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

Soil Degradation Threatens Nutrition in Latin America

By Orlando Milesi and Marianela Jarroud
Curbing soil degradation is essential for ecological sustainability and food security in Latin America and the Caribbean.

New Protocol Aims to Cut Trillion-Dollar Food Waste Bill

By Stella Paul
Four years ago, 27-year-old Tsering Dorji of western Bhutan’s Satsam village took to organic vegetable farming. Since then, thanks to composted manure and organic pesticide, the soil health of his farm has improved, and the yield has increased manifold.

New International Accord to Tackle Illegal Fishing

By Lyndal Rowlands
A new international accord to tackle illegal and under-reported fishing will come into force on June 5.

Traditional Mexican Recipes Fight the Good Fight

By Emilio Godoy
In a clay pot, Araceli Márquez mixes tiny Mexican freshwater fish known as charales with herbs and a sauce made of chili peppers, green tomatoes and prickly pear cactus fruit, preparing a dish called mixmole.

Bangladeshi Shrimp Farmers See Big Money in Small Fry

By Naimul Haq
Frozen tiger shrimp exports from Bangladesh, mainly to the United States and the European Union, have grown substantially over the years and the demand keeps increasing.

Prickly Pears Drive Local Development in Northern Argentina

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Family farmers in the northern Argentine province of Chaco are gaining a new appreciation of the common prickly pear cactus, which is now driving a new kind of local development.

Nobel Peace Laureates to Help Achieve Food Security

By Thalif Deen
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) believes that ongoing military conflicts, which have also devastated agricultural crops and livestock, are one of the primary causes of food shortages in war zones in Africa and the Middle East.

Farmers Hold Keys to Ending Poverty, Hunger, FAO Says

By Friday Phiri
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.

A Region’s Eyes Turn to Healthy Nutrition

By José Graziano da Silva
After its remarkable success in reducing hunger, Europe must now rise to the challenge of making sure food assures more than survival and furnishes healthy lives. As head of a global hunger-fighting organization, nothing gives me more satisfaction than to see a vast region of the world achieving food security for its people.

The Family Garden Going Out of Style in Cuban Countryside

By Ivet González
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.

El Nino-Induced Drought in Zimbabwe

By Jeffrey Moyo
Emaciated and with their ribs jutting out, Evans Sinyoro’s cattle lie on the ground overlooking a dry patch of land while the small earth dam nearby is also dry, thanks to the El Nino-induced drought wreaking havoc across Zimbabwe.

Harvesting Rainwater to Weather Drought in Northeast Argentina

By Fabiana Frayssinet
In a semiarid region in the northeast Argentine province of Chaco, small farmers have adopted a simple technique to ensure a steady water supply during times of drought: they harvest the rain and store it in tanks, as part of a climate change adaptation project.

Genetic Resources to Fight Climate Change

By Justus Wanzala
With Kenya’s meteorological records over the last 50 years indicating increased irregularity and variability in precipitation, the effects of changing climate are hitting hard. Rising temperatures as well other forms of extreme weather events in form of droughts and floods are a common feature.

Land Tenure Still a Challenge for Women in Latin America

By Marianela Jarroud
Rural women in Latin America continue to face serious obstacles to land tenure, which leave them vulnerable, despite their growing importance in food production and food security.

‘Little Boy’ Devouring African Food

By Jeff Williams
There is a ‘Little Boy’ who has nothing to do with the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945. This time it is about another ‘Little Boy’ who has been devastating the harvests in many regions, especially in Africa.

Global Guidelines on Land Tenure Making Headway in Latin America

By Marianela Jarroud
Voluntary guidelines on land tenure adopted by the international community to combat the growing concentration of land ownership and improve secure access to land have begun to make headway in Latin America, a region that is a leader in the fight against hunger and that is taking firm steps towards achieving food security.

Thaw with United States Will Put Cuba’s Agroecology to the Test

By Ivet González
The United States has indicated a clear interest in buying organic produce from Cuba as soon as that is made possible by the ongoing normalisation of ties between the two countries. But farmers and others involved in the agroecological sector warn that when the day arrives, they might not be ready.

Improving Rural Livelihoods Boost Agrarian Economies

By Miriam Gathigah
For two decades, Dickson Kamau only grew maize on his 0.5 hectare (ha) of land earning himself the nickname Kamau wa mbembe or Kamau who owns maize in his native Kikuyu language.

Rural Costa Rican Families Flourish in the Shade

By Diego Arguedas Ortiz
Before they got involved in farming, Luis Diego Murillo and Xinia Solano paid their bills and put food on their table with Luis’s salary as a foreman on construction sites, an unstable job that kept him on the move.

Asian Scientists Grapple with How to Foster Crop Pollination

By Sumon Dey
Pollinators, whose role is essential in a third of what the world eats, are at center stage after a landmark new United Nations report warned that many of the 20,000 species are threatened by human behaviour.

Mexico’s Chinampas – Wetlands Turned into Gardens – Fight Extinction

By Emilio Godoy
David Jiménez grows two kinds of lettuce and other fresh produce on his “chinampa” or artificial island just under one hectare in size in San Gregorio Atlapulco, on the south side of Mexico City.
« Previous Page — Next Page »
*#*