Malawi

This article investigates how other indicators than just international food price spikes influence food price volatility and child malnutrition in Niger and Malawi. In recent times, considerable attention has been paid to the nutritional impact of the sharp hikes in the international food prices which took place in 2007–8 and 2010–11. While understandable, this growing focus has perhaps obscured the impact of other variables affecting malnutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa. »

This report presents an updated geographic and demographic picture of the world’s mountain areas and assesses the vulnerability to food insecurity of mountain dwellers in developing countries. The report is a follow-up on FAO-report from 2003. »

This article elaborates on the importance of informal seed markets for African family farmers. Using a comprehensive data set with 9660 observations across six countries and covering 40 crops, the authors show that farmers access 90.2 % of their seed from informal systems with 50.9 % of that deriving from local markets. However, current investments are mostly geared towards formal markets instead of informal ones, while the informal sector remains the core for seed acquisition in Africa. »

This concise report by UNWomen estimates the monetary value of the gender gap, its associated costs and the effectiveness of certain policies and interventions in agricultural productivity. The report focuses on the countries Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. However, the analysis can be replicated by policy makers from other countries since the methodology and data used to quantify the costs of the gender gap and to determine to what extend different factors contribute to the gender gap are aptly presented in two Appendices. »

This paper by Eugenie Maïga, Luc Christiaensen, and Amparo Palacios-Lopez, investigates the extent of youth engagement in agriculture in six African countries using unique data from the Living Standards Measurement Surveys-Integrated surveys on agriculture (LSMSISA). They employ both descriptive and regression analysis to compare the hours worked per week in agriculture by the youth (16-35) and the prime-age group (36-60). »

This report by the World Resources Institute sets out a six-step framework for scaling up regreening, each step accompanied by a list of practical, on-the-ground activities to guide development practitioners and regreening advocates. Regreening occurs at the landscape level through a variety of agroforestry and sustainable land management practices. »