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Joost Gorter, NewForesight strategic consultancy
Joost Gorter, Senior Consultant at NewForesight strategic consultancy, believes that sustainable agricultural intensification in developing nations depends on creating a larger number of professionally managed, medium-sized farms, while also providing opportunities for less entrepreneurial farmers to leave the sector and earn a living elsewhere.
Date published: January 2014
Surabhi Mittal, a specialist in ICT and productivity with CIMMYT, believes that effective delivery of farming advisories via mobile phone demands the combined efforts of multiple agencies, in order to ensure that the information supplied is locally relevant, well timed, practical and demand-driven.
Date published: November 2013
Small producers face debilitating institutional and financial constraints. Eve Crowley, from FAO, outlines how institutions that work on behalf of smallholders can be strengthened.
Date published: September 2013
Stephen Hall of the WorldFish research organisation believes that policy makers in developing countries need to recognise the wide range of benefits offered by the small scale fisheries sector, and prioritise it within the broader context of rural development. Policy development needs to involve stakeholders at all levels, and create context specific policies that enhance the capacity of fisheries to provide jobs or address food crises.
Date published: July 2013
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.
Date published: May 2013
Robin Bourgeois of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR) reflects critically on the strategies for feeding the global population presented during The Economist's Feeding the World conference held in Amsterdam in January 2013.
Date published: March 2013
Gine Zwart, Senior Policy Advisor, Oxfam
Stakeholder participation is important in any field of work, but what does it mean in practice? Is the involvement of smallholder farmers restricted to obtaining information or for validating results? Are they listened to and seen as equal partners in shaping the future direction of long-term agricultural research? In a session at GCARD2 on equitable partnership for improved foresight, Oxfam's Gine Zwart shares her thoughts.
Date published: January 2013
Jérôme Bossuet of ICRISAT believes that, with global supply of phosphate rock having an uncertain future, and with standard fertiliser application an inappropriate option for most farmers in the South, alternative options must be found. More targeted fertiliser usage, recycling of nutrients in waste, and use of legumes to free up insoluble phosphorous in the soil, are some of his suggestions.
Date published: October 2012
In recent years, camel trading in the Horn of Africa has been transformed by the establishment of new markets. Such innovation is building wealth in one of Africa's most troubled regions, but supportive policies are needed to maximise the benefits for all.
Date published: August 2012
Professor Ken Giller, technical advisor to the Africa Soil Health Consortium, is concerned by a tendency to promote blanket solutions to transform African farming, which fail to account for the complex and varied constraints smallholders face.
Date published: July 2012
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