Food & Agriculture

Without Food Security, There Is No Peace

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
Reversing years of progress, global hunger is on the rise once again and one of the culprits is clear: conflict.

How Filling in the Agricultural Data Gap Will Fill Empty Plates

By Matthew L. Norman
Each year as hundreds of billions of dollars are invested and critical decisions are made in agriculture, there is often little evidence or research to back these choices. 

Development of ICT Innovation Expected to Help in Fight Against Banana Disease in Rwanda

By Aimable Twahirwa
When Telesphore Ruzigamanzi, a smallholder banana farmer from a remote village in Eastern Rwanda, discovered a peculiar yellowish hue on his crop before it started to dry up, he did not give it the due consideration it deserved.

In Argentina, Agriculture Ignores the Right to Food

By Daniel Gutman
In front of one of the busiest railway stations in the capital of Argentina, there are long lines to buy vegetables, which farmers themselves offer directly to consumers, at prices several times lower than those seen in stores.

The Revolutionary Ambition of AGRF 2018 Must be Sustained

By Korir Sing’Oei
In early September 2018, about 2,800 delegates from 79 countries and high-level dignitaries, including current and former heads of states, international agencies, CEOs of global corporations and youth entrepreneurs, and techies involved in agriculture gathered in Kigali for this year’s African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF).

Climate Change Undermining Global Efforts to Eradicate Hunger

By Thalif Deen
The United Nations warned last month that the accelerating impacts of climate change—“already clearly visible today”-- have triggered an unpredictable wave of natural disasters-- including extreme heatwaves, wild fires, storms, and floods during the course of this year.

Ethiopia’s Struggle Against Climate Change Gets a Boost from Green Climate Fund

By James Jeffrey
Faced with worsening droughts due to climate change, Ethiopia is joining an international initiative seeking to build global resilience against the problems caused by it, and enable developing countries to become part of a united solution to the ongoing problem. 

Recognising the Debilitating Nature Conflict Has on Food Security

By Busani Bafana
Nyalen Kuong and her daughters fled to safety after an attack on their village in South Sudan in which Kuong's husband and two sons where killed and the family’s cattle lost. Kuong, her daughters and other families from their village fled to islands surrounded by swamp land. There, she had little to eat. And soon began suffering from diarrhoea, brought on by acute malnutrition.

In the Race to Achieve Zero Hunger and Mitigate Climate Change, We Must Look Down — to the Soil

By Esther Ngumbi
Recently, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO) Director-General José Graziano da Silva urged countries, scientists, policymakers and stakeholders invested in building an equitable, sustainable, and thriving planet to pay attention to the soil. He further noted that the future of the planet depends on how healthy the soils of today are.

Africa Needs Strong Political Will to Transform Agriculture and Spur Economic Growth

By Busani Bafana
Africa needs strong political commitment to accelerate the transformation of its agricultural sector.According to the 2018 Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR), Catalyzing State Capacity to Drive Agriculture Transformation, released this September by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), African states need political will to boost production and income on the millions of small, family farms that grow most of Africa’s food.

Salmon Farming, Questioned in Chile, Arrives to Argentina

By Daniel Gutman
Questioned for its environmental and health impacts in Chile, where it is one of the country's main economic activities, salmon farming is preparing to expand in Argentina from Norway, the world's largest farmed salmon producer. The news has triggered a strong reaction from civil society organisations.

Maya Farmers in South Belize Hold Strong to Their Climate Change Experiment

By Zadie Neufville
In one of Belize’s forest reserves in the Maya Golden Landscape, a group of farmers is working with non-governmental organisations to mitigate and build resilience to climate change with a unique agroforestry project.

New Rules for High Seas Must Include Needs of Poorest Nations

By Essam Yassin Mohammed
Over-fishing, warming oceans and plastic pollution dominate the headlines when it comes to the state of the seas. Most of the efforts to protect the life of the ocean and the livelihoods of those who depend on it are limited to exclusive economic zones – the band of water up to 200 nautical miles from the coast.

China-Africa Cooperation a Vibrant Partnership for Sustainable Development

By António Guterres
This Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is an embodiment of two major priorities of the United Nations: to pursue fair globalization and to promote development that leaves no one behind in the context of a rules-based system of international relations supported by strong multilateral institutions.

How Accurate Information About the Weather is Yielding Resilience for Zambia’s Smallholders

By Friday Phiri
Just having better information about when and for how long it will rain is proving the difference between success and failure among smallholder farmers in southern Zambia. Empowered with timely information about the weather ahead of the 2017/18 farming season, 56-year-old Fainess Muzyamba of Pemba district ditched her traditional maize crop for sweet potatoes.

Why India’s Solar Water-Drawing ATMs and Irrigation Pumping Systems Offer Replicable Strategies

By Ranjit Devraj
At New Delhi’s Savda Ghevra slum settlement, waterborne diseases have become less frequent thanks to solar-powered water ATMs that were installed here as a social enterprise venture three years ago.

Fledgling Venture Aims to Make Money from Cutting Food and Packaging Waste

By Kelly Ng
To tackle food waste, Nicholas Lim did not simply spread the word among his friends and family.In an experiment to see if he could make a viable business out of the problem, he co-founded an online platform that allows individuals, eateries and voluntary welfare organisations to order discounted groceries that would otherwise be thrown away.

Take Charge of Your Food: Your Health is Your Business

By Sunita Narain
The minimum we expect from the government is to differentiate between right and wrong. But when it comes to regulating our food, it’s like asking for too much. Our latest investigation vouches for this. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)’s pollution monitoring laboratory tested 65 samples of processed food for presence of genetically modified (GM) ingredients.

How Ghana’s Rapid Population Growth Could Become an Emergency and Outpace Both Food Production and Economic Growth

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri
Paul Ayormah and his fellow farmers make their way home after hours spent manually weeding a friend’s one-acre maize farm in Ghana’s Eastern Region.“Tomorrow it will be the turn of my maize farm,” he tells IPS.

Joint Action Needed to Reform our Food System

By Carol Gribnau
While participating in this year’s High-level Political Forum (HLPF), one thing became crystal clear to me. Come 2030, we will not have healthy and affordable food if we continue with business as usual. But no one institution can single handedly change the course of our food system. The key to ensuring a sustainable food system is involving a diverse group of actors – from smallholder farmers to government – to generate ideas for change, together.

Let Food Be Thy Medicine

By Adelheid Onyango and Bibi Giyose
When faced with a crisis, our natural reaction is to deal with its immediate threats. Ateka* came to the make-shift clinic with profuse diarrhoea: they diagnosed cholera. The urgent concern in the midst of that humanitarian crisis was to treat the infection and send her home as quickly as possible. But she came back to the treatment centre a few days later – not for cholera, but because she was suffering from severe acute malnutrition. Doctors had saved her life but not restored her health. And there were others too, who like Ateka eventually succumbed to severe malnutrition.  
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