Posts aiheesta: Yleinen

Soil micronutrients are essential to plants, animals and humans. Lack of these elements can retard growth and thus cause severe problems. The soil micronutrients in Africa are now being mapped extensively for the first time in order to improve local food security. The study is done within the research and development programme FoodAfrica, coordinated by MTT Agrifood Research Finland. There is very little and scattered information on soil micronutrients and …

As the FoodAfrica Programme aims for capacity building in the Programme countries, altogether eleven PhD students have been recruited from different academic institutions to work on their theses as part of the Programme. FoodAfrica will strengthen the cooperation between researchers and training and research institutions in the region and enhance efficient knowledge dissemination between African, Finnish and CGIAR experts. Combining applied research with development cooperation including extensive involvement of different …

Qualitative data were collected in a study on infant and young child feeding in rural Benin in May 2013. This research aimed to improve understanding of complementary feeding practices of young children. It was conducted in the preparatory phase of the Work Package 4 in the FoodAfrica Programme. Chronic child malnutrition is common in Benin. Over 40 percent of children under the age of five are stunted. One reason for …

I am Mercy Nyambura, the Laboratory Manager of the Soil-Plant spectral diagnostics laboratory at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya. I am also a PhD student attached to FoodAfrica work package no 1 focusing on soil research. The PhD study is at the University of Nairobi in Kenya, a FoodAfrica partner in the WP1. Other partners are the MTT Agrifood Research Finland, ICRAF and the James Hutton Institute (JHI) …

No project is ever gender neutral – even if it is on a topic that can seem totally irrelevant of gender, the effects of the project can be different for the men and women involved. That is why an analysis of these effects – whether positive or negative – should be included in all project planning. Such analysis requires multi-disciplinary knowledge and experience. Approximately 40 participants from several different CGIAR …

FoodAfrica work package no. 6 focuses on improving market access for small-scale farming through the provision of market information by modern information and communication technology. In Ghana the FoodAfrica partner IFPRI, together with a local network operator Esoko, has recently started providing agricultural market information, such as customized crop price information, to sample households twice a week via SMS messages. Soon a similar service will be tested also in Uganda. …

One of seven main goals of the FoodAfrica Programme is reducing the risk of mycotoxins in Kenya. Mycotoxins are toxic substances produced by fungi. They are formed in susceptible grains such as maize and sorghum if they are handled or stored in wrong conditions. This is one of the biggest food safety problems in the world and especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. In January 2013 a multi-disciplinary team from the FoodAfrica …

The FoodAfrica Programme has now been in full operation for more than one year. The Programme is firmly footed and has embarked on research activities as scheduled. The Programme aims at improving food security of local communities in totally six Western and Eastern Sub-Saharan African countries. This is a highly challenging task given the many serious constraints these countries are facing in their efforts to meet the needs for adequate …

The Supervisory Board (SB) of the FoodAfrica Programme, comprising representatives from each of the signatory parties to the Programme, had its second meeting in early March in Senegal. This was the first annual meeting of the Supervisory Board, since the launch of the Programme and the tasks of the board included discussing the achievements of the different Work Packages so far, producing recommendations and finally approving both the annual reports …