Doctoral dissertation: Women’s empowerment key to improved farming efficiency in Africa

Innovation capacity and empowerment of women are crucial for enabling small-scale farmers in Africa to meet global challenges, according to a doctoral dissertation completed at the University of Helsinki. Climate change, biodiversity loss and population growth are major threats to food security in Africa. Most of the food consumed in Africa is grown by small-scale farmers. However, farming efficiency is not even close to what it could be. “This is …

”FoodAfrica made me a farmer” – a snapshot from our field trip to Machakos

During Nairobi Innovation Week, we had an opportunity to meet some of the Kenyan farmers that FoodAfrica has trained. So, the direction toward the county of Machakos, and off we went! Alex Mutuku Munyao has a small farm on a hillside close to Machakos town. Among other things, he farms maize and avocado, which flourish in a warm and humid environment. Rains in the area come in cycles, so Alex …

FoodAfrica programme has trained 20,000 farmers in sustainable farming practices

Nairobi, Kenya, 6 March 2018 – 20,000 farmers in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Uganda have improved the security and quality of their food supply thanks to the FoodAfrica Programme. In addition to those farmers and their communities, it is estimated that the programme has also had an impact on the lives of over 200,000 people. “FoodAfrica has been an extremely interesting and rewarding programme,” said Mila Sell, a …