Hunger, malnutrition, poverty, climate change, environmental degradation - addressing these injustices is at the forefront of political meetings the world over. Yet these problems persist as global leaders strive to find efficient and synergistic ways of tackling them sustainably.

In Africa alone over 200 million people...

In a US presidential election year, optimism comes with intense scrutiny. I am by nature an optimist, and when I am asked if we can feed the world adequately and equitably, I do say 'yes', but I do not say 'yes' lightly.

Our global food security challenges are daunting: food...

The droughts in the US and Russia and their impact on harvests have dominated the news in the last few weeks. And with the latest USDA announcement that the US maize crop would be the smallest in six years and the soybean crop the smallest in nine years,...

As the Olympics draw to a close, there is no doubt that the champions of London 2012 will leave a legacy of achievements that inspires large numbers of young people to fulfil their personal potential.

But for 200 million children in the world, a very different legacy is in...

The facts speak for themselves, around 60 million children across the developing world still go to school hungry everyday - 40% of them in Africa. The importance of food for young children is well known - malnourished pre-school children are more at risk of contracting illnesses such as diarrhoea, malaria...

Since the 1960s we have known that pesticides when used without care and attention will cause insect pest outbreaks. But we never seem to learn. In recent years there have been severe outbreaks of planthoppers and leafhoppers on rice in China, Vietnam and other countries in...

Popular legend has it that victorious Roman invaders, as they secured their conquest of Carthage in 146 B.C., further devastated the city by scattering salt over the land. Their actions sought to prevent their Phoenician enemies from rebuilding their metropolis.

Salting the earth was used to curse the city,...

While climate sceptics continue to muddy the waters, African farmers know from their day to day experience that the climate is changing and they are having to adapt.

I am writing this in the savannah zone of northern Ghana where the rainfall is normally erratic, but has become increasingly...

Queen Victoria is still remembered, at least by name, in Uganda. The great lake - one of the largest in the world - bears her name. So do many restaurants, shops and enterprises in Kampala and Entebbe. One such is Victoria Seeds, created in 2004 by

Around the world, 200 million children's growth is stunted. That is one-third of all children in the world under the age of five years old. In some African countries, the proportion of children stunted is as high as 50%. These are shocking statistics. As US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton...