Southern Africa holds second beating famine conference in Lilongwe

23.0.15 

By Maybin Augustine Katungulu

A Southern Africa regional ‘Beating Famine’ conference is to be held in Lilongwe, Malawi between 14^th and 17 April 2015.

 The conference will highlight how widespread land degradation in the face of climate change could affect food security in the region.

According to the announcement on the beating famine website the conference aims to showcase key agricultural and land management practices, such as agroforestry and conservation agro-forestry that can address degradation in Southern Africa.

In all eight out of the ten countries constituting Southern Africa region most people live in rural areas and depend on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods.

But today agriculture in the region has been threatened by land degradation caused mostly by soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, overgrazing, uncontrolled burning and improper cultivation.

Now, Governments and other stake holders such as civil society organisations have identified the need to conserve land and reverse degradation to restore its productivity and improve the quality of life for people that depend on it for their livelihood.

In the same vein, World Vision, World Agroforestry Centre and other partners are organizing a beating famine conference in Lilongwe, Malawi between 14^th and 17^th April 2015 under the theme “Sustainable Food Security through Land Regeneration in a Changing Climate

A check on the beating famine website indicates that the four days conference will highlight how widespread land degradation in the face of climate change could affect food security in the Southern Africa region.

The Malawi conference is a follow-up to the highly successful 2012 Beating Famine Conference held in Nairobi, Kenya which catalyzed a range of actions and collaborations across East Africa to address food security, resilience and livelihood issues and opportunities.