Improving the lives of rural populations: better nutrition & agriculture productivity

20 Million People Could ‘Starve to Death’ in Next Six Months

By Baher Kamal
Urgent action is needed to save the lives of people facing famine in North Eastern Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, the UN leading food and agriculture agency’s chief on April 28 warned. "If nothing is done, some 20 million people could starve to death in the next six months."

Building resilient rural livelihoods is key to helping Yemen

By José Graziano da Silva
People in Yemen are currently suffering from the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. More than 17 million people around Yemen’s rugged landscape are acutely food insecure, and the figure is likely to increase as the ongoing conflict continues to erode the ability to grow, import, distribute and pay for food. More than 7 million people are on the verge of famine, while the rest are marginally meeting the minimum day-to-day nutritional needs thanks to external humanitarian and livelihoods support. Large-scale famine is a real risk that will cast an awful shadow for generations to come.

Typical Cuban Sweet – a Symbol of the Post-Hurricane Challenge to Agriculture

By Ivet González
Early in the day, when a gentle dew moistens the ground and vegetation in the mountains of eastern Cuba, street vendor Raulises Ramírez sets up his rustic stand next to the La Farola highway and displays his cone-shaped coconut sweets.

Did You Know that the Oceans Have It All?

By Baher Kamal
Perhaps you are not aware enough of the fact the oceans have it all! What is “all”? Well, oceans have from microscopic life to the largest animal that has ever lived on Earth, from the colourless to the shimmering, from the frozen to the boiling and from the sunlit to the mysterious dark of the deepest parts of the planet. Who says that?

World Must Act Now on Lake Chad Basin Crisis: FAO DG Graziano da Silva

By Eva Donelli
Food assistance is a priority and the only way to prevent the crisis from worsening in the Lake Chad Basin, is to support food production according to José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Microbes, New Weapon Against Agricultural Pests in Africa

By Busani Bafana
Microscopic soil organisms could be an environmentally friendly way to control crop pests and diseases and even protect agriculture against the impacts of climate change, a leading researcher says.

Indonesian Farmers Weather Climate Change with Conservation Agriculture

By Kanis Dursin
Fifty-two-year-old farmer Theresia Loda was effusive when asked how conservation agriculture has changed her economic situation.

New Recipe for School Meals Programmes in Latin America

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
Sunita Daniel remembers what the school lunch programmes were like in her Caribbean island nation, Saint Lucía, until a couple of years ago: meals made of processed foods and imported products, and little integration with the surrounding communities.

Investing in Zimbabwe’s Smallholder Farmers

By Sally Nyakanyanga
To take his mangoes to Shurugwi, 230 kms south of Harare, requires Edward Madzokere to hire a cart and wake up at dawn. The fruit farmer sells his produce at the nearest “growth point” at Tongogara (the term for areas targeted for development) where the prices are not stable.

Fishing Villages Work for Food Security in El Salvador

By Edgardo Ayala
After an exhausting morning digging clams out of the mud of the mangroves, Rosa Herrera, her face tanned by the sun, arrives at this beach in southeastern El Salvador on board the motorboat Topacio, carrying her yield on her shoulders.

New Evidence Confirms Risk That Mideast May Become Uninhabitable

By Baher Kamal
New evidence is deepening scientific fears, advanced few years ago, that the Middle East and North Africa risk becoming uninhabitable in a few decades, as accessible fresh water has fallen by two-thirds over the past 40 years.

370 Million Children Eat Healthy Food at School, Every Day

By IPS World Desk
Every day some 370 million children around the world are fed at school, while learning about healthy food and nutrition through school meals programmes that also help boost attendance, the United Nations reports.

The Indigenous ‘People of Wildlife’ Know How to Protect Nature

By Baher Kamal
In the northern part of Mount Kenya, there is an indigenous community -- the Il Lakipiak Maasai ("People of Wildlife") -- which owns and operates the only community-owned rhino sanctuary in the country.

Humankind’s Ability to Feed Itself, Now in Jeopardy

By IPS World Desk
Mankind’s future ability to feed itself is in jeopardy due to intensifying pressures on natural resources, mounting inequality, and the fallout from a changing climate, warns a new United Nations’ report.

Worst Drought in Decades Drives Food Price Spike in East Africa

By IPS World Desk
The most severe drought in decades, which has struck parts of Ethiopia and is exacerbated by a particularly strong El Niño effect, has led to successive failed harvests and widespread livestock deaths in some areas, and humanitarian needs have tripled since the beginning of 2015, the United Nations warns.

Latin America Is a Leading Influence in the Global Fight Against Hunger

By Orlando Milesi and Mario Osava
A model for fighting against hunger and malnutrition with a global reach which has been successful within and outside the region has spread worldwide, first from Brazil and then from Latin America, notes a distinction given to the current Director-General of FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation), José Graziano da Silva.

Every Year 700 Million People Fall Ill from Contaminated Food

By Baher Kamal
It may sound like an endless tale of modern seven plagues: mad cows, avian flu, led-poisoned fish, swine fever, desert locusts being the most dangerous of migratory pests, let alone new, aggressive rust threatening entire wheat crops in three continents, just to mention a few. Now it is about contaminated food that every year causes illness to 1 in 10 people around the world – or around 700 million - killing 420,000 people as a result.

Innovative Credit Model Holds Out Lifeline to Farmers in Honduras

By Thelma Mejía
In this village in southern Honduras, in one of the poorest parts of the country, access to credit is limited, the banking sector is not supportive of agriculture, and nature punishes with recurrent extreme droughts.

New, Aggressive Rust Imperils Wheat Crops in Europe, Africa, Asia

By IPS World Desk
Wheat rust, a family of fungal diseases that can cause crop losses of up to 100 per cent in untreated susceptible wheat, is making further advances in Europe, Africa and Asia, according to two new studies produced by scientists in collaboration with the United Nations.

Seeds Are Key to Improving Bean Production in Cuba

By Ivet González
“You have to have good and varied seeds to test which one adapts best to each kind of soil,” says 71-year-old farmer Rubén Torres, who on his farm in central Cuba harvests 1.6 tons of organic beans every year, among other crops.

Farmer Field Schools Help Women Lead on Climate Change

By Sally Nyakanyanga
Discussions around climate change have largely ignored how men and women are affected by climate change differently, instead choosing to highlight the extreme and unpredictable weather patterns or decreases in agricultural productivity.
« Previous Page — Next Page »


organic chemistry brown