Social protection for sustainable food systems
Social protection programmes to help farmers become more resilient aren’t just safety nets, but can help them make investments and meaningfully engage in markets, says the Alliance for a Green...
Southern Africa’s hunger hotspots
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Food Programme’s Hunger Hotspots report highlights the countries most at risk of increased food insecurity from August to...
How farming makes us better than we are
It has been almost 13 years since I wrote my first stories for Farmer’s Weekly as a freelance journalist, and now, as we start a new year, the time has...
Looking forward to 2022
The past year has brought with it many challenges, including a significant increase in the prices of agricultural inputs. However, farmers have shown that there is much strength in unity,...
Can SA grow its agro-processing sector?
One of the topics featured in the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy’s latest agricultural outlook report concerns the prospects for growing South Africa’s agro-processing sector. Using vegetable oil as...
Droughts: a global crisis that hits the poorest
According to a new report by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, drought constitutes a global crisis that risks becoming a ‘pandemic’, causing widespread starvation if countries do...
Helping farmers in Africa to mechanise
There is sufficient evidence that mechanisation of farming can improve production, reduce losses and help develop rural communities. In this report, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations...
The economic and ecosystem impacts of GM maize in SA
A recent study by Kristiina Ala-Kokko, a researcher at the University of Arkansas in the US, and felllow researchers has shown that, despite the controversy that still surrounds the use...
The drivers of dismal service delivery
South Africa’s local government elections will take place on 1 November. One of the core functions of municipalities is to provide services such as refuse removal, the upkeep of certain...
The possible dangers of eating insects
The farming and processing of edible insects for human and animal consumption appears to be gaining in popularity. However, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,...
How COVID-19 changed agricultural policy
As governments implemented containment measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, they also introduced ways of limiting the effects of the virus and related lockdowns on agricultural...
How much will it cost to save the planet?
The ongoing loss of natural spaces, including forests, has become a systemic risk for the global economy, warns the report, ‘State of Financing for Nature: Tripling investments in nature-based solutions...
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