A fall armyworm outbreak, the first emergence of the pest in southern Africa, is causing considerable crop damage in some countries. If the pest damage aggravates, it could dampen prospects for good crop harvests that is anticipated in the current farming season. Maize, a staple food in the region has...

FAO RAF Quarterly Newsletter is an information resource platform designated for broader audience in Africa and published every quarter of the year. This newsletter mostly contains news stories, articles, reports and up-to date events from FAO’s representatives, policy makers and other stakeholders in the sub region of Africa. The aim...

Mozambique has a population of about 25 million people. Most live in rural areas and rely on farming for all or part of their household income. Located on Africa’s south-eastern seaboard, the country encompasses biodiversity sites of great significance. Today agriculture is said to account for 25% of Mozambique’s gross domestic...

Access to land is at the heart of rural livelihoods. In sub-Saharan Africa, the pace and scale at which land is changing hands are increasing fast. Understanding these changes in land access is crucial if the systems of land governance, the practices of companies and organisations, and the initiatives seeking...

This issue coincides with a globally historic moment, namely the official launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs, which replace the Millen-nium Development Goals (MDGs), are part of an ambitious global sustainable de-velopment agenda focusing on economic growth, social inclusion and environ-mental protection. Having succeeded in reaching the...

El Niño conditions have caused the lowest recorded rainfall between October and December across many regions of Southern Africa in at least 35 years. Short-term forecasts from January to March indicate the high probability of continuing below-normal rainfall in the south, signaling that this could become one of the worst...

In the framework of efforts to fight extreme poverty and recognising the importance and need to protect the poor and vulnerable population, in 2007 Mozambique approved Law No. 4/2007 which structured social protection into three levels, including basic social security. In 2010 the first National Basic Social Security Strategy (ENSSB...

União Províncal de Camponeses de Manica (UCAMA) and Zimbabwe Farmers Union (ZFU) have been supporting farmers to scale up Conservation Agriculture (CA) in Mozambique and Zimbabwe, respectively. As the key implementing partners of a project titled “Facilitating Farmer-led Scaling-up of Conservation Agriculture in Southern Africa” which is funded by the...

Sub-Saharan Africa is generally characterized by low production and productivity in the agriculture sector, despite rapidly growing human population which calls for closing the production gap in crops, livestock, forestry, aquaculture and fisheries. At the same time, ecosystems are under pressure, a situation which is further challenged by climate change,...

Based on experience and lessons learned in 2014-15, Africa’s Regional Initiative 2 (RI2) (originally entitled “Integrated Management of Agricultural Landscapes in Africa”) has been revamped for implementation in 2016-17 to sharpen its focus and to make it more programmatic. It takes a food systems approach with two integrated components, namely...

Agriculture is Mozambique’s primary economic activity and around 3.2 million smallholder farmers account for 95% of this sector's production. The percentage of smallholder farmers with access to credit facilities in Mozambique has steadily decreased over the past 10 years, while inefficiencies in production and distribution have weakened the competitiveness of...

A agência está satisfeita com adesão ao método para comprar insumos agrícolas; 12,5 mil beneficiários usam os cupões desde a fase piloto; número equivale a mais 2 mil pessoas registadas na província central de Manica. A introdução do sistema de cupão eletrónico em Moçambique está a surtir efeitos positivos, segundo...

The SADC Consultative Meeting on Preparedness and Response to the Impact of the 2015/16 El Niño on Agriculture and Food and Nutrition Security in Southern Africa was held from 25th to 26th February 2016 in Johannesburg, South Africa, with support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations...

Against a background of resurgent land grabs, penetration of capital in the rural landscape and the expulsion of small producers from their pieces of land in most African countries, the Sam Moyo African Institute for Agrarian Studies (SMAIAS) working in collaboration with the Zimbabwe Land and Agrarian Network (ZiLAN) announces...

In September 2015, countries adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This will shape their development programmes in a transformational way for the next 15 years. At the last FAO Regional Conference for Africa, held in Abidjan in April 2016, many delegates asked the organization to assist countries in their...

João Marcus Costa is a cassava farmer from Manjacaze, Mozambique. Like many Mozambican farmers, João's small cassava field used to face constant threats from drought, disease and pests. Even when he did manage to successfully harvest his cassava, he then faced additional challenges trying to get his cassava to market...

Esta guía presenta los pasos a seguir para la construcción de un práctico túnel cubierto con red para uso agrícola y las instrucciones sobre como manejar los cultivos de camote dentro del túnel para asegurar la provisión de material base de siembra de alta calidad, con baja o nula infección...

Building an enterprise takes many different tasks, from stepping into the shoes of potential customers to designing products or services, to running a marketing campaign. This was one of the key messages for women farmers at SACAU’s Agro-preneurship training in Johannesburg this month. The three-day training from 27th – 29th September...

El Niño is the warming of sea surface temperature in the tropical Pacific, which occurs roughly every 2 to 7 years, lasting from 6 to 24 months. While the main threat to food production is reduced rainfall and drought in some regions, El Niño can also cause heavy rains and...

This scoping exercise was carried on to deepen our understanding of the current context of seed use, main crops and varieties in the research localities, in order to gather evidence of the ongoing importance of farmer seed systems in the agricultural practices and livelihoods of smallholder farmers, to identify cases...