Gates Foundation announced nine new projects at World Food Prize event

October 15, 2009. The Gates Foundation used the appearance at the World Food Prize events to announce nine new projects totalling $120 million. The foundation’s new grants include funding for legumes that fix nitrogen in the soil, higher yielding varieties of sorghum and millet, and new varieties of sweet potatoes that resist pests and have a higher vitamin content. Other projects will help the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa support African governments in developing policies that serve small farmers; help get information to farmers by radio and cell phone; support school feeding programs; provide training and resources that African governments can draw on as they regulate biotechnologies; and help women farmers in India manage their land and water resources sustainably. To date, the foundation has committed $1.4 billion to agricultural development efforts.

Bill Gates, Co-Chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, delivered his first major address on agriculture at the 2009 Borlaug Dialogue. Read the transcript of the speech here.

Following his address, Gates was joined on stage by 2009 World Food Prize Laureate Gebisa Ejeta for a question and answer session focused on agricultural development in Africa.

Related:
Washington Post 16/10 Gates's Fields of Dreams
The better breeds of the first green revolution are not as relevant to Africa. "In India and China," says Gates, "corn, wheat and rice are over 80 percent of output. In Africa, these are 40 to 50 percent. There are a ton of other things -- cassava, sorghum, millet." Improving the crops of the poor has not gotten much focus from scientists and agribusiness. In addition, Africa "has more variety of ecosystems -- you see huge variations," which demands more hearty seed varieties of every type. So Gates is attempting to fill a gap -- to encourage both the development of crops ignored by the market economy and the provision of those crops to Africans, royalty-free.

The Guardian 28/10 Climate change will devastate Africa, top UK scientist warns
Professor Sir Gordon Conway, the outgoing chief scientist at the UK's Department for International Development, and former head of the philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation, argued in a new scientific paper (pdf) that the continent is already warming faster than the global average and that people living there can expect more intense droughts, floods and storm surges.

The 2009 Borlaug Dialogue

12 - 17 October 2009. the 2009 Borlaug Dialogue symposium asked experts and decision-makers from around the world how their fields – in policy, industry, science and academia, and development – can ensure adequate access to food and nutrition for, and thus contribute to the security of, all people.

To address that question, several hundred participants representing more than 65 countries – including leading policymakers and diplomats, CEOs and senior private-sector executives, and experts from academia, research, and the development community – engaged in a range of conversations on compelling and critical topics including:

• Food and agriculture in the context of national and international security
• Poverty, hunger, and food security in global crisis areas
• Continuing to address gender in agricultural development
• Providing nutrition and enhancing health, especially among women and young children
• New and cutting-edge technological approaches to farming and food
• Harmonizing organic and sustainable agricultural practices with modern technology and genetics
• The future of agriculture in an urban, global world
• Preserving and renewing soil and water resources
• Prospects for trade in agriculture and food
• The institutions necessary for a food-secure world
• Assessing progress in global agriculture and identifying areas for needed investment

On 13th October Seyfu Ketema - Executive Director, ASARECA participated in the Conversation: Trends and threats in global agricultural yields

Reference:
View Symposium Brochure
AGENDA + SPEAKER BIOS + TRANSCRIPTS

Related:
2009 World Food Prize winner Gebisa Ejeta. The Ethiopian native's work to develop sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the devastating Striga weed (witchweed) increased the production and availability of one of the world's five principal grains and enhanced the food supply of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa.

Ejeta has worked to integrate his scientific breakthroughs with farmer education programs and soil and water conservation initiatives and to empower subsistence farmers and promote economic development in rural Africa. Ejeta earned his Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics at Purdue University, where he later became a faculty member and today holds a distinguished professorship. It was during his post-graduate work at the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) office in Sudan that he developed his first hybrid sorghum. See: Iowa State University: Lecture: "Revitalizing Agricultural Research for Global Food Security"

Gebisa Ejeta 2009 World Food Prize Laureate

Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora (AAAPD)

16th October, 2009. FARA Secretariat. Visit of Representatives of the Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora (AAAPD):

• Mr. Andrew Manu, AAAPD Vice President from Iowa State University
• Mr. Samuel Assah, AAAPD - USA Director from Colorado State University

The main objective of this meeting was to introduce the Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora (AAAPD) and to see how the association can partner with FARA to ensure Food Security.

