CABI Blog

It’s a sobering fact that, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), nearly 233 million children, women and men in Africa went to bed each night hungry in 2014-16.

CABI Board Member and 2017 Africa Food Prize winner Professor Ruth Oniang’o has devoted her career helping farmers grow nutritious and healthy crops, to not only help reduce hunger but to achieve sustainable and profitable livelihoods.

She says Africa must fully capitalise on its agriculture and take responsibility for exploiting its own lateral resources if the UN Sustainable Development Goal of achieving zero hunger is to be realised.

Professor Oniang’o, who was awarded for her contribution in helping farmers gain access to affordable quality seeds and improving the nutrition of the food on people’s plates, believes we must value Africa’s smallholder farmers and equip them to produce crops that do not succumb to pests and disease.

In this video Professor Oniang’o, a fellow of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences, the International Union of Food Science and Technology and the World Academy of Art and Science, shares her views on how Africa can work towards zero hunger.

She highlights CABI’s Plantwise programme as a shining example which is working at the grassroots level of engagement helping millions of farmers lose less of what they grow to plant health problems.

 

Further information

Find out more about Professor Oniang’o and the CABI board here.

You can learn more about CABI’s Plantwise programme here.

Read here how in 2015 a CABI-led project lab ‘Smallholders powering global development’ encouraged dialogue between more than 40 participants at an EU Development Day on the critical role of smallholder farmers in food security.

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