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Head-to-head: Africa's food crisis

An official from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP), Nicholas Crawford, and Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem, a pan-Africanist and Director of Justice Africa, debate what is causing Africa's deepening food crisis and what the solutions might be.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4670744.stm

(Added: Tue Feb 07 2006   Hits: 452)

Accra 2008: The bumpy road to aid effectiveness in agriculture [pdf]

In agriculture, there are several reasons why development cooperation in that sector struggles to comply with the Paris principles. The paper sets out areas requiring focused attention in the run-up to Accra 2008 (Lídia Cabral, ODI, April 2008)

http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/nrp/NRP114.pdf

(Added: Tue Apr 08 2008   Hits: 57)

Advancing Agriculture in Developing Countries through Knowledge and Innovation

This conference aims to provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and experiences on knowledge and innovation for development among diverse innovation actors, including those from the public, private, and civil sectors; to showcase research results, methods, and applications in knowledge and innovations; and to identify areas for further research,advocacy, and cooperation. 7- 9 April 2008, Hilton Hotel; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), April 2008)

http://www.ifpri.org/events/conferences/2008/20080407/ConferenceProgram.pdf

(Added: Mon Apr 14 2008   Hits: 31)

AFGHANISTAN: Food shortages cause grass eating, displacement

Food shortages in Ajristan District of Ghazni Province, central Afghanistan, have forced some families to eat dried grass in order to survive, local people and the district administrator told IRIN (IRIN, 10 March 2008).

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=77195

(Added: Tue Mar 18 2008   Hits: 42)

African perspectives on genetic resources: a handbook on laws, policies, and institutions governing access and benefit sharing

Researchers developing innovative solutions to some of the world''s most pressing problems - disease, hunger, and poverty - rely on access to genetic resources. Regulating the conservation, use, and exchange of these resources - who has access to them under what circumstances, who has the right to benefits accrued through their use, how they are conserved - is a complicated process, and many nations lack adequate laws and policies. This book examines how 12 African nations are meeting this challenge and provides a resource for nations to develop a common policy framework. (K Nnadozie, R Lettington, C Bruch, S King, Environmental Law Institute, 2003)

http://www.elistore.org/reports_detail.asp?ID=10953

(Added: Tue Apr 18 2006   Hits: 380)

African Voices - Improving EC aid to Agriculture in Africa

African Voices in Europe has been launched by Practical Action to expose the failures of EC aid to improve the lives of farmers and livestock keepers in Africa and set a new agenda for ensuring aid reaches Africa's poorest communities. The site includes videos, photo stories, and in-depth research on EC aid to agriculture in Africa.

http://practicalaction.org/?id=africanvoices

(Added: Fri Mar 16 2007   Modified: Fri Dec 21 2007   Hits: 303)

Agricultural advisory services and the Market [pdf]

Christoplos. Natural Resource Perspectives 113, April 2008. This paper presents findings of a review of over thirty case studies of field level experience in promoting market orientation in agricultural advisory services (Ian Christoplos, ODI, March 2008) .

http://www.odi.org.uk/publications/nrp/NRP113.pdf

(Added: Tue Apr 08 2008   Hits: 42)

AskFAO

AskFAO is a service driven by user information needs, providing answers to queries related to the organization's areas of expertise. Working with FAO offices around the world as well as with our partner organizations, it provides a mechanism to communicate directly with technical experts in a particular field of interest.

http://www.fao.org/askfao

(Added: Wed Nov 30 2005   Hits: 473)

Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety

The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety entered into force on 11 September 2003. The Protocol seeks to protect biological diversity from the potential risks posed by living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology. It establishes an advance informed agreement (AIA) procedure for ensuring that countries are provided with the information necessary to make informed decisions before agreeing to the import of such organisms into their territory. The Protocol contains reference to a precautionary approach and reaffirms the precaution language in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. The Protocol also establishes a Biosafety Clearing-House to facilitate the exchange of information on living modified organisms and to assist countries in the implementation of the Protocol.

http://www.biodiv.org/biosafety/

(Added: Fri Mar 26 2004   Modified: Mon Dec 05 2005   Hits: 468)

Chinese biofuel 'will not stress water resources'

Article that refutes claims made by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) in Sri Lanka that the production of biofuels will have an adverse effect on water resources. It makes particular reference to China (SciDev.Net, 11 October 2007).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/Chinese%20biofuel.doc

(Added: Tue Oct 16 2007   Hits: 112)

Cool Farming: Climate Impacts of Agriculture and Mitigation Potential [pdf]

There is growing evidence that greenhouse gas emissions from human activity contribute to climate change. Many people blame modern farming practices for accelerating this - agriculture produces between 16.8 and 32.2 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But could agriculture also hold some solutions to climate change?(Jessica Bellarby, Bente Foereid, Astley Hastings and Pete Smith, Greenpeace International, 2007)

http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/cool-farming-full-report

(Added: Tue Apr 29 2008   Hits: 21)

Doomsday seed vault for food security

A doomsday seed vault deep in the Arctic ice will ensure that survivors never go hungry. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built by the Norwegian government for the benefit of mankind, is named after the archipelago where it is located.

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=76507

(Added: Mon Feb 04 2008   Hits: 59)

Enhancing innovation through competitive agricultural technology funds in E & N Uganda - Procedures, lessons learnt & outputs

Enhancing innovation through competitive agricultural technology funds in E & N Uganda - Procedures, lessons learnt & outputs. Serere Agriculture & Animal Production Research Institute, Soroti, Uganda The National Agricultural Research Organisation implemented the Client-oriented Agricultural Research & Dissemination Project in E & N Uganda from 1999 to 2004, with assistance from the UK Department of International Development. The project piloted competitive agricultural technology funds managed by a multi-stakeholder local organizing committee in E Uganda. Procedures, lessons learnt and outputs can now be accessed from the NARO website (www.naro.go.ug) or directly on www.coard.co.uk Materials available include: Procedures & Lessons Learnt in Operating Locally Managed Competitive Agricultural Technology Funds; Impact Assessment Procedures for Pluralistic, Multi-Stakeholder Agricultural Research & Dissemination Projects; Processes for Demand Articulation for Agricultural Research; Participatory Economic Assessment of Technologies; Seed Systems, Soil Productivity Systems & Agricultural Knowledge Systems in E & N Uganda; Information Materials for Farmers on a wide range of agricultural technologies; Proceedings of the Conference hosted by NARO and MAK on Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) I hope these will prove useful to agricultural development workers in Uganda, E Africa and world-wide. Comments and feedback would be very welcome, and should be sent to: director@narosaari.org Dr L K Serunjogi Ag Director of Research, Serere Agriculture & Animal Research Institute, P O Soroti, Uganda e: director@narosaari.org

http://www.coard.co.uk

(Added: Mon Jul 11 2005   Modified: Fri Jul 15 2005   Hits: 434)

Enhancing women's access and ownership of livestock

In many developing countries, women provide much of the labour for livestock tasks. Yet their role in livestock production has been undervalued by policymakers and research on this issue widely ignored. (id21, February 2008)

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights72/art01.html

(Added: Mon Mar 10 2008   Hits: 48)

Exciting Speaker on Global Food Systems in NZ

Raj Patel, author of ''Stuffed and Starved - Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World Food System'', will be visiting New Zealand September 20-26. He will be giving public talks and leading activist workshops in Christchurch (Friday 21/Saturday 22), Wellington (Monday 24) and Auckland (Tuesday 25/Wednesday 26).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/Kia%20ora%20nga%20hoa.doc

(Added: Tue Aug 21 2007   Hits: 148)

FAO Best Practices

FAO Best Practices Web site provides a series of summaries that introduce some best practices in FAO's areas of expertise. It also provides links to further resources with supporting technical information.

http://www.fao.org/bestpractices

(Added: Wed Nov 30 2005   Hits: 431)

Farmer Organisations along US/Mexico border protest NAFTA deals

Starting January 1st, taxes on some agricultural products will be completely lifted under the North American Free Trade Agrement (NAFTA), and Mexican farmers say this will lead to food insecurity and price rises. Protest action is planned from several groups. (1/1/08, Mexico Monitor)

http://mexicomonitor.blogspot.com/2007/12/nafta-protests-planned-on-border-for.html

(Added: Thu Jan 03 2008   Hits: 37)

Food Sovereignty: towards democracy in localized food systems

This paper provides a comprehensive history, overview and analysis of the Food Sovereignty Policy Framework, arguing that in a world plagued simultaneously and perversely by hunger and obesity, rational policies are overdue for governing the way food is grown, processed and traded, and how the benefits of the world's food systems are shared. While most food in the world is grown, collected and harvested by more than a billion small-scale farmers, pastoralists and artisanal fisherfolk, the rules that govern food and agriculture at all levels are designed to facilitate not local, but international trade. This reduces diversity and concentrates the wealth of the world's food economies in the hands of ever fewer multinational corporations, while the majority of the world's small-scale food producers, processors, local traders and consumers including, crucially, the poor and malnourished, are marginalised. Drawn from the voices of thousands of peasant groups around the world, food sovereignty is a persuasive and highly political argument for refocusing the control of food production and consumption within democratic processes rooted in localised food systems. (Michael Windfuhr and Jennie Jonsén, FIAN ITDG Publishing, 2005)

http://www.ukabc.org/foodsovpaper.htm#c

(Added: Mon Apr 03 2006   Hits: 374)

Food to eat or to run your car?

Biofuel production to earn revenue should go "hand-in-hand" with efforts to make countries food secure said Andre Croppenstedt, an economist with the Agricultural Development Economics Division of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). (Africa Weekly Roundup, 28th October)

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=74941

(Added: Tue Oct 30 2007   Hits: 118)

GLOBAL: Tool for deciding on food vs fuel

As more countries weigh the pros and cons of biofuel production, a new decision-support tool has been developed to ensure they do not compromise their food production and security. The Bioenergy and Food Security Modelling Analytical Framework (AF) is designed to identify whether the potential to develop a bioenergy industry exists in a particular country, and provide policy support(IRIN, 25 February 2008).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/Tool%20for%20deciding%20on%20food%20vs%20fuel.doc

(Added: Tue Mar 11 2008   Hits: 115)

Huge Farm Bill Offers More of Same for Agribusiness

Farm subsidies in the United States are largely reserved for the big farms that produce one of the five crops - cotton, corn, wheat, rice and soybeans. Subsidies are seen by many to hurt the small family farmer and favor the big business of American farming (Common Dreams, Carolyn Lochhead, 26 July 2007).

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/26/2778/

(Added: Fri Jul 27 2007   Hits: 130)

In search of the Holy Grail: Could Promoting Underutilised Plants Provide a Win-win for Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Reduction?

This new report by the International Centre for Underutilised Crops (ICUC) highlights the potential benefits - but also the risks - that increased cultivation and commercialization of traditional varieties and wild resources could present for both poor farmers livelihoods and for biodiversity. (Biosoc, 20)

http://icuc-iwmi.org/files/Publications/ICUC-PP2%20web.pdf

(Added: Tue Oct 30 2007   Hits: 84)

KYRGYZSTAN: Locusts remain threat despite successes in south

Kyrgyzstan has staved off the worst of a locust infestation in the south of the country, officials say, but challenges remain as other regions brace for invasions of the crop-eating pests (IRIN News, 10 June 2007).

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=72649

(Added: Tue Jun 12 2007   Hits: 179)

NGOs Wary of Doomsday Seed Vault

Agricultural non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in India and elsewhere are criticizing the newly-opened Global Seed Vault (GSV) at Svalbard in Norway as fundamentally unjust in its objectives (Inter Press Service, 4 March 2008).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/NGOs%20Wary%20of%20Doomsday%20Seed%20Vault.doc

(Added: Wed Mar 05 2008   Hits: 95)

Peak Oil and Food Security: Fueling a Food Crisis

The current industrial agriculture, food production and trade systems are increasingly dependent on fossil fuels, including artificial fertilisers, packaging, transport and processing methods. With peak oil imminent, food and agriculture policy will have to change. This report investigates the consequences of the decline of cheap oil on food security in the UK and elsewhere and calls for a Royal Commission of Food Security to give the matter urgent consideration (Pacific Ecologist, 2007).

http://www.pacificecologist.org/archive/14/peak-oil-part-one.pdf

(Added: Tue Oct 16 2007   Hits: 94)

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