The New Agriculturist

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Focus on...

Urban agriculture: We focus on a number of initiatives that are working with governments and urban farmers to remove barriers and provide incentives, inputs and training in order to empower the poor and contribute to their food security and nutrition.

Points of view

Investing in agriculture: Participants at the Future Agricultures Consortium's Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa conference discuss the factors that influence governments and others to support investment in agricultural development in Africa.

Research and innovation

Foresight: With shifting climates, volatile markets, controversial technologies and rapidly-evolving policies, anticipating what the future will bring is not getting any easier. In this edition, GFAR highlights how foresight studies (forward-looking, anticipatory research and analysis) in Indonesia, Morocco and Argentina are being used to shape environmental and agricultural policies.

Country profile

Burundi: Burundi is a small, landlocked country in central Africa with an economy dominated by subsistence agriculture. The second most densely populated country in Africa, Burundi has weathered more than a decade of civil war. Since 2000, Burundi has worked towards revitalising the economy and forging national unity but rapid population growth and inefficient agricultural production are serious challenges.

News brief

Call for proposals to accelerate agricultural technology transfer: A new initiative, AgriTT, to promote transfer of agricultural technologies, knowledge and management innovations from China to low-income countries in Africa and Southeast Asia, is inviting teams of researchers to apply for grants.
Netting mosquitoes doubles milk production: The use of insecticide-impregnated nets to surround livestock shelters used for zero grazing has doubled, and in some cases tripled milk production on smallholder dairy farms in Kisii, Kenya.

My Perspective

Tsegaye Tadesse, Farm Africa, Ethiopia: Tsegaye Tadesse, a senior forestry advisor for the NGO Farm Africa, explains how communities in Ethiopia's Bale Mountains are set to earn carbon offset funding through the UN's REDD+ scheme, because of their participatory forest management.

How to feed 9 billion by 2050 is a complex question. Yet the staggering fact that women farmers, who produce the majority of the world's food, own less than two per cent of the world's land and receive only ten per cent of agricultural credit does at least suggest a good place to look for answers. In this edition, we present experiences and insights from a range of initiatives that are working to achieve sustainable improvements in the lives of smallholder women, their families and communities.
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In pictures

Afghan nomads - changing lives: Afghanistan's Kuchi nomads were once able to graze their large flocks of fat-tailed sheep across the country's hills and mountains. But increasing competition for land from a growing population is pressuring families towards a more sedentary lifestyle. Nevertheless, Kuchi families continue to maintain much of their traditional culture, including sharply defined gender roles.

GFAR updates

Building collective action on the sustainable use of agro-biodiversity: GFAR recently convened a multi-partner dialogue on agricultural biodiversity as part of the 30-year anniversary of the Commission on Genetic Resources in Food and Agriculture.
Gender in Agriculture Partnership e-survey results: A GFAR report presents the results of an e-survey that was designed to learn about what those committed to addressing gender issues in agriculture were thinking, doing, and planning as collective actions, and to understand their key priorities and needs for actions of the Gender in Agriculture Partnership network.

Book reviews

What has nature ever done for us?: Tony Juniper has written this book to awaken those who don't know, and those who should know better, how close we are to irretrievably degrading the foundation on which society and its economy is based. The message is, of course, about more than agriculture, fisheries and forestry, though it is salutary how frequently the biology-based industries are implicated for both the benefits they provide and the damage they incur.
Edible insects: Future prospects for food and feed security: This book assesses the potential of insects as food and feed as one major and readily available source of nutritious and protein-rich food.

Developments

Combating aflatoxin - a value chain approach: To tackle aflatoxin contamination and secure more reliable access for smallholders in Malawi to value-added international markets, a UK-based ethical trading organisation has devised an approach that tackles critical control points - including drying, sorting and storage - to stop moulds developing, and has also established a groundnut processing plant.
Making the most of sea cucumbers: To improve the incomes of remote Pacific island communities, fishers are being provided with support to enable them to process sea cucumbers to the high quality demanded for export, particularly to China.

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