FoodAfrica researchers participated in a conference on Impact of International Agricultural Research in Nairobi

In July, CGIAR organized a conference on assessing the impact of international agricultural research, in Nairobi. FoodAfrica held its own annual meeting in connection to the event, which gave the FoodAfrica researchers an opportunity to engage with other relevant partners and share the FoodAfrica results. The conference was a three day event held at ICRAF in Nairobi, including engaging plenary sessions with invited papers and discussions, and a number of …

FoodAfrica researchers and local farmers were brought together in Senegal by Theatre Forum – a participatory method to resolve stakeholders’ problems

In Senegal, the FoodAfrica team has made use of the interactive theatre forum method. It was applied by the FoodAfrica team to address some of the critical water management issues facing irrigated agriculture in the coastal Niayes region of Senegal. The theatre forum method can be used to disseminate the key messages coming from one’s research results while creating opportunities for smallholder farmers to react to research-based findings. It also …

A Way to a Better Life

In Senegal, dairy production still faces many challenges. Conquering them would enable the local communities to count on having enough food and money for each day. It is hard for Senegalese dairy farmers to achieve high yields. The soil is dry and poor in nutrients. Drought usually means that there is not enough nutritious feed for the cattle, which has a negative impact on milk production. As a consequence, the …

New business models will be developed and tested for scaling up aflatoxin control technologies in Kenya

The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) will continue to work on developing aflatoxin control technologies even after FoodAfrica. The work will continue in cooperation with Wageningen University and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) as they recently secured 600,000 Euro funding to develop and test business models for scaling up aflatoxin control technologies through farmer groups in Kenya. When some molds grow on crops, they produce toxic substances …

Educational videos can improve nutrition and health of families around the world

Families are receiving important information aiming to improve their nutrition and health via educational video material produced and disseminated by the GloCal project that works in collaboration with the FoodAfrica programme. The videos are targeting mothers, children and families and are applicable basically everywhere. GloCal (Global issues in Local context) is a project of the University of Helsinki, Finland, aiming to improve the nutrition and health of families around the …

Wild foods help to reach food and nutrition security

146 different edible plant and 148 edible animal species were documented in the project area in Benin, showing the richness of local biodiversity for food and nutrition. However, 80% of surveyed households experienced some form of food insecurity over the past month, and 59% of households lacked foods several times across the year. Coping strategies used during food insecure periods include reducing diversity and quantity of food, taking loans to buy food …

FoodAfrica trained students to innovate from research to business

Capacity building plays a key role in FoodAfrica II. In October 2016, the programme organized training sessions at two large-scale conferences in Africa, both with a high number of students and youth among the participants. The training sessions organised at the AAIN and RUFORUM conferences was meant to provide new tools and ideas about using research results to create innovative business ideas. Eija Laitinen from FoodAfrica partner HAMK gave an introductory …

FoodAfrica’s soil research innovation presented at FAO’s conference in October

In the FAO Committee on World Food Security in Rome 17-21 October 2016, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland jointly organized a side event with Finnish research centres and NGOs. In this event, cases were presented on how local ownership and acceptance for new technologies can be achieved. As one of the four cases Luke presented the results of FoodAfrica work package 1, …

Aiming for better crop production in Senegal together with Felm

FoodAfrica is searching new collaboration possibilities especially with NGO’s both in Finland and Africa. The FoodAfrica research programme team and the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission (Felm) have been discussing about how to collaborate in utilizing the results of the programme in development cooperation. One good option is a food security project PROSAF that Felm is implementing in Senegal through its local partner, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Senegal (ELS) in …