Cereals and Legumes
Cereals and legumes are major staple foods for most African countries. Africa is the main producer of native cereals like sorghum, pearl and finger millet, teff and African rice. It also produces exotic crops like maize, which is currently the most important cereal in Sub-Saharan Africa and a major staple food for more than 300 million Africans. 
Legumes are nitrogen-rich seeds that provide protein in many African diets, especially for poor rural households. Legumes like cowpeas, groundnuts, soybeans, and black-eyed peas are often intercropped with non-legumes to improve nitrogen fixation in the soil, and to reduce mineral nitrogen fertilizer use in farming systems.
Cereals and legumes are used as human food, animal feed and as raw material in industrial products. However, challenges in their production include low soil nutrient supply, diseases and pests, poor management practices, and climate change effects such as increased frequency and duration of droughts.
Christine Fürst, Susanne Frank, Katrin Pietzsch, Frank Pietzsch GISCAME 2.0 – Manual v2.4 PiSolution GmbH
The software GISCAME (formerly „Pimp Your Landscape“) supports the simulation, visualisation, and evaluation of land use changes. Due to its modular structure, problems can be elaborated individually from different perspectives.
GISCAME pursues the aim to evaluate land use based on available regional knowledge (empirical data, model results/reports, and expert knowledge) in order to provide a tool to weigh action alternatives for the planner. GISCAME considers the landscape as an integrative layer for interactions between different land use types, land users, and ecosystem processes, which contribute to the provision of ecosystem services. The integrated evaluation and regulation system allows the formulation of parameters as well as the setting of conversion rules.
GISCAME is one of three components of the GISCAME Suite. For bundling data and for selecting a model region from an interactive map, the software OSM4GISCAME is used. Data which contain gaps or which have too low thematic resolution, can be completed or specified with the help of the structure generator SG4GISCAME.
Food Monitor Food Monitor 2017 Center for Development Research
Food Monitor is an early warning system that tracks global food price and supply risks which could potentially lead to food insecurity.
The causes of food insecurity are complex and multi-dimensional. After decades of low agricultural commodity prices, the 2007/08 food price crisis witnessed extreme price spikes on global markets, which had devastating consequences for developing countries. Food Monitor was established to warn about global food price and supply risks at the early stages of development. We monitor key staple commodities and their extreme price movements on global food markets, fulfilling a crucial gap that is missing in other early warning systems.
We use a simple traffic light system for each of our four indicators to warn about the current levels of risk associated with global food prices and supply.