Category Archives: Uncategorized

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles. Let’s tackle inequality head on…

Originally posted on Foundation for Young Farmers:
How do you empower young farmers? It is widely acknowledged that empowerment means knowledge. You can’t have one without the other. Empowering youth means providing them with the necessary skills and knowledge about…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Fulani boy in Niger herds his family’s animals (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). Mobility to unlock scattered food, feed, water and other scarce and scattered essential resources is a human strategy as old as humankind itself—and one that remains…

Originally posted on Foundation for Young Farmers:
Kalu Samuel’s Blog Some youth’s have asked me this question: Is there money in Agriculture? This shows that their attitude towards agriculture is as a result of lack of information or misinformation, information…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Cotton Farmers in Mali In 2005, economist Pietra Rivoli published The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy. The book, which quickly became a classic, traces process of globalization by following a single…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Why does fair trade clothing matter? Blogging at Foreign Policy and prompted by the death toll in the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh, Marya Hannun yesterday asked, “When it comes…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Most—but certainly not all—of my students are comfortably middle class. This means that they have never really had to think about where their next meal might come from. That’s what makes the food stamp…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Meat, ink and watercolour on paper (15 x 11″), created 25 April 2012 by artist Kristy Modarelli for the The Aldas Project: 366 Drawings for Good, a year-long project conducted by artist in 2012. Vegan…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Bill Gates visits a site of the East African Dairy Development project, which is funded by his foundation; researchers based in Nairobi at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), a CGIAR centre, provide technical and…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Saulosi Tchinga is a potato, maize, soya, sheep and chicken farmer in central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann). ‘The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Friday called on African governments to implement policies that will help…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Distribution (density) of poor livestock keepers based on the international US$2.00/day poverty line in 2010 (published in a research brief by J Otte and R Leslie, Animal Health and Production Commission for Asia and the…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Distribution (density) of poor livestock keepers based on the international US$2.00/day poverty line in 2010 (published in a research brief by J Otte and R Leslie, Animal Health and Production Commission for Asia and the…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Sheep and goats in northern Kenya (photo on Flickr by gordontour). ‘The Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (IBAR) is asking the [Kenya] Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries (MALF) to reserve at least five per…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
The explosion of materials on food politics, and the increasing popularity of food as an area of social science research, makes teaching a course on the politics of food both increasingly interesting and increasingly…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
Think organic farming doesn’t use harmful compounds, think again. As the expiry date for the use of the antibiotics, Streptomycin and Oxytetracycline, on organic apple and pear farming in…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Herding cattle in Kenya (photo on Flickr by davida3 [Davida De La Harpe]). ‘The [Kenya] government has unveiled a plan to improve trade in livestock by vaccinating 61 million livestock in the next financial year. ‘According…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Ethel Makila writes in New Agriculturalist about an African fund that is leading to breakthroughs and opening new frontiers in the continent’s biosciences research (photo: ILRI/David White). This month (Mar 2013), New Agriculturalist features an…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
The health of people and their farm animals in Kenya and other developing countries are closely linked (photo credit: ILRI/Charlie Pye-Smith). ‘While livestock contribute about 40 per cent of the value of agriculture and forms…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Mother Jones this week published a fascinating article on the humble apple. The apple tells the classic story of industrialized agriculture. There were once thousands of varieties of apples grown across the United States,…

Originally posted on ECO-opia:
Posted on May 6, 2013 02:45 pm under Investing, Investors, Markets VENTURES AFRICA – Africa’s share of global foreign direct investment has grown to 5.6 percent from 3.2 percent over the past five years; highlighting growing…

Originally posted on ECO-opia:
    When convening at the lakeside city of Bahir Dar, last week, the ruling EPRDFites were high-spirited and ready to brainstorm on the major dealings of the state they are entrusted to lead until 2015.…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Food Tank (The Food Think Tank) published its list of 10 Moves about the Food Movements Worth Watching today. The ten include some good items, most of which are available through Netflix. Their top…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
As part of its presidency of the European Union, the government of Ireland hosted a conference earlier this month to explore the intersection of hunger, nutrition, and climate justice. The conference documents are all…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
US Capitol, Washington DC President Obama’s proposal to reform the US food aid system was widely celebrated by critics of the current system. But his proposals appear to have run into strong opposition in…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Somali family displaced during the 2010-12 famine. Image courtesy UN Media Center. A report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization issued earlier this week concluded than some 258,000 people died a result of…

