With wheat-based diets blamed for rising lifestyle diseases in Africa, scientists are resorting to indigenous crops to solve food insecurity
The benefits of fonio are so marked that academics and policymakers are now calling for the grain – alongside other indigenous foods, such as Ethiopia’s teff, as well as cassava and various millets and legumes – to be embraced more widely across Africa to improve food security.
Why modern farmers and scientists are keen on growing more crops for cows and cars, not food for humans
To see the yield gap in action, compare two important corn producers: the US and Kenya. In the US, the average yield is around 10.8 tonnes per hectare, while in Kenya it’s 1.5 tonnes. While the US is very close to its maximum theoretical corn yields, Kenya – taking into account its different climate – is way below its theoretical maximum. In other words, the US barely has a corn yield gap at all, while Kenya has a yield gap of about 2.7 tonnes per hectare below its theoretical maximum.
Long orphaned, sorghum farming makes grand return to western Kenya as indigenous crops reclaim niche
Sorghum is Africa’s second most important cereal because it is the primary source of daily calories for approximately 300 million people. However, the crop had vanished from Kenyan farms as a result of large-scale maize farming in areas that traditionally grew sorghum and its ‘sister’ crop, millet.
Commecial fish farming becomes key investment area as blue economy takes root in rural Kenya
County industrialisation and trade executive Kassim Were says successful implementation of the programme that targets 7,000 fish ponds that will supply five tonnes of fish per day will further diversify the local economy that hitherto depends on sugarcane, maize and dairy farming. However, continued subdivision of agricultural land into smallholdings has rendered available land for farming uneconomical for commercial production of the two crops and livestock keeping, hence the steep decline in output.
Depression in men: In many families, the only acceptable emotion for men is expression of anger
As we reflect on men’s health, let us reflect on how our families, communities and our healthcare systems can take better care of our grandfathers, fathers, brothers, husbands and sons, friends and colleagues.
While digital money apps are now a lifeline for war-affected Sudanese, rural areas are still on leeside
Bankak, developed by the Bank of Khartoum in 2014, is one of Sudan’s largest fintech services. It allows bill payments and money transfers at a daily limit of three million Sudanese pounds ($5,000) per customer.
Non-monogamy? Relationships texture from monogamy, polygamy, polyandry to polyamory
The dating climate is not what it was yesterday and who knows exactly what tomorrow will bring. Today, though, couples are exploring new dimensions with more of a liberated mindset, using social media to freely talk about what does and doesn’t work for them, and there is no shortage of apps that cater to their desires.
Why Kenyan President Ruto’s copy-and-paste Singaporean low-cost housing model faces resistance from taxpayers, courts
The history of affordable housing in Singapore is – too – replete with instances of colonial government involvement. However, the policies were modified to align with the programme with rapid economic growth that resulted in a rapidly rising housing demand powered by booming economy and sharp rise in labour-force from foreign countries.
Loud on climate change, Kenyan president contradicts himself by sanctioning paved road construction through forest
The Kenyan government wants to build a 32-mile tarmac road through what has been suggested as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to connect two counties, and the country’s environmental agency, the National Environment Management Authority, issued an environmental impact assessment licence for the project last month. The project would cut through 15 miles of closed canopy forest and likely increase vehicle traffic into animal paths.
World music revolution: How and why Africa had fastest-growing recorded music revenues in 2022
There is also Afrobeat – different from Afrobeats – a blend of jazz, funk and traditional West African rhythms popularised by Nigerian musical icon and political agitator Fela Kuti in the 1970s. Then there’s Afropop, a rich variety of contemporary styles. The traditional soukous dance music out of Congo and other parts of Central Africa. The rhythmical and heavily vocal shaabi and chaabi heard on the streets of North Africa. Kenya’s benga and Tanzania’s bongo flava reverberate across dance floors in East Africa, just as fuji and highlife do in West Africa.
