Food Security for African Smallholder Farmers [E-Book]

Chapter 1. Decades of cultivar development: a reconciliation of maize and bean breeding projects and their impacts on food, nutrition security, and income of smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa -- Chapter 2. From soil to fork: can sustainable intensification guarantee food security for smallholder farmers? -- Chapter 3. Sub-Sarahan Africa Smallholder Farmers Agricultural Productivity: Risks and Challenges -- Chapter 4. Integrated use of livestock manure and inorganic fertilizer for sustainable agricultural intensification on marginal soils in sub-Saharan Africa -- Chapter 5. In-field soil conservation practices and crop productivity in marginalized farming areas of Zimbabwe -- Chapter 6. Can organic soil fertility management sustain farming and increase food security among African smallholder farmers?- Chapter 7. Precision agriculture under arid environments: Prospects for African smallholder farmers -- Chapter 8. Challenges and opportunities for soil fertility and food security improvement in smallholder maize-tobacco production systems: A case study from Svosve area, Mashonaland East, Zimbabwe -- Chapter 9. On-farm research challenges for agronomic field trials in smallholder systems: A practical experience from Zanyokwe Irrigation Scheme, South Africa -- Chapter 10. Agricultural water resource governance for sustainable food production: Lessons from developing economies -- Chapter 11. Aquaculture and fisheries production in africa: highlighting potentials and benefits for food security -- Chapter 12. Medicinal plants: A perspective on their application in the African smallholder aquaculture farms -- Chapter 13. Application of Integrated Water Resources Management towards livelihood improvement: a case of smallholder farmers in Olushandja, Namibia -- Chapter 14. Climate Change Impacts on Food and Nutrition Security on Smallholder Farmers in Southern Africa -- Chapter 15. Climate-smart agriculture: perspectives for subsistence crop farming in Namibia -- Chapter 16. Smallholder Farmers' Adaptation Strategies and Food security: Experiences from Zimbabwe -- Chapter 17. Building resilience to climate change by adopting conservation agriculture in the smallholder farming systems -- Chapter 18. Contribution of underutilised indigenous crops to enhanced food and nutrition security in the advent of climate change -- Chapter 19. Liquid gold: Harnessing the potential of digestate to enhance smallholder farmer food security and livelihood -- Chapter 20. Importance of Mushrooms for Food Security in Africa -- Chapter 21. Mushroom cultivation in Arid Namibia: Cultivation status, contribution to human health and future prospect -- Chapter 22. Can Women Own Land'? Land Inheritances Convolutions: Evidence from the Zimbabwean Resettlement Areas -- Chapter 23. The governance of aquaculture in Namibia as a vehicle for food security and economic growth -- Chapter 24. A decade of agronomic research impact on commercializing traditional homestead production of amadumbe in Umbumbulu kwaZulu Natal.

This book provides a synthesis of current agricultural research in Africa with the aim of presenting evidence based information that can be directly applied into improving the African smallholder farmers' food security. It presents positive scientific research that has been undertaken in Africa, in simpler terms, thus driving the research for development agenda contributing to the attainment of SDG 2. Numerous research that targets resource poor African smallholder farmers has been published, yet the region faces very low productivity levels. This lack of translation from research to food security and increased agricultural incomes is due to the poor uptake of scientific research by farmers, which is partly due to poor presentation of this body of knowledge into simpler forms that extension workers and farmers can directly adopt. Therefore, this book offers research information in an easy, digestible and application oriented style, so as to enable transformation of the African agricultural sector by effectively driving agricultural productivity in Africa. This book is of interest to African extension workers, who will translate the simplified knowledge into lessons that can be useful to smallholder farmers. The book is also beneficial for policy makers as well as academics, researchers and other science based professionals.