The New Agriculturist

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Focus on...

Climate sustainable agriculture: From water harvesting in Nicaragua and conservation farming in Zimbabwe to carbon trading in Kenya and Uganda, we focus on a number of agricultural practices that sustainably increase productivity and income, strengthen resilience to climate variability and reduce agriculture's contribution to climate change.

Points of view

Young people and the agri-food sector in Africa

Young people and the agri-food sector in Africa: Agriculture is too often seen as an 'employment of last resort', avoided by young people. Yet millions of youth remain unemployed and governments appear incapable or unwilling to formulate policies that could provide young people with employment in the fast-changing agrifood sector. But what could make agriculture attractive to young job-seekers?

Country profile

Zambia: Once at the forefront of the 'Green Revolution', with hybrid maize yields breaking record charts in the 1960s, Zambia has vast agricultural potential. Yet despite a favourable climate, fertile land and 40 per cent of the water resources in the entire southern African region, that potential is yet to be fully tapped.

My Perspective

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu: Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, the Executive Director of The Smallholders Foundation in Nigeria, promotes the 'Climate Change on Air' project: a farmer-produced radio broadcast that provides relevant information about climate change to smallholders.

News brief

CIMMYT - positions available in Mexico: Do you want to be a part of a movement which is revolutionising agriculture in Mexico, improving rural livelihoods, increasing the country's agricultural competitiveness, and providing an example for other countries to follow? CIMMYT is seeking to fill four key positions immediately.
Flooding causing food shortage in Kenya: Heavy rains in Kenya have destroyed large areas of rice, maize, sorghum, ground nut and horticultural crops.

Research and innovation

Climate sustainable agriculture: Across most of the tropics, agriculture is facing enormous challenges from changing weather patterns. In this edition, GFAR highlights work underway to draw attention to policy implications and enable smallscale farmers to adapt to and mitigate climate change.

In this edition, we focus on a number of climate sustainable practices that increase agricultural productivity and income, strengthen resilience to climate variability and reduce agriculture's contribution to climate change, whilst positive developments for the youth in agriculture are also highlighted.
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In pictures

Coping with crisis in the Sahel: Low rainfall, poor harvests, high food prices and a lack of pasture mean that 13 million people are at risk of serious food shortages across the Sahel region. To help those worst affected by the crisis, Oxfam is running a number of programmes to provide income, water and animal healthcare.

GFAR updates

Agricultural innovation systems e-conference: FAO is hosting a moderated e-mail conference from 4 June to 1 July 2012 on 'Ensuring the full participation of family farmers in agricultural innovation systems: Key issues and case studies'.
Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize seeks nominations: The Louis Malassis International Scientific Prize for Agriculture and Food aims to recognise exemplary and promising contributions in order to improve food and agricultural systems sustainability as well as contribute to addressing food security and poverty reduction.

Book reviews

Virtual water - Tackling the threat to our planet's most precious resource: Virtual water describes how water is used in unimaginable quantities to grow, process, package and transport all that we consume. Weaving many strands of cause and effect with humour and compassion, Tony Allen draws lessons from the past and suggests steps to the future.
Climate change mitigation and agriculture: This timely and comprehensive book reviews the state of agricultural climate change mitigation globally, with a focus on identifying the feasibility, opportunities and challenges for achieving mitigation among smallholder farmers.

Developments

Profiting from prawn in Bangladesh: In southeast Bangladesh, rice production becomes impossible as rising levels of floodwater engulf the land swamping the rice fields in some areas. But a group of NGOs has enabled farmers to take up prawn cultivation during the wet season, improving food security and incomes.
Rural youth shatter the myth of farming as a poor man's profession: Among Kenyan youths, who comprise over 75 percent of the country's population, farming is seldom considered an attractive option. However, the tide is beginning to turn. The lure of profitable farming is prompting even urbanites to ditch white collar jobs and trade their designer suits and shoes for overalls and gumboots.

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