, threatening achievement of development goals such as access to clean water. / Kelvin Kachinwe/IPS

LUSAKA, Oct 19 (IPS) – Civil society organisations warn that unless Zambia addresses its high poverty levels, the strides the country already made in achieving some of the Millennium Development Goals [...]

By Suleiman Mbatiah

Sistre Muthoni displays her farm produce at a market in Nairobi, Kenya. Many farmers in Kenya use credit services cooperatives. / Suleiman Mbatiah/IPS

NAIROBI, Oct 19 (IPS) – Seventeen years ago it seemed like an impossible dream to provide thousands of low-income farmers with a way to borrow small amounts of money. [...]

By Stephen Leahy
NAGOYA, Japan, Oct 16 (IPS) – Africa is hungry – 240 million people are undernourished. Now, for the first-time, small African farmers have been properly consulted on how to solve the problem of feeding sub-Saharan Africa. Their answers appear to directly repudiate a massive international effort to launch an African Green Revolution funded [...]

By Thabani Okwenjani
MAUN, Botswana, Oct 16 (IPS) – Despite early warnings about higher-than-usual flooding of the Okavango Delta in 2010, homes, fields, latrines and boreholes in the delta were flooded.

Beginning in May, gradually rising waters destroyed crops, disrupted the water supply and sanitation facilities, threatening public health with increased incidence of malaria and diarrhoea.
The flooding [...]

By Kabomba Sonkolo
LUSAKA, Oct 16 (IPS) – Buoyed by government’s fertiliser subsidy, Zambia’s farmers produced 2.8 million tonnes of maize in the 2009/10 growing season. Initial delight over the increased harvest – up from 1.8 million tonnes the previous year – gave way to worry as farmers realised they could be stuck with most of [...]

By Khutliso Sekoati
MASERU, Oct 14 (IPS) – Bonang Charles's fields are a richly green rarity in October's parched landscapes along the Phutiatsana River. It's a vivid demonstration of the limited reach of irrigation to Lesotho's small-holder farmers.

Eight years ago, this former shepherd began hiring land in the Thaba-Bosiu area, 15 kilometres east of the capital, [...]

By Claire Ngozo*

Irrigation canal in Mchinji District: farmers here are adopting adaptation strategies that are within their limited means. / FISD/IPS

MCHINJI DISTRICT, Malawi, Oct 6 (IPS) – Malawi has directed local government officials to develop local response strategies to the effects of climate change.

In September, the country’s Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, [...]

By Vusumuzi Sifile

LUSAKA, Oct 5 (IPS) – The M’cheleka Irrigation Scheme was meant to answer water and food security challenges in the Chadiza district of Zambia's Eastern Province. But ten years after the completion of the dam wall, only six families are benefiting from the water.

It's an indication that in some cases the water crisis [...]

By Busani Bafana

Women vendors sell cowpeas near Thies, Senegal. / J. Ehlers/Wikicommons

DAKAR, Oct 1 (IPS) – The black-eyed pea, commonly known as the cowpea, is the new kid on the block when it comes to improving the welfare of women and their families in West Africa, researchers say.

Scientists meeting in Dakar, Senegal for the [...]

By Wambi Michael
KAMPALA, Oct 1 (IPS) – Faced with a severe decline in soil fertility and low crop production as a result, Ugandan farmers have turned to human urine to improve the richness of their soil.

Scientists have found that urine is a first-rate source of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, elements that are all vital for [...]

By Busani Bafana

Senegal targets to plant one billion Jatropha Curcus plants grown using in-vitro, nursery and cuttings in the next two years. / Busani Bafana/IPS

DAKAR, Sep 30 (IPS) – While researchers and farmers are still divided on the benefits of growing crops for biofuel production as Africa grapples with food security, Senegal is steadily [...]

By Isaiah Esipisu

Judith Mwikali Musau is one farmer who has successfully introduced the use of grafted plants for crop and fruit harvesting. / Isaiah Esipisu/IPS

NAIROBI, Sep 29 (IPS) – In the semi-arid Laikipia district of Kenya’s Rift Valley province, research scientist Sarah Ogalleh Ayeri travels from one village to another, documenting methods used by [...]

By Stanley Kwenda

"Investment and trade should also depend on the extent of democratisation in Zimbabwe." / Nastasya Tay/IPS

JOHANNESBURG, Sep 23 (IPS) – While investors need assurances about property rights and the protection of investments before they will invest in Zimbabwe’s precarious economy, the state of democracy in the Southern African country should also be [...]