Background:
AAAPD is a premier resource network of African agricultural professionals living in the United States and Canada with the mission of promoting sustainable livelihood for Africa’s smallholder farmers and rural sector by improving food security, economic growth and environmental quality and quality of life. AAAPD hopes to achieve this by;

• Mobilizing and actively stimulating agricultural professionals in the Diaspora
• Serving as catalysts for technology and information resource development and transfer
• Providing high impact mentoring programs for young African scientists
• Promoting and integrating gender perspective in agricultural transformation
• Advocating for private-public investments in research, education, and training (RET’s)
• Building bridges in human, technology and information resources to African institutions

References:

Google group of AAAPD: The Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora

Launch.docx

Concept summary.doc

Africa Talks Clinate Change

22 October Dakar. Les résultats d'un projet de recherche dénommé "Africa talks climate", publiés jeudi à Dakar, Sénégal, par le British Council et la BBC World Service Trust, montrent que la plupart des Africains ne comprennent pas les contours du discours sur le changement climatique dont le continent est pourtant l'une des plus grandes victimes.

Boubacar Fall (ENDA) in behalf of AfricaAdapt makes a presentation on climate change

Il s'agit d'un manque de sensibilisation des populations, de l'absence de connaissances et de compréhension sur le changement climatique, l'absence de clarté dans le discours des leaders d'opinions, des Organisations non-gouvernementales et des gouvernements, la faiblesse des moyens?, souligne le rapport.

L'étude a été menée en République démocratique du Congo (RDC), au Sénégal, en Ethiopie, en Afrique du Sud, au Kenya, au Ghana, au Soudan, en Tanzanie et en Ouganda et a permis des discussions avec plus de 1.000 citoyens et 200 responsables politiques, chefs religieux et membres de la société.

A l'occasion de sa publication, l'ambassadeur de Grande-Bretagne au Sénégal, Christopher Trott, a remis au ministère sénégalais de l'Environnement, une carte mettant en relief l'incidence d'un réchauffement climatique planétaire de 4 degrés Celsius. AfricaAdapt (ENDA et FARA) a participé a cette réunion.

Reference:
Afrique en ligne 23/10/09 Changement climatique: Les Africains imperméables aux discours
BBC World Service Trust, Policy Briefing October 2009 Africa Talks Climate: exposing the information gap on climate change

Related blog posts:
Climate map shows world after 4C rise

Climate map shows world after 4C rise

Details from a map showing the impact of a global temperature rise of 4C. Photograph: Met Office

22 October. London. A map launched at the Science Museum in London linked to the Science Museum's new climate change exhibit has been developed using the latest peer-reviewed science from the Met Office Hadley Centre and other leading impact scientists. It shows that the land will heat up more quickly than the sea, and high latitudes, particularly the Arctic, will have larger temperature increases.

The map, produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre, is based on temperatures between 2060 and 2100 if current rates of climate change are not slowed. It shows that the rise will not evenly be spread across the globe, with temperature rises much larger than 4C in high latitudes such as the Arctic. Because the sea warms more slowly, average land temperature will increase by 5.5C, which scientists said would shrink agricultural yields for all major cereal crops on all major regions of production.

References

Science Museum unveils climate change map showing impact of 4C rise•

Watch the video of the launch

Announcement: Marketing of agricultural products through ICT

23-25 November in Ouagadougou. The forum ‘The marketing of agricultural products through ICT’ aims to increase the impact of the lessons learned and build the national network for ICT and development in Burkina Faso. The event is organised by Burkina NTIC, in particular its ICT cluster Agriculture.

The typical method of collecting market price information in Burkina Faso.

The organisers will collect best practice examples of marketing agricultural products through ICT, to understand where the opportunities are and to draw lessons for the future. Best practices will be gathered from Burkina Faso and neighbouring countries.

