Every week, RuralReporters.com collate reports on development issues in rural Africa and its environs.

This report includes some of our top picks from recent must-read research, interviews, blogs, and in-depth articles, carefully selected to help you keep up with global issues.

Here are some of the updates you may have missed from the previous week:

Climate change may destroy sources of income for rural Africa: Report

Africa, which has 62 per cent of the rural population relying on natural resources for livelihood, is extremely vulnerable to climate change, says a report released at the sixth plenary session of Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) at Medellin, Colombia.

“Africa is the only place on Earth that has a huge number of mammals,” says Luthando Dziba, co-chair, Africa, at the session. “Yet today, African biodiversity is more threatened than ever before.”

By 2100, climate change would lead to loss of more than half of bird and mammal population in Africa, cause significant reduction in plant species and lake productivity will go down by 20-30 per cent, says the report.

Nigeria on the receiving end of climate change

The Nigeria Watch Project at the University of Ibadan reported that in 2017 more than 8600 people were killed in Nigeria from civil strife, criminal acts, resource-related conflicts, and other violent incidents.   While this number is down substantially from the more than 20,000 deaths at the height of the Boko Haram conflict in 2014, the level is more than twice as high than in the five years before 2010.

This increase in violence is tied to a large degree to land use, natural resource development, and disruptions in traditional lifestyles.   Where climate degradation and conflict were once seen primarily as a Niger Delta issue related to oil development, conflict has now become endemic in the North East with Boko Haram and in the North Central region between herders and farmers.  While these various conflicts have diverse causes, climate change is a factor in all of them.  Climate change is causing increasing temperatures leading to encroaching desertification, rising sea levels leading to coastal degradation, variability in weather patterns to stresses in the agricultural and livestock sector resulting in volatile food prices, and more frequent and violent storms.

SAHRC says public inquiry on rural land use for research purposes         

The Human Rights Commission hosted a public inquiry on Wednesday into the impact of rural land use and ownership in the country in order for further research to be conducted.

The commission says land has always been a prominent and emotive issue in South Africa and policies must provide redress for historical displacement while also ensuring sustainable production, employment and equitable growth.

The African National Congress has recently assured residents that the land reform programme will be done in an orderly manner. The Human Rights Commission’s Gail Smith says they held this exploratory inquiry to look at ownership patterns on human rights.

Here’s What Happens When Rural Africans Eat an American Diet For 2 Weeks

We all know that a diet heavy in processed foods isn’t doing us any favours, but a study from 2015 has provided insight into just how quickly fast food can trigger biological changes.

In the study, researchers asked 20 fast food-loving Americans swap diets with 20 people living in rural South Africa, and found that within two weeks, the South Africans had “remarkable” changes in the biomarkers that indicate colon cancer risk.

The good news, however, is that the Americans also greatly reduced these biomarkers thanks to their new rural diet.

“In just two weeks, a change in diet from a Westernised composition to a traditional African high-fibre, low-fat diet reduced these biomarkers of cancer risk, indicating that it is likely never too late to modify the risk of colon cancer,” lead researcher Stephen O’Keefe from the University of Pittsburgh in the US told Sarah Berry at The Age at the time.

Expert urges revival of rural agriculture

The Acting ExecutiveDirector, Agricultural and Rural Management Training Institute (ARMTI), Dr Olufemi Oladunni has canvassed increased focus on rural agriculture to boost incomes and standards of living.

Addressing the Institute’s national seminar themed: “Harnessing the Potentials of Traditional Institutions for Integrated Agricultural and Rural Development in Nigeria”, in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, Oladunni  said Nigeria has  a large rural  agricultural sector  with  thousands of  people working as farmers, but productivity is low because of small size of the farms.

He said  any significant progress in rural rejuvenation would leadto a strong sector and boost  farmers’ wealth.