Despite good potential for food production, South Sudan’s agriculture is not feeding its population. The impacts of decades of armed conflict are posing enormous challenges for the sector. Farmer Field Schools seem to be a promising instrument to improve food security and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in the country.

Supporting smallholder farmers is one of the best ways to fight poverty and ensure food security. Such support involving the active participation of smallholder farmers in Zambia has demonstrated a significant increase in farmers’ engagement in general and an improvement in milk production, resulting in nutritional food security both at household and national level and income for the poor farmers.

José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on the role of family farms for global food security, the need for sound rural development stategies and the responsibility of governments, the private sector and civil society.

Improving watershed conservation and household food security has been one of the major development challenges in the semi-arid areas of northern Ethiopia. The initial survey by ILRI’s Improving Productivity and Marketing Success project has revealed that physical conservation measures alone do not result in higher farmers’ income. However, the introduction of market-oriented commodity development such as beekeeping, sheep-fattening, and high value crops resulted in farmers’ income rising fivefold from 2005 to 2009.

If the current trend in global meat demand persists, meat production will need to rise from 300 million tons today to 470 million tons by 2050. Climate and our natural resources would lose out, our author warns.

Despite the crucial role of women in family farms and small-scale agriculture, gender inequality is still present in many ways – jeopardising the food and nutrition security of millions of people.

The 2013 OECD publication "Better Policies for Development" emphasises that building global food security requires a cross-cutting approach to policy coherence for development. It explores ways in which more coherent policies in advanced, emerging and developing economies alike, as well as, globally can contribute to improved global food security.

Converting from subsistence to market-oriented farming can increase income. Thanks to the ’Enabling Rural Innovation’ approach, family farmers in Uganda and Tanzania have succeeded in improving production and fetching better prices for their produce while safeguarding food security and sustainable management of natural resources. The recipe for success is that farmers take the development process in their own hands.

Access to modern renewable energy services are a key input to poverty eradication and in ensuring food security. Biogas is a renewable energy option suited to provide clean, modern and decentralised sources of energy. Portable systems, such as FlexiBiogas, offer a lot of advantages over traditional fixed dome systems.

Increasing prices for agricultural commodities offer a historic opportunity to intensify production systems for small-scale farmers in many developing countries. But without agricultural policies supporting them in making use of this opportunity, many of them would lose their access to land and income, resulting in aggravated food insecurity.

Regional trade bears a great potential to improve food security in West Africa. Again and again, however, efforts made in this field by organisations such as ECOWAS and UEMOA are frustrated by the policies of individual countries.

How can the private sector contribute to the fight against hunger, poverty and malnutrition in the remote areas of sub-Saharan Africa? This article looks at a model that has been applied in Kenya and Tanzania, addressing the right tools, skills and knowledge to make smallholder production a success.