Agriculture in the global south remains under pressure to produce more food while responding to climate change and resource constraints. Policy responses have focused on increasing production. But what about post-harvest losses? Globally, about one-third of food produced for human consumption is estimated to be lost or wasted. The problem was examined in a recent…
Thousands of years ago, farmers in West Africa took a wild ancestor of rice and turned it into a crop of their own. But it was difficult to harvest and, over time, globally dominant Asian rice pushed it aside. Yet African rice survived in some of the region’s harshest growing conditions, coping with drought, deep…
Europe’s maize crops have been hit hard by this summer’s heatwaves and ongoing drought, with French producers saying almost half of this year’s harvest is unusable. To prepare for hotter, drier conditions, some cereal farmers are experimenting with sorghum – a crop from sub-Saharan Africa that requires less water than maize – although making a…
Kigali — Agriculture remains underfunded in Africa as governments struggle to deliver on decades-old promises to dedicate 10% of national income to agriculture. But for many farmers, mobilising finance is only half the battle. Reaching smallholder farmers in the last mile with the little available finance remains a challenge. Some of the funding is heavily…
Farmers are rebuilding a seed bank destroyed during Israel’s war on Gaza to preserve local crop varieties and help cultivate what farmland remains. The collection has grown to about 32 varieties, but farmers say the project remains far smaller than Gaza’s agricultural needs. Published On 3 Sep 20263 Sep 2026 Share Gaza farmers restore seed…
Agriculture is the foundation for Africa’s economic takeoff, but without land tenure reform, its potential will remain untapped. Africa’s quality of governance has largely stagnated or declined over the past decade, as reflected in the World Bank’s Governance Effectiveness Index, Afrobarometer surveys across countries and the Ibrahim Index of African Governance. Africa’s youthful population is…
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire, the world’s two largest cocoa producers, have signed a joint declaration pledging closer cooperation on pricing, local processing, environmental protection and scientific research, as the two countries seek to secure better incomes for millions of cocoa farmers The declaration was signed at a high-level bilateral summit in…
A scheme tested in Uzbekistan could let African cotton farmers earn twice over, once for the fibre and once for the carbon stored in the soil beneath their fields. Cotton has always paid farmers for what they harvest. Its next payout may come from what stays in the soil, as carbon held on African farms…
China has become one of Africa’s largest development financiers. Since 2000, Chinese and other state-backed institutions have committed more than US$180 billion in loans to African countries. The money has been used to finance roads, railways, power stations, ports, water infrastructure and industrial projects. Agriculture has also become part of this expanding partnership. Food systems…
Insurance is helping farmers recover from droughts and floods before crises deepen – as climate shocks intensify and the shadow of El Niño threatens. Farmers Aminata Tambedou and Hafia Salim have watched extreme weather rolling across their homelands, crippling harvests and killing dreams. Both have braced for business setbacks and growing hunger. But both Tambedou…
