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The Millennium Development Goals' target to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger is extremely important in southern Africa, where food security has become increasingly problematic over the last 20 years. One "quick-win" proposal is replenishment of soil nutrients for smallholder farmers, through free or subsidised chemical fertilisers. Other proposals include appropriate irrigation technology, improved inputs and interventions targeted at women.Analysis of over 10 years of agro-hydrological and agro-economic studies from southern African show that a different approach is required to interventions proposed. There are sustainability problems with free chemical fertiliser: much of the costs are transport and ancillary costs.Furthermore, recent studies in Zimbabwe and Mozambique show that significant increases in yield can only be obtained when soil fertility management is combined with good crop

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This paper reports the experience of a regional network of academic departments involved in water education that started as a project and evolved, over a period of 12 yr, into an independent network organisation. The paper pursues three objectives. First, it argues that it makes good sense to organise postgraduate education and research on water resources on a regional scale and presents the Wa-terNet experience as an example that a regional approach can work. Second, it presents preliminary findings and conclusions that the regional approach presented by WaterNet did make a contribution to the capacity needs of the region both in terms of management and research capacity. Third, it draws two generalised lessons from the WaterNet experience. Lesson one pertains to the importance of legitimate ownership and an accountability structure for network effectiveness. Lesson two is related to the financial and intellectual resources required to jointly developing educational programmes through shared experience.Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.