The forum will bring about 45 participants together from various agricultural institutions in Mali and Burkina Faso, and IICD project partners. Agriterra and the Swiss Agency for Development Cooperation SDC will also attend, as well as resource people from the SEND foundation in Ghana, IT company Manobi from Senegal, ANOPACI from Ivory Coast, and the regional trade platform ESOKO (TradeNet).

Reference:
Press release IICD 20/10: Social Network Used to Prepare West African Forum on Agriculture and ICT

Farmers, Literacy and Media: using video for disseminating new technologies among farmers

Here is an example how small videos can be used to disseminate new technologies among farmers:



Related:

12 and 13 October. Frankfurt. International LitCam Conference „Literacy and Media“. This year the 4th International LitCam Conference talked about literacy and the importance of the Internet and other electronic means of communications.

During the first conference day, organisations from Nigeria, India, Ireland and Afghanistan presented their projects combining Literacy with media. And there was a panel discussion “Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood and the Telenovelas – their impact on literacy”. See: Programme (Download)


Background:
LitCam was launched by the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2006, in partnership with the Bundesverband Alphabetisierung und Grundbildung e.V. and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. On a national and international level, LitCam provides a platform for organisations involved in literacy campaigns, in basic and media education.

For this, the search engine "Literacy Project" www.google.com/literacy was set up together with Google. The "Literacy Project" supports all those worldwide with an interest in literacy in targeting their search for relevant information.

Comment les paysans du Sud peuvent-ils se nourrir et nourrir le monde

8 octobre, Paris. FARM est intervenue dans le cadre des conférences organisées par l’Entrepôt (Paris XIV). La conférence était consacrée au développement des pays du Sud, et en particulier à leur agriculture : "Comment les paysans du Sud peuvent-ils se nourrir et nourrir le monde ?"

Aider les paysans à produire davantage localement est la meilleure façon de lutter durablement contre la faim. En effet, les paysans sont les premiers à souffrir de ce fléau et ce sont eux qui peuvent nourrir leurs concitoyens. Comment les aider ? Et comment faire face à la crise alimentaire actuelle tout en répondant au défi de demain, nourrir 9 milliards de personnes avec des aliments de qualité en quantité suffisante ? En quoi le contexte actuel et les positions des organisations internationales sont un frein ou au contraire permettent d’accompagner la société civile ?

Ces questions ont été traitées à partir de l’actualité, d’études originales commandées par FARM et d’expériences de terrain.

References

Présentation de la conférence- Documents de la conférence

CABI Global Summit: 'food security in a climate of change'

19-21 October, London. CABI Global Summit: 'food security in a climate of change' . Speaking at a global food summit, organised by the not-for-profit environmental research centre CABI, Professor Beddington - UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser, said science will be the only way to feed the world in the future. He said that by 2030 the world will have to produce 50 per cent more food and energy, together with 30 per cent more available fresh water, whilst adapting the floods and drought caused by climate change.

DFID's Chief Scientist Chris Whitty spoke frankly about the challenges and opportunities for food security over the coming decades. The issues surrounding food security are underpinned by a complex interaction of economic volatility, growing populations, and of course the impact of climate change. Linked to the issue of food security are rising food prices driven by the increasing demand for food, rising fuel prices, and inappropriate agricultural policies among other factors.

Reference

Visit the website for the CABI Global Summit for more information, including speaker biographies and abstracts.

Telegraph 20/10 Chief scientist says it would be 'unwise' not to develop GM crops in Britain

R4D 20/10 DFID's Chris Whitty Opens Global Summit: Food Security in a Climate of Change

IFPRI Climate Change and Agriculture Seminar

October 5, 2009, Washington, DC. IFPRI Policy Seminar, "Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change in the Developing World: What will it Cost?"

Agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change will put millions of people in developing countries at greater risk of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. A new report from the International Food Policy Research Institute, Climate change: Impact on agriculture and costs of adaptation, provides projections for decreased crop yields, higher food prices, and increased child malnutrition by 2050, as compared to a scenario without climate change.

It estimates that an additional US $7-8 billion per year must be invested to increase agricultural productivity to prevent these adverse effects and lays out a series of policy and program recommendations that will enable poor farmers to adapt to climate change.

