Food & Agriculture

Women Are Key to Fixing the Global Food System

By Danielle Nierenberg and Emily Payne
According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, women make up about 43 percent of the agricultural labor force worldwide, and in some countries they make up 80 percent of all farmers. In addition to tending crops, most women—particularly in the Global South—are also responsible for seed saving, animal husbandry, grain processing, and other tasks related to growing food. This is in addition to cooking, cleaning, and taking care of sick elders and children.

Experts Decry Exclusion of Africa’s Local Farmers in Food Security Efforts

By Miriam Gathigah
Joshua Kiragu reminisces of years gone by when just one of his two hectares of land produced at least 40 bags of maize. But that was 10 years ago. Today, Kiragu can barely scrape up 20 bags from the little piece of land that he has left – it measures just under a hectare.

Community Work Among Women Improves Lives in Peru’s Andes Highlands

By Mariela Jara
At more than 3,300 m above sea level, in the department of Cuzco, women are beating infertile soil and frost to grow organic food and revive community work practices that date back to the days of the Inca empire in Peru such as the "ayni" and "minka".

Bamboo, A Sustainability Powerhouse

By Ed Holt
A landmark conference bringing more than 1,200 people from across the world together to promote and explain the importance of bamboo and rattan to global sustainable development and tackling climate change has ended with a raft of agreements and project launches.

West Africa Moves Ahead with Renewable Energy Despite Unpredictable Challenges 

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
The West African nation of Guinea may be a signatory of the Paris Agreement, a global undertaking by countries around the world to reduce climate change, but as it tries to provide electricity to some three quarters of its 12 million people who are without, the commitment is proving a struggle.

Building West Africa’s Capacity to Access Climate Funding

By Nalisha Adams
When Senegalese president Macky Sall opened the 30MW Santhiou Mékhé solar plant last June, the country gained the title of having West Africa's largest such plant. But the distinction was short lived.

Ukraine Puts Water Strategy High on Development Agenda

By Ed Holt
A campaign to raise awareness of water security in Ukraine could be an inspiration around the world, activists behind it say, after it forced a change in the country’s approach to its water resources.

Food Sustainability, Migration, Nutrition and Women

By Enrique Yeves
We worry about how we can continue to put food on our tables; and yet one-third of food is never eaten, instead being lost or wasted.We worry about eating properly, and yet in many countries, poor nutrition, obesity and micronutrient deficiencies are increasingly common. This trend is taking place in the Americas, Oceania, Asia, Africa and in Europe.

Sustainable Land Management, the Formula to Combat Desertification

By Ela Zambrano
Sustainable land management (SLM) and conservation are the recipes that with different ingredients represent the basis for combating soil degradation, participants in the event to celebrate the World Day to Combat Desertification (WDCD)agreed on Jun. 17 in Ecuador.

Brazil’s Agricultural Heavyweight Status Undermines Food Supply

By Mario Osava
Brazil is one of the world's largest agricultural producers and exporters, but its food supply has become seriously deficient due to food insecurity, unsustainability and poor nutrition, according to a number of studies.

Farmers from Central America and Brazil Join Forces to Live with Drought

By Edgardo Ayala
Having a seven-litre container with a filter on the dining room table that purifies the collected rainwater, and opening a small valve to fill a cup and quench thirst, is almost revolutionry for Salvadoran peasant farmer Víctor de León.

Stop Neglecting African Conflicts

By Will Higginbotham
Conflicts have uprooted millions across several African nations and we must not forget them, said a human rights group.Norwegian Refugee Council’s (NRC) timely message was published through their annual list of the worlds most neglected displacement crises.

VIDEO: World Day to Combat Desertification – Land Has True Value. Invest In It

By IPS World Desk
We are witnessing the degradation of about 24% of the planet's land, with water scarcity affecting almost 2 billion people on the planet.

Intelligent Land Use Seeks to Make Headway in Latin America

By Orlando Milesi
Consumers can be allies in curbing desertification in Latin America, where different initiatives are being promoted to curtail it, such as sustainable land management, progress towards neutrality in land degradation or the incorporation of the bioeconomy.

When a Grass Towers over the Trees

By Manipadma Jena
As governments scramble for corrective options to the worsening land degradation set to cost the global economy a whopping 23 trillion dollars within the next 30 years, a humble grass species, the bamboo, is emerging as the unlikely hero.

Great Green Wall Brings Hope, Greener Pastures to Africa’s Sahel

By Issa Sikiti da Silva
Hope, smiles and new vitality seem to be returning slowly but surely in various parts of the Sahel region, where the mighty Sahara Desert has all but ‘eaten’ and degraded huge parts of landscapes, destroying livelihoods and subjecting many communities to extreme poverty.

Greece: SDGs a Way to End Economic Crisis?

By Maged Srour
Seven years after being on the verge of a financial collapse, Greece is now seeing better times. Its economic accounts have clearly improved but what is not under the spotlight is how the Greek people are still paying for the effects of the crisis.

Experts Urge Lawmakers to Focus on Food-Migration Nexus

By Daan Bauwens
Lawmakers at the highest levels urgently need a “revolution in thinking” to tackle the twin problem of sustainable food production and migration. Starting with an inaugural event in Brussels, then travelling on to New York and Milan, an international team of experts led by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) is urging far-reaching reforms in agricultural and migration policy on an international scale.

EU’s Hogan Embraces BCFN’s Food Sustainability Overhaul Plan

By Editor BCFN
European Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan said Wednesday that his proposed farm subsidy reforms are designed to improve food sustainability and to end trade distortions fueling migration.

How Policymakers Can Help to Address the Food Insecurity-related Causes of Migration

By Eva Mach
Global migration figures are certainly striking. If current patterns continue, the number of international migrants in the world could surpass 400m by 2050, up from 244m currently, while an estimated 740m are internal migrants (within countries).

South African Lawsuit Could Bring Sweeping Changes to Land and Mining Rights

By Mark Olalde
South Africans await judgement to be handed down in a court case that could set a sweeping precedent by empowering communities on communal land with the right to reject new mining projects.
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