Food loss projects target urban communities in Malawi and Zambia

This article has been copied from https://www.miragenews.com/, where Assoc Prof Mtafu Manda, has been featured on the above title project article.

Food and nutrition insecurity have increasingly become a major development issue in many parts of the world. A new research effort is aiming to increase food security by reducing food loss in Malawi and Zambia cities.

The projects will investigate the scale of food and nutrition loss and analyse its drivers and implications across the food systems chains of Mzuzu and Lusaka.

The two cities are rapidly urbanising, with most people relying on urban farming for much of their food and other livelihoods yet up to 40% of food produced is lost before it can be eaten or sold.

The project leader in Malawi, Dr Mtafu Manda of the Mzuzu University, said reducing these losses along value chains was key to improving people’s diets and reducing malnutrition.

‘Like in many cities of Africa, food insecurity among the urban poor is marginalised, leading to the neglect of what has been termed an “invisible crisis” of urban food and nutrition insecurity,’ he said. ReadMore