This Report is a product of the staff of IFAD and the judgements made herein do not necessarily reflect the views of its Member Countries or the representatives of those Member Countries appointed to its Executive Board. IFAD does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility whatsoever for any consequence of their use. Designations employed i...

The various genetic systems (mitochondrial DNA, the Y chromosome and the genome-wide autosomes) indicate that Africa is the most genetically diverse continent in the world and the most likely place of origin for anatomically modern humans. However, where in Africa modern human arose and how the current genetic makeup within the continent was shaped is still open to debate. Here, we summarise th...

adequate nutrition is essential in early childhood to ensure healthy growth, proper organ formation and function, a strong immune system, and neurological and cognitive development. child malnutrition – as measured by poor child growth – is an important indicator for monitoring population nutritional status and health. in 2013, about 17%, or 98 million children under five years of age in develo...

The history of southern Africa involved interactions between indigenous hunter-gatherers and a range of populations that moved into the region. Here we use genome-wide genetic data to show that there are at least two admixture events in the history of Khoisan populations (southern African hunter-gatherers and pastoralists who speak non-Bantu languages with click consonants). One involved popula...

Chinwe Juliana Iwu, Ishmael Festus Jaja, Benson Chuks Iweriebor, Larry Chikwelu Obi, Anthony Ifeanyi Okoh SAMRC Microbial Water Quality Monitoring Centre, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, Eastern Cape, South Africa Applied and Environmental Microbiology Research Group (AEMREG), Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Fort Hare, Alice 5700, Eastern Cape,...

I.C. Morobe1,2,4, C.L. Obi1,3, M.A. Nyila2, M.I. Matsheka4 and B.A. Gashe4 1Walter Sisulu University, Nelson Mandela Drive, Mthatha, Eastern Cape, 2School of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Department of Life and Consumer Sciences, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 3Division of Academic Affairs and Research, Walter Sisulu University, Eastern Cape, 4Department of Biological Sciences, Universi...

Although fossil remains show that anatomically modern humans dispersed out of Africa into the Near East ∼100 to 130 ka, genetic evidence from extant populations has suggested that non-Africans descend primarily from a single successful later migration. Within the human mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) tree, haplogroup L3 encompasses not only many sub-Saharan Africans but also all ancient non-African l...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroup L2 originated in Western Africa but is nowadays spread across the entire continent. L2 movements were previously postulated to be related to the Bantu expansion, but L2 expansions eastwards probably occurred much earlier. By reconstructing the phylogeny of L2 (44 new complete sequences) we provide insights on the complex net of within-African migrations in t...

This report documents the impacts of international maize breeding research in eastern and southern Africa. It draws on information from a comprehensive 1998/99 survey of public and private maize breeding and seed production organizations active in the region. In many countries of eastern and southern Africa, policy reforms introduced in the 1980s and 1990s encouraged private sector participatio...