Water scarcity has been a critical concern in many countries of the world. The same concern has been discussed, analyzed and researched at different platforms to find better solutions to the challenges of water scarcity, and in most cases water scarcity directly influence food security in terms of food production. South Africa, being one of the water scarce countries that derives its food from the agricultural sector; water scarcity remains at the centre stage of the national socioeconomic debate. Water scarcity is one of the major challenges in many countries such as Zimbabwe and Ethiopia particularly for the farmers. However, there is insufficient information on the impact of water scarcity challenges on rural communities’ food security initiatives. This review is focused on unearthing water scarcity challenges in rural communities, their impact on agriculture and ultimately food security initiatives. This paves way for possible research areas, practical implications and strategies to mitigate water security effects on food security.

The resilience concept has attracted interest across many fields in the recent years. The interdisciplinary nature of the concept has led to the existence of numerous definitions, interpretations and measurement approaches. For this reason, there is no acceptable universal understanding of resilience across disciplines. Even though the concept is conceptualized differently in the small retail business field, scholars seem to commonly relate resilience to the ability of business to adapt to disruptions that threaten existence. However, resilience measuring has been a highly contested aspect in the sector. As such, neither key resilience attributes nor universally applicable criteria for resilience measuring exist in the small retail sector. At the same time, small retail businesses are increasingly exposed to direct and indirect threats that jeopardize their resilience prowess. Therefore, it is vital to develop approaches for assessing resilience levels and monitor changes over time. This paper critically examines current approaches to developing resilience measurement tools. Thereafter, it proposes the most applicable approach for developing performance measures of resilience for use in the small retail business sector. A review of key frameworks for resilience measuring within climate, community, livelihoods, organizational and business sectors was conducted. Frameworks and approaches for resilience measuring that has been in use in the past decade and half were selected. The main focus was on exploring methodological aspects, resilience attributes and variations in the interpretation of the resilience concept within different frameworks. It was revealed that the generic application of frameworks for resilience measuring in the small retail business sector is not appropriate. Thus, there is a need for developing contextualized frameworks to guide resilience measurement in the small retail sector.

The need for rural land agrarian reforms has reached heightened levels in South Africa in recent years. Resultantly, the communal land use effectiveness is questioned due to persistent poor performance and declining agricultural output that fails to address rural poverty and food insecurity. This is one of the major causes of why South Africa's rural economies are generally characterized by stagnant economic growth. This points to deep-rooted and unique challenges that need urgent attention if meaningful support and resilience systems are to be built for rural agrarian land reforms to be realized. The present study investigated challenges and characterized factors that lead to the prosperity of rural agricultural projects in communal land ownership. An exploratory study design was followed, and the data was collected using interviews and focus group discussions from communal farmers and key informants. Data were analyzed thematically with the aid of Atlas. Ti version 8.1.4. “Information challenges” and “water scarcity” describe some of the common challenges faced by rural farmers. Six critical success factors were identified and found to be related. “Effective project management and control” and “improved support from and partnership with local community stakeholders” are success factors that, if targeted first, could address most challenges faced in rural agrarian reforms. The results suggest that partnership with the private sector can help farmers commercialize and move swiftly towards agro-processing. Identified threats and successes must be prioritized in designing and formulating region-specific rural agrarian support programs for communal farmers.

Two dairy concentrates (ram press sunflower and sunflower heads) were formulated locally and their effects on the performance of crossbred dairy cows were compared with that of a commercial dairy concentrate. There were no significant differences in body condition and milk production responses by crossbred dairy cows to sunflower based diets compared to commercial dairy concentrates (p > 0.05). It was suggested that the sunflower based rations can be used as cheaper alternatives to conventional dairy concentrates. The ram press sunflower cake, in particular is an option that may be used by smallholder dairy farmers to formulate local dairy concentrate, which influence dairying to a similar extent as the commercial dairy concentrate but cheaply. More research is required to determine fermentation patterns, rumen microbial protein synthesis, true intestinal digestibility and absorption of nutrients from sunflower-based diets at the small intestines in crossbred dairy cows.

The study examines the nature of disputes, which are prevalent in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming and suggests possible conflict management and resolution mechanisms. An online web-based survey, hosted on the popular Survey Monkey platform, was conducted through the Somalia WASH Cluster to 40 ‘active’ member organisations. A response rate of 73% was achieved. Thematic analysis was conducted using NVivo 12. The type of conflicts identified are as follows: visible versus non-visible benefits, emergency versus development focus, the young and the old, insiders versus outsiders, local versus donor priorities and men versus women. The article goes on to suggest possible conflict resolution mechanisms, which include: planning together with communities, continuum programming, setting up early warning systems, harmonisation of institutions managing WASH resources and the development of localised Memorandums of Understanding. It is recommended that the complexities of conflict and fragility require different approaches. The approaches would apply to both relief and developmental WASH programming.