Agricultural Economics scholar Mr Lateef Bello received an award for the best poster in the Master’s category at UKZN’s annual Postgraduate Research and Innovation Symposium (PRIS).

The poster was on the productivity impact of improved rice varieties’ (IRV) adoption, using the example of smallholder rice farmers in south-west Nigeria.

Bello graduated cum laude with a Master of Science in Agriculture in Agricultural Economics degree at UKZN’s September ceremonies. His research, supervised by Professor Lloyd Baiyegunhi, was on IRV adoption and the technical efficiency of smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria.

The Pietermaritzburg Campus Management Forum (PCMF) has launched its Green Campus Campaign, an initiative that encourages students and staff to beautify and take responsibility for spaces they occupy, as well as, to recycle waste material.

More than 100 staff and students attended the opening, which included a poetry reading and modelling of clothing made from recycled plastic.

Master of Ceremonies, Ms Naledi Zama, a PhD candidate in the School of Life Sciences, welcomed guests and spoke about the successful anti-litter drives hosted by the PCMF on UKZN’s PMB campus that had attracted scores of staff and students. Zama said there were plans to work with student residences in future drives and encouraged students to ensure that they keep their spaces clean.

The annual Durban Research Action Partnership (D’RAP) Research Symposium presented an opportunity for students conducting research as part of the partnership between eThekwini Municipality (EM) and UKZN to present their work and to hear from invited guests about climate change and biodiversity in a management context.

D’RAP bridges the science-action gap and advances knowledge in biodiversity conservation and management within the context of global environmental change. It generates knowledge to assist managers in EM to make biodiversity and conservation decisions, and builds capacity by supporting student research activities at UKZN.

The presentations focused on the third phase of EM’s Global Environmental Change (GEC) programme – Rivers: source to sea, and its previous phase - the Durban Metropolitan Open Space System (D’MOSS).
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Ms Maqsooda Mahomed from the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences received the runner up award for her presentation on the development of a near real-time environmental early warning system towards increasing climate resilience and adaptive capacity in South Africa.

Dr Joyce Chitja is one of four editors of a recently published book titled Transforming Agriculture in Southern Africa.

"This book provides a synthesis of the key issues and challenges facing agriculture and food production in Southern Africa."

The publication examines the sources of some of the challenges South Africa's agricultural sector is experiencing, including agricultural transformations, growing populations, urbanisation and climate change.

The book details how these challenges are placing food security, agriculture, water availability and other natural resources under significant pressure, and how they impact biodiversity.

The book chapters comprise case studies from Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, where challenges are viewed from an interdisciplinary perspective. Focus is placed on "constraints to production, the most important building blocks of good farming practices, and established and emerging technologies".

The book is designed to provide valuable support for the development of new policies and processes to improve food production and security, and contribute to developing sustainable agriculture in Southern Africa.

According to editors, the book will be useful for anyone interested in agricultural science, African studies, rural studies, development studies and sustainability. It is hoped that it will be a valuable resource for policymakers, governmental and nongovernmental organisations, and agricultural practitioners.

Professor Mark Laing, Professor of Plant Pathology and Director of the African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI), recently presented a Royal Society of South Africa (RSSA) lecture on the topic of the ‘Climate Crisis’ – Adjusting to a New Future.

While researching climate change to inform the content of an Honours module, Laing said he felt compelled to bring this topic to the fore, and his lecture focused on what developments science is predicting over the coming decades and the impact this will have on human life.

Professor Dean Goldring welcomed the scores of guests to the lecture, introducing the RSSA and articulating its aim to reward, encourage and promote excellence in science. He introduced Laing, highlighting that the timing of this lecture preceding the United Nations’ COP25 Climate Change Conference was appropriate. He noted Laing’s vast breadth of knowledge with 249 publications to his name. Laing has supervised 82 PhD students, 84 MSc students, and 118 Honours students, and was instrumental in establishing the ACCI.

Laing spoke about how the planet is warming faster than it ever has, and in the context of inadequate response from all over the world and the failure of the Paris Agreement, reminded attendees that everyone will be affected, saying that a global revolution is needed.

He covered a brief history of earth, and facts about global warming and its drivers in industrial development, as well as the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide. He used examples of poor air quality, positive feedback cycles, the Albedo Effect, global sea level rise, climate migration and several currently occurring disasters including fires, droughts, storms and floods to illustrate the severity of the juncture humanity has reached.

‘The tornadoes we experienced recently, these are normal phenomena, it’s just the frequency and magnitude with which they occur that we will have to live with,’ he said.

He suggested that an imminent collapse of civilisation was possible, and said that humanity stood at a grave point of choosing between survival and catastrophe, with actions taken in the next ten years being critical.
Laing also addressed the topic of global population increases as a little discussed but serious driver of climate change.

‘One really potent option we have involves empowering women,’ he said, also highlighting the importance of the management of greenhouse gas emissions per capita. ‘There are things we can do; it’s whether we have the political ability and will to do it.’

In response to Laing’s presentation, Dr Jim Taylor, Honorary Research Fellow at UKZN said that social change could be a powerful tool to bringing about the changes Laing alluded to, saying that hope releases the power of the people.