This book focuses on food security and safety issues in Africa, a continent presently challenged with malnutrition and food insecurity. The continuous increase in the human population of Africa will lead to higher food demands, and climate change has already affected food production in most parts of Africa, resulting in drought, reduced crop yields, and loss of livestock and income. For Africa to be food-secure, safe and nutritious food has to be available, well-distributed, and sufficient to meet people’s food requirements. Contributors to Food Security and Safety: African Perspectives offer solutions to the lack of adequate safe and nutritious food in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as highlight the positive efforts being made to address this lack through a holistic approach. The book discusses the various methods used to enhance food security, such as food fortification, fermentation, genetic modification, and plant breeding for improved yield and resistance to diseases. Authors emphasize the importance of hygiene and food safety in food preparation and preservation, and address how the constraints of climate change could be overcome using smart crops. As a comprehensive reference text, Food Security and Safety: African Perspectives seeks to address challenges specific to the African continent while enhancing the global knowledge base around food security, food safety, and food production in an era of rapid climate change.

Cowpea (also called Southernpea and Blackeyed Pea) is a highly nutritious crop particularly suited to the stressful growing conditions of tropical Africa, Asia, Latin America and the United States. Intensive research programmes in centres around the world have, in recent years, greatly improved the crops' yield, our efficiency in growing it and methods of processing the end product.

Cowpea: taxonomy, genetics, and breeding, physiology and agronomy, diseases and parasitic weeds, insect pests, postharvest technology and utilization. Biotechnological applications.

Forage crops are important for the economy of our country as these crops provide major nutritional base in the livestock ration. The National Commission on Agriculture has also emphasized in its report that in order to achieve the so-called ‘White Revolution’ it will be necessary to provide required emphasis on research relating to the improvement and management of forages. India’s average availability of milk per head per day comes to only 100 ml as against our requirement of 220 ml per day. With the increase in world human population and economic growth, the demand for animal products such as milk, meat and eggs in the human diet is bound to increase. The success of dairy and poultry programmes will largely depend on the availability of required forages and feeds since almost 60-65% investment is invariably on these essential requirements. A recent estimate indicates that the deficiency in total forage need is about 40% of dry forage and about 24% of green fodder. This deficit is likely to increase further as (i) the area under forage crop is declining because of the pressing problems of growing cereals and other cash crops to meet the increasing pressure of population growth, (ii) the animal population is increasing every year by almost 2% (iii) cultivable land is decreasing due to urbanization and industrial growth and (iv) forages in future are going to have competition from liquid fuel shortage. Recent interests in the development of technology for the economic conversion of cellulosic material to liquid fuels, however, have given rise to estimates of several hundred million metric tons of lignocellulosic material being used annually for their new developments. With the development of these technologies, the impact on ruminants production would be substantial, so there is going to be a vital challenge to meet the requirement of forages in the near future.

Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm. At the same time, they can reduce costs, increase profits and even create new sources of income. You¿ll reap dividends on your cover crop investments for years, since their benefits accumulate over the long term. This book will help you find which ones are right for you. Captures farmer and other research results from the past ten years. The authors verified the info. from the 2nd ed., added new results and updated farmer profiles and research data, and added 2 chap. Includes maps and charts, detailed narratives about individual cover crop species, and chap. about aspects of cover cropping.

Food insecurity is a fundamental challenge to human welfare and economic growth in Africa. Low agricultural production leads to low incomes, poor nutrition, vulnerability to risk and threat and lack of empowerment. This book offers a comprehensive synthesis of agricultural research and development experiences from sub-Saharan Africa. The text highlights practical lessons from the sub-Saharan Africa region.