Foreword [Volume 14 No. 2 (2014)]

We are ready to release issue 62 of African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development (AJFAND). In this issue we have 13 peer reviewed papers.

In an effort to clear the backlog of manuscripts, a decision has been made to go back to managing only 12 to 14 manuscripts at a time. This will also enable us to reduce journal processing time.
We also carry once again, the call by Prof Richard Douglass for Special Issue papers on methodology.

This year, 2014, is a special year, being the United Nations Year of Family Farming and African Union Year of Agriculture and Food Security. We are also discussing what takes over from MDGs once the designated 15 year period ends in 2015. As a result, many events are scheduled for this year. A number of them are indicated in our upcoming events section.

It is truly refreshing to see the amount of attention now being turned to smallholder farmers, to gender issues, to women farmers, to youth in agriculture, to the whole value chain, to partnerships, and to capacity building. What is now needed is to see resources accompany all these expressions of good will. The food science fraternity has not been adequately included in discussions aimed at finding solutions to hunger and food insecurity. Issue 62 Guest Editor has addressed the area of food waste. A lot more needs to be done on post-harvest handling of foods.

We want to hear from you about relevant issues.

Enjoy the issue

Ruth Oniang’o
Editor-in-Chief