A burning desire to improve the lot of small-scale farmers like his parents inspired Dr William Suvi to pursue a career in plant breeding.

Suvi hails from Mngeta village in Kilombero district in the Morogoro region in Tanzania.

‘My family were peasants cultivating rice, maize and other crops like sweet potato and vegetables,’ he said. ‘I was motivated to study plant breeding in order to improve yields for farmers. In my village, most farmers including my parents use landraces that produce low yields, and there is not enough for food and to sell as surplus. Because of this, farmers are unable to pay for basic items like clothes, school fees and health services.’
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‘I selected my topic based on the research gap affecting farmers in rice production,’ he said. ‘The title was: Breeding for Resistance to Rice Yellow Mottle Virus and Improved Yield in Rice in Tanzania.’

Since the emergence of the water-energy-food (WEF) nexus at the 2011 World Economic Forum as a transformative approach to complex issues arising in these areas, researchers at UKZN and the Water Research Commission (WRC) have built discourse around WEF nexus knowledge, culminating in a paper about putting this knowledge to work.

Professor Albert Modi, Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, Dr Nafisa Sobratee and Professor Rob Slotow of UKZN’s Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems (CTAFS), and Dr Aidan Senzanje of Bioresources Engineering, and Professor Michael Jacobson of the Pennsylvania State University in the United States, joined the WRC’s Mr Dhesigen Naidoo, Dr Luxon Nhamo, Professor Sylvester Mpandeli and Dr Stanley Liphadzi as co-authors of the paper.

Titled: Operationalising the Water-Energy-Food Nexus Through the Theory of Change, the open access paper details pathways to guide policy and decision-making on operationalising the WEF nexus for southern Africa through a consultative and iterative Theory of Change. This follows research published in 2020 that described the WEF nexus integrative analytical model developed by some of these researchers.

‘Innovative scientists are key in building resilient communities,’ says Ms Tracy Vongai Mapfumo (29), a passion-driven entrepreneur, food innovator, crop scientist and the founder of Eny’s Treats Pty Ltd.

Mapfumo graduated with a BSc honours degree in Agriculture (Plant Science) from UKZN in 2015. When she was unable to renew her study permit to pursue a master’s degree at the University, the Zimbabwean did not let disappointment get in her way but turned her hand to gaining five years’ work experience in indigenous plants that have commercial value. ‘I have always wanted to see Zimbabwean food being transformed into competitive products on the market,’ she said.

Eny’s Treats - named after Mapfumo’s late mother Eniya Dengu who nurtured her entrepreneurial skills – was founded in October 2018. It specialises in healthy snacks targeting the upmarket health-conscious consumer who enjoys a nutritious treat, or has nut allergies or is gluten intolerant. The snacks are a variety of seed bars, balls and seed butter. Made from sesame, sunflower and flax seeds, the key ingredients are sourced from local, rural small-scale farmers and producers.

Collaborative research between a former African head of state, a UKZN researcher and an eminent expert on agroecology is drawing attention to important African wild food plants which have previously been overlooked in farming systems but which could enhance livelihoods, biodiversity and social justice for smallholder farmers.

Professor Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi, Research Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems (CTAFS) in UKZN’s School of Agricultural Earth and Environmental Sciences (SAEES), co-authored the research with former Mauritian President Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim and renowned agroecology expert Professor Roger Leakey, who is Vice-Chairman of the International Tree Foundation.

Published in the Sustainability journal as part of the Special Issue: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Mainstreaming Underutilized Crops, the article is titled: African Lives Matter: Wild Food Plants Matter for Livelihoods, Justice, and the Environment - A Policy Brief for Agricultural Reform and New Crops.

As part of the international Demand-Led Breeding (DLB) project that is using the science of plant breeding to transform small-scale agriculture in Africa, members of the project based at UKZN’s African Centre for Crop Improvement (ACCI) are hosting a series of online dialogues to strengthen plant breeding and to make the case for investing in demand-led plant breeding in southern Africa.

The first webinar, which focused on investing in demand-led plant breeding for plant variety design for emerging markets in Africa, was attended by more than 100 scientists, researchers, students, academics and practitioners working in the research and development community in southern Africa and beyond.

The event boasted a line-up of eminent speakers including representatives from South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and Seed Co Group Ltd in Zimbabwe.