Dry weather hits southern Africa’s farmers, putting key maize supplies at risk: how to blunt the impact

Dry weather hits southern Africa’s farmers, putting key maize supplies at risk: how to blunt the impact

By Wandile Sihlobo, Stellenbosch University South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe have recently published reports indicating a potential decline in grain harvest because of intense El Niño-induced dryness. These developments could put the entire Southern Africa maize supply chain at risk, with Zambia and South Africa hard hit by heatwaves and dryness. The neighbouring small producers such as Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia are also struggling with dryness. […]

March 7, 2024 27

Africa

Sudan war may spark world’s largest hunger crisis

The war in Sudan could trigger the world’s largest hunger crisis unless fighting stops, The World Food Programme has warned. The BBC reports that more than 10 months of fighting between rival forces has left nearly 14,000 people dead, over eight million displaced, and much of the country’s population cut off and facing rising hunger.

March 6, 2024 18

World

Israeli siege has placed Gazans at risk of starvation − prewar policies made them vulnerable in the first place

Displaced Gazan children wait in line to receive food. Belal Khaled/Anadolu via Getty Images Yara M. Asi, University of Central Florida The stories of hunger emerging from war-ravaged Gaza are stark: People resorting to grinding barely edible cattle feed to make flour; desperate residents eating grass; reports of cats being hunted for food. The numbers involved are just as despairing. The world’s major authority on food insecurity, the IPC Famine […]

February 16, 2024 17

Africa

More than 200 starve to death in Tigray

More than 200 people have starved to death since July in Edaga Arbi town, in Ethiopia's drought-hit and war-scarred Tigray region. Local authorities say another 16 have died in nearby Adwa town. According to the BBC, officials in Tigray have warned that the region is on the brink of famine on a scale last seen in 1984, prompting the global fundraising music event Live Aid the following year. The central […]

January 17, 2024 33