With millions of people still suffering from chronic undernourishment, the theme of World Food Day this year is zero hunger. Soil could be part of the solution. Frédéric Baudron explains how research in Ethiopia has shown that soil with higher amounts of organic matter produces wheat with more nutrients. Managing soil in ways that makes it healthier is an additional tool in the fight against poor nutrition.

The growing ties between China and Africa have attracted mixed reactions, with some critics slamming what they view as a new form of colonialism by Beijing. They point to the huge discrepancies in power relations amid growing rumours that African leaders are mortgaging their countries’ assets to China, in exchange for investment. But, as Yu-Shan Wu, Chris Alden and Cobus van Staden argue, this narrative is flawed. Instead, African leaders exercise more agency in their relationships with China than they are given credit for.

Economic crises are nothing new to Argentines. That’s why they didn’t hesitate to join foreign investors in dumping their pesos when the telltale signs of yet another crisis began to emerge earlier this year. But with the economy sinking deeper into recession and a severe drought ravaging farmers’ incomes, the government is betting the biggest International Monetary Fund bailout ever – not to mention 60% interest rates – can stabilize the peso. Economist Robert H. Scott III and scholar of Latin American politics Kenneth Mitchell consider whether Argentina can avoid repeating history.