Agriculture Ministry calls for national drought emergency

Agriculture Ministry calls for national drought emergency

The Ministry of Agriculture, Water, and Land Reform has advised the government to declare a national drought emergency following its assessment of crop prospects and food security. According to Nampa, the recommendation was made after monitoring the situation in the seven major northern communal crop-producing regions from 12 February to 11 March 2024. Executive Director Ndiyakupi Nghituwamata highlighted significant distress grazing in the southern, western, and eastern parts of the […]

April 23, 2024 27

Africa

Senior FAO official warns of real risk of famine in Sudan

Sudan’s food security crisis is a matter of deep concern with a very real risk there could be famine there, Rein Paulsen the Director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s Office of Emergencies and Resilience has told UN News. The FAO is supporting vulnerable farms to boost crop production and is implementing famine prevention strategies, including vaccinating animals.

April 22, 2024 17

World

Fasting is a key part of Ramadan, but for many Muslims, climate change is making food scarce all year

By Nasya Bahfen, La Trobe University Every Ramadan, volunteers at Westall Mosque and OneSpace in Melbourne hold free weekly iftars (communal dinners to break the fast in Ramadan). This year, volunteers say numbers are up. To cut down on the resulting landfill, attendees are asked to bring their own reusable food containers and water bottles. In dedicated bins, bottles and cans are collected and recycled under the […]

April 2, 2024 14

Namibia

Governor says Zambezi Region could feed Namibia

Zambezi Governor, Lawrence Sampofu, has called on investors to take advantage of the fertile land available in the region and invest in agriculture and other potential tourism activities. Pointing to an abundance of water, wildlife, fish and other natural resources including rivers such as Zambezi, Kwandu, Linyanti and Chobe, Sampofu insisted that the region has the potential to provide employment opportunities and food security for Namibia.

March 22, 2024 14

Uncategorized

Malawi and maize: prices have spiked on the back of bad weather and trade bans

By Simon Roberts, University of Johannesburg and Namhla Landani, University of Johannesburg Maize is the leading staple food in Malawi and crucial for food security. Typically, local production from smallholder farmers meets and exceeds annual requirements of around 3 million metric tonnes. The country, however, is currently facing a crisis with 4.4 million Malawians (22% of the population) being food insecure. This is due firstly to a […]

March 19, 2024 8

Africa

El Niño threatens Zimbabwe’s corn production

Zimbabwe has warned that farmland planted with corn has shrunk by 12% because of scorching El Niño weather patterns, threatening the nation’s food staple and potentially triggering surging prices and social unrest. We contacted Eddie Cross an economist from Zimbabwe for his comment.

March 14, 2024 54

Namibia

Prime Minister’s office partners with WFP on food security

The Executive Director in the Office of the Prime Minister, I-Ben Nashandi, and Dr. George Fedha from the World Food Programme have signed a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at strengthening the capacity for Vulnerability Assessment Analysis and systems for early warning systems. Here is I-Ben Nashandi.

February 29, 2024 45

Africa

Norwegian salmon farms gobble up fish that could feed millions in Africa

A salmon farm in Finnmark, Norway. Image by Ninara via Flickr (CC BY 2.0). By Francesco De Augustinis via Mongabay Norwegian salmon farms are taking huge amounts of wild fish from West Africa, mining the food security of the region, according to a report from the U.K.-based NGO Feedback. The analysis comes as the industry faces a wave of public opposition after revelations of high mortality rates and the sale of fish […]

February 28, 2024 21

Africa

Climate change, extreme weather & conflict exacerbate global food crisis

Global food insecurity has risen substantially since pre-pandemic times, exacerbated by extreme weather, climate change, war and conflict. What the U.N. World Food Program calls “a hunger crisis of unprecedented proportions” plays out differently around the world. In this story, three of Mongabay’s Y. Eva Tan Conservation Reporting Fellows detail the local situation in their region – from rising inflation and flooding in Nigeria to diminished local food […]

February 22, 2024 24