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Thursday, April 18, 2024
News and Views from the Global South
Food Security
Livestock – Opportunity and Threat for a Sustainable Latin America
Stockbreeding generates enormous profits in Latin America, but it also has a broad and varied impact on the environment, which means it must urgently be turned into a sustainable, green-friendly, socially accepted and profitable activity.
Asia, Looking Beyond the Green Revolution
More than 2.2 billion people in Asia rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, but the Asian Development Bank warns that stagnant and declining yields of major crops such as rice and wheat can be ultimately linked to declining investments in agriculture. Public investments in agriculture in India, for instance, have been roughly the same since 2004.
Nurturing African Agriculture
While agriculture could be the driving force to lift millions of Africans out of poverty and alleviate hunger, its full potential remains untapped. For example, only between five and seven percent of the continent’s cultivated land is irrigated, leaving farmers vulnerable to climate shocks like the devastating El Nino-driven drought in southern Africa. That's why international agencies like the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are forging key partnerships to enhance agricultural production, sustainable natural resource management and increased market access. 
Ethiopian Food Aid Jammed Up in Djibouti Port
Bags of wheat speed down multiple conveyor belts to be heaved onto trucks lined up during the middle of a blisteringly hot afternoon beside the busy docks of Djibouti Port.
New Alliance to Shore Up Food Security Launched in Africa
As over 20 million sub-Saharan Africans face a shortage of food because of drought and development issues, representatives of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Pan African Parliament (PAP) met in Johannesburg to forge a new parliamentary alliance focusing on food and nutritional security.
Chronic Hunger Lingers in the Midst of Plenty
In a fraught global economic environment, exacerbated by climate change and shrinking resources, ensuring food and nutrition security is a daunting challenge for many nations. India, Asia's third largest economy and the world's second most populous nation after China with 1.3 billion people, is no exception.
Rewriting Africa’s Agricultural Narrative
Albert Kanga Azaguie no longer considers himself a smallholder farmer. By learning and monitoring the supply and demand value chains of one of the country’s staple crops, plantain (similar to bananas), Kanga ventured into off-season production to sell his produce at relatively higher prices.
Seaweed gains ground as a pillar of food security in South America
Seaweed, a nutrient-rich foodstuff that was a regular part of the diet of several South American indigenous peoples, is emerging as a new pillar of food security in Latin America and is providing a livelihood for thousands of people in the region’s coastal areas.
Can Better Technology Lure Asia’s Youth Back to Farming?
Farming and agriculture may not seem cool to young people, but if they can learn the thrill of nurturing plants to produce food, and are provided with their favorite apps and communications software on agriculture, food insecurity will not be an issue, food and agriculture experts said during the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Food Security Forum from June 22 to 24 at the ADB headquarters here.
Battered by Storms, Sri Lanka Rethinks Food Security
The picture could be straight out of a tourist postcard – a sleepy green mountain with misty clouds floating above the canopy – if not for one fatal flaw: the ugly gash running right through the middle.
Malawi’s Drought Leaves Millions High and Dry
It’s Saturday, market day at the popular Bvumbwe market in Thyolo district. About 40 kilometers away in Chiradzulu district, a vegetable vendor and mother of five, Esnart Nthawa, 35, has woken up at three a.m. to prepare for the journey to the market.
Bees and Silkworms Spin Gold for Ethiopia’s Rural Youth
Beekeeping and silkworm farming have long been critical cogs of Ethiopian life, providing food, jobs and much needed income.
WFO Calls for Farmer-Centred Sustainable Development
Over 600 delegates representing at least 570 million farms scattered around the world gathered in Zambia from May 4-7 under the umbrella of the World Farmers' Organisation (WFO) to discuss climate change, land tenure, innovations and capacity building as four pillars on which to build agricultural development.
Farmers Can Weather Climate Change – With Financing
Merian Kalala, a farmer in Solwezi, capital of the North-Western Province of Zambia, knows firsthand that climate change is posing massive problems for agricultural productivity.
Farmers Hold Keys to Ending Poverty, Hunger, FAO Says
With recent data showing that 793 million people still go to bed hungry, ending hunger and poverty in 15 years is the next development challenge that world leaders have set for themselves.
Seeking a New Farming Revolution
As the World Farmers' Organization meets for its annual conference in Zambia to promote policies that strengthen this critical sector, IPS looks at how farmers across the globe are tackling the interconnected challenges of climate change, market fluctuations, water and land management, and energy access.
The Family Garden Going Out of Style in Cuban Countryside
In the past, all rural homes in Cuba had gardens for putting fresh vegetables on the dinner table. The local term for these gardens is “conuco”, a word with indigenous roots that is still used in several Caribbean nations.
World Farmers’ Organisation Meeting Eyes New Markets, Fresh Investment
‘No Farmer, No Food’ is an old slogan that the Zambia National Farmers’ Union still uses. Some people consider it a cliché, but it could be regaining its place in history as agriculture is increasingly seen as the answer to a wide range of the world’s critical needs such as nutrition, sustainable jobs and income for the rural poor.
Small-scale Fishing Is About Much More than Just Subsistence in Chile
“Fishing isn’t just for making a living, it’s also enjoyable,” said Pedro Pascual, a 70-year-old fisherman who has been taking his small boat out to sea off Chile’s Pacific coast in the early hours of the morning almost every day for the past 50 years, to support his family.
Response to Ethiopia’s Drought: A Story of Success or Anguish?
Inside a health clinic run by the Catholic Daughters of Saint Anne, a nurse wraps a special tape measure around the upper arm of 2-year-old Rodas cradled in her mother’s arms. The tape reads yellow, meaning “moderately” malnourished, according to the attending nurse.
After a Historic Success, Urgent Challenges Face the WTO
In 2015 the international community took some huge strides forward on a number of vital issues. There was the agreement on the United Nations new Sustainable Development Goals.« Previous Page — Next Page »
Food security is a condition related to the sustainable availability of food. The Food and Agriculture Organisation defines food security as "existing when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life." Established as a formal concept in 1974 at the World Food Conference, statistics are produced every year by the FAO, World Food Programme and International Fund for Agricultural Development in The State of Food Insecurity in the World. Food security is notably a concept around which severe global disparities exist. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest hunger rates, and it has shown only modest improvements in recent years. IPS brings you stories from around the world focussed on the importance of maintaining good agricultural and political practices to reduce hunger sustainably.
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Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
Tracking global progress towards a sustainable world
