By Emmanuel Likoya, Malawi University of Science and Technology (MUST)
March 13, 2024

Malawi is experiencing a ‘precipitation dipole’- the ongoing El Niño has brought anomalously high levels of rainfall to its northern parts even as the south reels under a severe drought. This is a result of its coincidental location, with its northern parts falling right under the point of convergence of three moisture-laden airmasses the average location of which shifts northwards during El Niño events.

Emmanuel Likoya and David Mkwambisi (Malawi University of Science and Technology), Andrew Dougill (University of York)
February 7, 2024

Irrigation development is at the center of agricultural innovation in Malawi, with land under irrigation more than doubling over the last two decades. It is widely perceived that irrigation provides a route to achieving food security and agricultural commercialization goals in the face of shocks such as droughts and floods. This has been supported by the view that the agriculture sector is largely dominated by poorly developed rainfed systems which are perpetually underperforming and overly susceptible to climatic shocks, more so for key cereals such as maize.

By Akbar Ganatra, Wageningen University
January 23, 2024

Globally, mosquito-borne diseases (MBDs) make for about 17% of the total burden of infectious diseases. Africa, especially its sub-Saharan countries, continues to be a global hotspot in this regard, with the risk of MBDs set to increase in the continent as climate change expands mosquito habitats. It is against this context that FoSTA-Health is setting up field experiments, which will help improve our understanding of land-use as a contributing factor to incidence of mosquitoes.

by Rachel Mkandawire, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)
January 19, 2024

Southern Africa is facing a strong El Niño event, which is expected to last at least until April 2024, causing disruptions in weather patterns and a surge in temperatures, as reported by the World Meteorological Organization. The impact will extend into 2024, leading to below-average harvests. Over 20 million people will need food assistance between January and March 2024, and below-average harvests will result in increased needs, peaking in early 2025. Concerns are high for deficit-producing regions like Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, southern and central Mozambique, and southern Madagascar.
These anticipated challenges call for urgent action to transform Southern Africa’s food systems to weather events like this. With its interdisciplinary and systems-based approach, the Food Systems Transformation in Southern Africa for One Health (FoSTA Health) project is strategically positioned to evaluate and respond to the medium and long-term implications of these changes in food systems.

by Katharine Vincent, Kulima Integrated Development Solutions
January 8, 2024

The 28^th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change recently concluded in Dubai.
What key decisions were made that are relevant to FoSTA-Health?

by Abhigya (CzechGlobe – Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences)
December 18, 2023

The FoSTA-Health team conducted the first round of cross-country stakeholder consultation workshops for the project across Zambia, Tanzania, South Africa, and Malawi in the month of October 2023. The workshops aimed to glean diverse perspectives on food system transformations, focusing on One Health outcomes. These engagements are the first step toward exploring how human, animal, and environmental health linkages can be leveraged to transform food systems. These interactions also seek to understand how different project partners and stakeholders across the focus countries conceptualise food systems and One Health.