Originally posted on Kalu Samuel's Blog:
The Pineapple plantation. For several years I have been involved in one way or the other in farming. Once I started learning my right from left, I could always remember my parents taking…

Originally posted on Kalu Samuel's Blog:
Feeding my snails Early this morning while some dudes were busy sleeping, I went out to bring food (Water leaf) for my little babies (my Snails). Been a very long time I blogged,…

Originally posted on Science on the Land:
Would it solve the world’s food crisis if we all went vegetarian or vegan? Priyamvada Gopal at the Guardian says no, inequality is a bigger factor in food shortages. I think that food…

Originally posted on AgHealth:
Aflatoxin-contaminated groundnut kernels from Mozambique. The Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa has identified five priority strategic areas for action towards control of aflatoxins in Africa (photo credit: IITA). Regional and international experts in agriculture, health,…

Originally posted on ECO-opia:
Sam Dryden  –  May 02, 2013 Events leading up to the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland this June will focus, in part, on the intersection of hunger, food, nutrition, and the need to transform the agricultural development…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
I had a great conversation with the folks at the Financial Humanity Project Network yesterday. If you’ve not seen their work, it’s definitely worth a browse, particularly for folks interested in financial speculation in…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
Despite the recent focus on immigration reform at the highest levels of government, surprisingly little attention is usually paid to the plight of farmworkers in the United States. This despite the fact that an…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
A lack of sufficient nutrients in the diet is responsible for around 2.6 million deaths of children per year, the largest killer of children in the world. Those children…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
A new report produced by ActionAid calls attention to the impacts that growing food for biofuels can have on poverty and hunger. The amount of food crops produced and…

Originally posted on One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?:
This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles. Europe set to ban bee-killing…

Originally posted on Foundation for Young Farmers:
09 Jan 2013 by Olawale As we step into the year 2013, a lot of indications of earlier activities of the last quarter of 2012 show that serious attention would be drawn to…

Originally posted on Foundation for Young Farmers:
Author: Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa Belfer Center Programs or Projects: Agricultural Innovation in Africa; Information and…

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
After a period of engagement and design, the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish began in January 2012. It’s first annual report was just published giving insights into progress,…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
Cover of a special issue of ‘Nature’ on GMOs, 2 May 2013. The leading British science journal Nature has published a special issue on GM crops: Promise and reality  (2 May 2013). This hub of updated…

Originally posted on Foundation for Young Farmers:
A modern drip irrigation technology is allowing farmers in arid and semi arid areas triple their yield by planting three seasons a year. The innovation has allowed farmers to break reliance on rain-fed…

Originally posted on Foundation for Young Farmers:
Farmers will soon receive information on availability of fertiliser and seeds as well as improved farming techniques through their mobile phones. The ministry of Agriculture will equip agricultural extension officers with laptops and…

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
Livestock and Fish theory of change diagram Among the fundamentals of a good research program is the ability to demonstrate how the program will deliver the promise of creating positive…

Originally posted on Global Food Politics:
A couple of weeks ago, I blogged on President Obama’s proposed reforms to the US food aid system. The proposal centers on three long overdue changes: shifting a portion of aid programming from in-kind…

Originally posted on ECO-opia:
Tuesday, 30 April 2013 12:14 NewBusinessEthiopia.com The African Development Bank Group says its new Ten-Year (2013-2022) Strategy launched this week emphasizes the quality and sustainability of growth and economic transformation of African continent. The Directors’ approval…

Originally posted on ILRI Clippings:
This month’s issue of ‘Livestock Matter(s)’, explores a round-up of livestock development news, publications, presentations, images and upcoming events from ILRI and its partners. Download a print version – or sign up to get Livestock Matter(s) in your mailbox each month.…

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
‘Aroundfish’ by Paul Klee, 1926 (via WikiPaintings) Putting enough food on the table is a daily challenge faced by households around the world. Ensuring that the food contains enough protein…

Originally posted on CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish:
This article in the journal Animal reviews the positive and negative roles of livestock in the developing world. Authored by several ILRI staff, the paper also discusses ‘key factors that…

Originally posted on Science on the Land:
GRAIN is a small international non-profit organisation. GRAIN says that it ‘works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems.’ Here’s a report by GRAIN…