Boosting African farm yields

Emily Miyanda is luckier than most farmers in hunger-plagued Zambia. With 6 hectares of irrigated land only a dozen kilometres from the capital, Ms. Miyanda produces maize and vegetables for the big Lusaka market. She hires her neighbours to help with planting and harvesting. But even with those advantages, she is squeezed between the high costs of what she needs to buy and the low prices her produce fetches at market. “We’d like some government support in buying seeds and fertilizer,” Ms. Miyanda told the BBC earlier this year. “That would make life easier.”