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

Guess How Much Water Your Daily Food Consumes

By IPS News Desk
The facts are clear. So are the consequences. And the facts are that it takes between one and three tonnes of water to grow one kilogramme of cereal; that a kilogramme of beef takes up to 15 tonnes of water to produce; and that it is estimated that between 2,000 and 5,000 litres of water are needed to produce a person's daily food.

360 Million of 625 Million People Are Overweight in Latin America and Caribbean

By Orlando Milesi
In Latin America and the Caribbean 360 million people are overweight, and 140 million are obese, warned the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Panamerican Health Organisation (PAHO).

Inequality (II): “It Will Take 170 Years for Women to Be Paid as Men Are”

By Baher Kamal
While just eight individuals, all of them men, own the same wealth as 3.6 billion people -- half of world’s total population -- it will take 170 years for women to be paid the same as men, warns a new major report on inequality.

Is Cash Aid to the Poor Wasted on Tobacco and Alcohol?

By Baher Kamal
Not at all. Or at least not necessarily. The fact is that cash transfer programmes –regular money payments to poor households—are meant to reduce poverty, promote sustainable livelihoods and increase production in the developing world. One in four countries on Earth are applying them. But are they effective?

When Your Healers Become Your Killers

By Baher Kamal
There is a major though silent global threat to human and animal health, with implications for both food safety and food security and the economic well-being of millions of farming households. It is so-called anti-microbial resistance.

Native Seeds Sustain Brazil’s Semi-Arid Northeast

By Mario Osava
In his 76 years of life, Raimundo Pinheiro de Melo has endured a number of droughts in Brazil’s semi-arid Northeast region. And he remembers every one of them since 1958. “The worst one was in 1982 and 1983, the only time that the river dried up,” said Pinheiro do Melo, who has lived near the river since 1962. “The one in 1993 was also very bad,” he told IPS, because neither Bolsa Familia nor Networking in Brazil’s Semi-Arid Region (ASA) existed yet, which contribute to a less traumatic coexistence with droughts like the current one, which has dragged on for five years.

No More Mass Deaths from Drought in Northeast Brazil

By Mario Osava
The drought that has plagued Brazil’s semiarid Northeast region since 2012 is already more severe than the 1979-1983 drought, the longest in the 20th century. But prolonged dry spells no longer cause the tragedies of the past.

Agroecology Booming in Argentina

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Organic agriculture is rapidly expanding in Argentina, the leading agroecological producer in Latin America and second in the world after Australia, as part of a backlash against a model that has disappointed producers and is starting to worry consumers.

Feminism Helps Villagers Coexist with Drought in Northeast Brazil

By Mario Osava
“The vegetable garden changed my life,” said Rita Alexandre da Silva, in the village of Primeiro do Maio where 65 families have obtained land to grow crops since 1999, in this municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, in Northeast Brazil.

Nicaraguan Women Push for Access to Land, Not Just on Paper

By José Adán Silva
A group of women farmers who organised to fight a centuries-old monopoly over land ownership by men are seeking plots of land to farm in order to contribute to the food security of their families and of the population at large.

Climate Finance for Farmers Key to Avert One Billion Hungry

By Fabíola Ortiz
With climate change posing growing threats to smallholder farmers, experts working around the issues of agriculture and food security say it is more critical than ever to implement locally appropriate solutions to help them adapt to changing rainfall patterns.

Climate: Strong Commitment and New Global Action on Water Scarcity

By IPS Correspondents
“No country, irrespective of its size or strength, is immune from the impacts of climate change, and no country can afford to tackle the climate challenge alone.”

Beyond Calais: A Perspective on Migration, Agriculture and Rural Development

By José Graziano da Silva
Migration is part of the process of development. It is not a problem in itself, and could, in fact, offer a solution to a number of matters. Migrants can make a positive and profound contribution to the economic and social development of their countries of origin, transit and destination alike. To quote the New York Declaration, adopted at the UN Summit on Refugees and Migrants on 19 September, “migrants can help to respond to demographic trends, labour shortages and other challenges in host societies, and add fresh skills and dynamism to the latter’s economies”.

Climate Doomsday – Another Step Closer

By Baher Kamal
Almost inadvertently, humankind is getting closer everyday to the point of no-return towards what could be called the ‘climate doomsday’. Now, globally averaged concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has surged again to new records in 2016… and will not dip below pre-2015 levels for many generations.

We Can Eliminate Hunger and Poverty Quickly with Greater Commitment

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Why do people go hungry? Mainly because they do not have the means to get enough food, whether by producing it themselves or by purchasing it. There is more than enough food to feed the world. All those who currently go hungry can be adequately fed with about two percent of current food production, much more of which is wasted or lost. The main problem is one of distribution or access, rather than production or availability.

Pan-African Parliament Seeks Larger Role in Food Security, Policy

By Hisham Allam
The Pan African Parliament (PAP) concluded its session in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh Monday with initiatives on PAP’s identity, counter-terrorism challenges in the continent and joint development plans, particularly the question of food security.

Eradicating Poverty – a Lofty Ideal or Achievable Goal?

By Dr Kanayo F. Nwanze
The first Sustainable Development Goal calls for us to end poverty in all its forms everywhere by 2030. The goal and the deadline are ambitious - and they need to be. We do not have the luxury of time.

Cultivating a Different Future for Rural Women in Argentina

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Her seven children have grown up, but she now takes care of a young grandson while working in her organic vegetable garden in El Pato, south of the city of Buenos Aires. Olga Campos wants for them what she wasn’t able to achieve: an education to forge a different future.

Hit by Extreme Weather, South Asia Balances Growth and Food Security

By Amantha Perera
Sri Lanka is literally baking these days.

What Happens When a Small Farmer Migrates?

By Baher Kamal
Now that world attention is focused on the fast growing process of urbanisation, with 2 in 3 people estimated to be living in towns and cities by the year 2030, an old “equation” jumps rapidly to mind: each time a small farmer migrates to an urban area, equals to one food producer less, and one food consumer more.

Climate Change Adaptation – Key to Reaching Zero Hunger in Latin America

By Orlando Milesi
Climate change is leading to major modifications in agricultural production in Latin America and the Caribbean, and if mitigation and adaptation measures of the productive system are not urgently adopted, threats to food security will be exacerbated.
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