News Stories

Africa College contributes to new Parliamentary Report on "Home Grown Nutrition"

A UK Parliamentary Report into supporting and developing African agriculture and nutrition is published today on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development. Africa College is one of several organisations supporting the APPG. more

New research published on the relationship between pollinators of crops and natural enemies of crop pests.

New research by Africa College members looks at how the management of farms and agricultural landscapes impacts on both pollinators of crops and natural enemies of crop pests. more

Andy Dougill awarded Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship

Head of School for Earth and Environment, Professor Andy Dougill has been awarded a Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship to conduct research on 'Socio-environmental analyses of community carbon projects in Malawi and Zambia'. The Fellowship will be held over 24 months from September 1st, 2013. more

Africa College team to visit microfarm in Ethiopia

An interdisciplinary team from Africa College will be visiting Ethiopia in June 2013 to meet key stakeholders in the Northwest-Ethiopia Region and farming communities in Awi Zone, particularly in Fagita Lekoma district to scope collaborative multidisciplinary collaborative research and development projects on integrated smart micro-farming systems for sustainable health, food, and nutrition and income security in highly populated and degraded highlands of Ethiopia. more

Lindsay Stringer in the Toronto Star

Environmental social scientist Lindsay Stringer was interviewed in March 2013 for the Canadian newspaper The Toronto Star following Canada's withdrawal from the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, and interviewed again in April by the same newspaper for a feature article on desertification. more

Agricultural prediction using climate model ensembles

A special issue of the Journal Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, edited by Professor Andy Challinor, Africa College Research Director, focusses on Agricultural prediction using climate model ensembles.


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Africa College contributes to new Parliamentary Report on "Home Grown Nutrition"

A UK Parliamentary Report into supporting and developing African agriculture and nutrition is published today on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development. Africa College is one of several organisations supporting the APPG.



PRESS RELEASE 16 May 2013

Parliamentarians urge government to increase investment in agriculture to end global hunger

"It is abundantly clear that sustained long-term investment in agriculture for development is crucial to rural livelihoods. It can have truly transformational impacts both in terms of the rural economy and in terms of poverty, hunger and malnutrition alleviation."

All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development


Parliamentarians of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development are calling on the UK Government, and specifically the Department for International Development, to invest in agriculture to combat the hunger that 925 million people around the world are undernourished face every day - in a Parliamentary Report, on "Home Grown Nutrition".

The report's recommendations come ahead of a high level meeting that will be co-hosted by the UK government on 8 June. 'The Nutrition for Growth: Beating Hunger through Business and Science' meeting will be held in the build-up to the G8 summit in Northern Ireland and bring together business leaders, scientists, governments and civil society to make the ambitious commitments needed to tackle nutrition in some of the world's poorest countries.

Building on the issues raised by the Hunger Summit held in London last summer, which highlighted the devastating consequences of undernutrition on children, it is expected that as a result of this next meeting the UK will make financial pledges to support work on nutrition.

Lord Cameron of Dillington, chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development, stated that, "Agriculture is the basis of many, if not all, pathways to improved nutrition. All development goals and interventions are strengthened by a productive agricultural sector."

Agriculture as a development theme has been chronically underfunded by the Department of International Development in the past and the APPG of Agriculture and Food for Development urge the government to make sure agriculture is no longer overlooked. Investments in agriculture must be seen as a long term project, putting smallholder farmers at the centre of such programmes.


The All Party Parliamentary Group on Agriculture and Food for Development (APPG) was established by Parliamentarians in October 2008 in response to growing concerns over the heightening food crisis. Co-Chaired by Heidi Alexander MP and Lord Cameron of Dillington, the APPG seeks to bring together Parliamentarians concerned with agriculture, nutrition and wider food security in the developing world. This cross-party group aims to engender progressive and informed debate within Westminster and beyond by bridging the gap between policy makers and practitioners in the field whilst also giving a voice to the 700 million smallholder farmers worldwide.

Visit the Group's website

View "Home Grown Nutrition" Report

16th May 2013

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