Monday, May 20, 2019
News and Views from the Global South
Food Sustainability
Benin’s Agriculture Has a Good Season, But it Wasn’t Easy
Théophile Houssou, a maize farmer from Cotonou, has spent sleepless nights lying awake worrying about the various disasters that could befall any farmer, often wondering, “What if it rains heavily and all my crops are washed away?” or “What if the armyworms invade my farm and eat up all the crops and I’m left with nothing?”
Improving the Lives of Millions of Mothers and Children
It is slightly after 3pm on a hot Wednesday afternoon in Chipata district, eastern Zambia, and a group of women are gathering for a meeting. It is Elizabeth Tembo’s turn to stand amongst the other mothers like herself and share key lessons on nutrition.
Egypt’s Food Challenge: a Good Effort but Not Enough
“Unfortunately the overall nutritional panorama of Egypt does not look well,” says Dr. Sara Diana Garduno Diaz, an expert concentrating on nutrition and biology at the American University of the Middle East. Diaz’s research focuses on dietary patterns and ethnic-associated risk factors for metabolic syndrome.
Finding a Way to Food Sustainability
There’s much to think about regarding food this month. April is Reducing Food Waste Month in the United States, as efforts mount here to reduce food loss and waste, while globally Sunday Apr. 7 was World Heath Day.
Safeguarding The Health of People and Planet Through Food
Food sustainability, both in production and consumption, is at the heart of a healthy public and planet. On World Health Day, it is increasingly clear that a radical transformation of the global food system is sorely needed.
Helping St. Vincent’s Fishers Maintain an Essential Industry in a Changing Climate
From an influx of sargassum in near-shore waters, to fish venturing further out to sea to find cooler, more oxygenated water, fishers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines are battling the vagaries of climate change. The country is doing what it can to respond. 
Using Climate-Smart Solutions to Promote Peace in South Sudan
Almost a month to go ahead of the traditional rainy season in Gbudue State, 430 kilometres west of South Sudan’s capital, Juba, smallholder farmers are already tilling their land as they prepare to plant purer, drought-tolerant seeds.
Developing Agriprenuers to Save Nigeria’s Youth from Crime
When Lawrence Afere told his parents he was going into farming rather than getting a job in Nigeria’s lucrative oil and gas sector, they swore he was bewitched.
Wake Up and Smell the Organic Coffee
In 1992, the idea of replanting her father’s ruined coffee farm seemed foolhardy at the time. But in retrospect it was the best business decision that Dorienne Rowan-Campbell, an international development consultant and broadcast journalist, could have made.
Q&A: Jamaica Pushes Climate Smart Policies to Secure the Future of its Food Supply
The island state of Jamaica is vulnerable to climate change which has in turn threatened both its economy and food production. But the Caribbean nation is taking the threat seriously and it has constructed a robust policy framework to support national climate action, particularly when it comes to promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA).
Farmers Secure Land and Food Thanks to ‘Eyes in the Skies’
Six years ago while wondering how best to use her engineering skills, Tanzanian ICT entrepreneur Rose Funja decided to enter an innovation competition. Years later she has turned a digital idea into a viable business that helps smallholder farmers across the East African nation access credit.
Canada Implements New Food Guidelines, But What About the Food Waste?
Canada introduced a new healthy eating food guide January 2019 and, for the first time, the meat, dairy and processed food and beverage industries were not involved. Based on the recommendations of health and nutrition experts, the guide places a new emphasis on eating plants, drinking water and cooking at home.
Desertification, Land Degradation and Climate Change Go Hand in Hand
The link between desertification, land degradation and climate change is among several issues occupying the attention of the 197 Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the next three days.
COP24: Sum and Substance of Climate Diplomacy
As I was attending the 24th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—to create a rulebook to operationalise the Paris Agreement—in Katowice, Poland, it dawned on me, like never before, that the negotiations were taking place in a make-believe world.
Bringing Greener Pastures Back Home
One month on since the Global Compact for Migration was approved, civil society has highlighted the need to turn words into action, supporting those who have been displaced or forced to migrate as a result of environmental degradation.
Eat Plants, Save the Planet
While the modern agricultural system has helped stave off famines and feed the world’s 7 billion residents, the way we eat and produce food is posing a threat to future populations’ food security.
Blue Economy Can be a Lifeline for Africa
By efficient management, the sustainable exploitation of resources in oceans, seas, lakes and rivers—also known as the blue economy—could contribute up to $1.5 trillion to the global economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental organization comprising of 36 countries.
Climate Change: Complex Challenges for Agriculture
The unusually hot summer of 2018 showed that climate change affects a central part of our lives: agriculture. The severe drought in Liechtenstein led to large losses in the hay harvest.
Global Warming: Severe Consequences for Africa
Record global greenhouse gas emissions are putting the world on a path toward unacceptable warming, with serious implications for development prospects in Africa. “Limiting warming to 1.5° C is possible within the laws of chemistry and physics, but doing so would require unprecedented changes,” said Jim Skea, cochair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III.
DRC Farmers in “Schools Without Walls” Learn to Increase Harvest
It was almost four years ago in 2015 that members of Farmer’s Frame of Idiofa (FFI), a farmers group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), produced a mere eight tonnes of sweet potatoes on two hectares of land. But the main reason for the low yield had not necessarily been a climate-related one, but an educational one.
Italy Has the ‘Greenest Agriculture’ in Europe, But it’s Not Sustainable
While Italian agriculture is in a leading position in terms of organic farming, sustainable agriculture and being at the forefront of biodiversity conservation; water scarcity, illegal workers and the role of women and combined ageing of its workforce remain pressing concerns.Next Page »
In 2017, 124 million people in 51 countries faced acute food insecurity — 11 million more than in 2016, and the number of people living on the edge of starvation and hunger remains at 815 million worldwide. The 2017 increase is largely attributable to new or intensified conflicts and insecurity and prolonged drought conditions have also triggered poor harvests in countries already facing high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition. The United Nations seems determined to work towards its targeted goal of Zero Hunger by 2030. But how feasible is this?
