Food Security and Sustainability

Biography

Steve Worth is Associate Professor: Extension and Rural Resource Management and Academic Leader: Teaching and Learning in the School of Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa. He is also the Director of the African Centre for Food Security at UKZN. Whether in the classroom, the field or the boardroom, Steve brings two things to the table: engaging creativity; and nearly 40 years' experience as a practitioner, trainer, facilitator and academic in Africa. For 13 years he worked in rural development amongst the Batswana in the rural areas of the now North West province of South Africa. There he was engaged in agricultural economics, agricultural extension, community development and rural enterprise development. For over 15 years he has consulted with international agencies including the FAO of the United Nations and the Spirit of Africa Institute, and with South African agencies including the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the Institute of Natural Resources, the Farmer Support Group, the University of Mpumalanga, the South African Bahá’í Office of Social and Economic Development, and National and Provincial Departments of Agriculture and Land Affairs on various aspects of human capacity development, policy development, wealth creation, rural development, agricultural extension, agricultural education and rural enterprise development. This work has taken him to Botswana, DR Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland, Namibia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe as well as all over South Africa. Since 2001, he has been serving fulltime as an academic involved in teaching, research and community in agricultural extension and resource management, curriculum development, community development, rural wealth creation and sustainable livelihoods. Using an experiential learning framework for his lectures and workshops, Steven, will tell his ‘students’ two things up front: He does not believe in solving problems; and he will not take responsibility for your learning. The result: Classes that are hugely popular and highly transformative. More recently he has been involved in governance of teaching and learning and in developing programmes in Food Security. Over the years Steven has developed and presented numerous training programmes for agricultural, rural and community development and personal transformation. He has co-authored and edited training manuals and books with the FAO. He has been the principal author of several agricultural-related policies and strategies – particularly in agricultural extension and agricultural education. He is an experienced facilitator, employing creative methods to engage participants, manage potential conflict and elicit practical outcomes from workshops.

Research Interest

Food Security, Environmental science,Agriculture