South-Africa

This report maps the informal food sector and argues that the sector is of significant importance for reaching improved nutrition status of people. The authors argue that the informal food retail sector is an important component of urban food systems and plays a vital role in ensuring access to food for the urban poor. »

This book makes the “business case” for the role of biotechnology innovations for sustainable development in emerging and developing economies. It seeks to support the factual debate on biosciences and technology for developing and emerging economies. »

This “Lessons Learned” document reviews experiences over the last two decades in conservation agriculture and provides practical guidelines for the adoption of CA on program level and more technicallu. The three principles of conservation agriculture are: continuous minimum mechanical soil disturbance; permanent organic soil cover; and diversification. While CA took off in Latin America, adoption in sub-Saharan Africa has been limited due to different contexts and challenges. »

This paper reviews what is currently known about the role played by the informal sector in general and informal retailers in particular, in the accessibility of food in South Africa. The review seeks to identify policy relevant research gaps. The authors conclude their study with critique on the policy environment. They highlight a production and rural bias in the food security agenda and argue that the policy environment for informal operators is at best benign neglect and at worse actively destructive, with serious food security implications. »

This book, published by Wageningen Academic, presents a set of case studies on food quality improvement and innovation in food chains, with cases from South Africa, Ethiopia, Benin, Uganda and Senegal. This publication shows how a co-innovation perspective can be developed and applied. Co-innovation entails the combination of technical, organisational and institutional changes, the involvement of various chain actors, and the introduction of complementary innovations at different levels of the food chain. »

This paper by the African Centre for Biodiversity (ACBIO) reviews the farm input subsidy programmes (FISPs) within countries belonging to the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), to ascertain whether input subsidies have benefited small-scale farmers, have increased food security at the household and national levels, and have improved the incomes of small-scale farmers. »