Introduction to the IFPRI Policy Seminar, "Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Change in the Developing World:


Presentation by Gerald Nelson Senior Research Fellow IFPRI


Comments by David Waskow, Director, Climate Change Program, Oxfam America


Question and answer session at the IFPRI Policy Seminar

The African Media Development Initiative

Africa's media has grown widely in the past 5 years.Fostering a stronger media in Africa is an indispensable part of tackling poverty, improving development and enabling Africa to attain its development goals.

The findings of the African Media Development Initiative (AMDI) provide a unique set of insights showing how donors, investors, media and media development organisations can collaborate in supporting and strengthening Africa's media sector.

The Initiative was the most extensive independent survey of the state of the media across 17 sub-Saharan African countries: Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. View reports

The study aimed to: assess the key changes and developments in the media sector in Africa over the past five years; to show how training and capacity building activities have contributed to the development of the media; and to identify future actions with the greatest potential impact on the development of the media sector in Africa.

Partners Arising from the 2005 Commission for Africa, the project was delivered by Ahmadu Bello University (Nigeria), BBC World Service Trust, Rhodes University (South Africa) and a network of researchers from 17 African countries.

Who will coordinate the networks of interaction needed for agricultural innovation?

A number of questions remain unanswered when it comes to how everyday innovation capacity
may be improved.

• How can a production base made up of many farmers organise its demand for
  knowledge, technology and organisational change?
• What mechanism will facilitate the search for
  information?
• Who will coordinate the networks of interaction needed for innovation?

A recent study by the World Bank (2006) found that even when there were strong market incentives for players to collaborate for innovation, linkage formation was still extremely limited. While this suggests that an important role of public policy should be to promote these linkages, how can this be achieved in practice? Is there a need for an organisation with a brokering role to help coordinate multiple players and facilitate partnerships and linkages? Should this be a private organisation or a public agency?

A UNU-MERIT working paper "concludes that innovation brokerage roles are likely to become relevant in emerging economies and that public or donor investment in innovation brokerage may be needed to overcome inherent tensions regarding the neutrality and funding of such players in the innovation system.

Call for a £2 billion "Grand Challenge" research programme on global food security

The raw statistics are alarming: by 2050 there will be 9 billion people to feed and climate change will make water and land more scarce. A report published on 21st October 2009 by the Royal Society: Reaping the Benefits: Science and the Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture highlights these statistics and goes on to recommend an investment of £2 billion publicly funded research on global food security over the next 10 years.

But who is setting the research agenda: farmers or scientists? developed countries or developing countries? rich or poor? public or corporate?

Earlier in 2009 two new books emphasised the importance of putting farmers at the centre of agricultural innovation and development: Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development and Innovaton Africa: Enriching Farmers’ Livelihoods.

According to a panel at the launch of these two books, farmer centred innovation needs to do four things:

• Move from an exclusive focus on farmers, farms and technologies to broader innovation systems.
• Revamp agricultural education systems for a new era.
• Overhaul incentive and reward systems to put farmers first and promote ‘participatory innovation systems’.
• Put ‘a politics of demand’ at the centre of a new set of accountability mechanisms for research and development.

Reference:

• Press release Royal Society 21/10 £2 billion needed for science ’Grand Challenge’ to help feed the world
• Practical Action 21/10 Reaping the benefits: farmer first or science first?
• Reaping the benefits: Science and the sustainable intensification of global agriculture (Adobe PDF File, 1911kb)

European Development Days and the global response to the economic downturn and climate change

22-23 October 2009. Stockholm. Almost 6 000 people participate at the European Development Days, the huge annual event on development and development assistance at Stockholm International Fairs. Delegates from 125 countries are represented, including heads of state and leading world figures, Nobel prizewinners among them.

This year’s EDD, falls one month after the G-20 Leaders meeting in Pittsburgh, two weeks after the IMF-World Bank meeting in Istanbul and six weeks before the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. Against this backdrop, the 2009 edition focuses on the global response to the economic downturn and climate change, as well as on the challenges of democracy and development.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberian participated in the high-level roundtables on three topics: Giving Rural Development a Voice; Women and Security; and Media and Development. She also addressed a plenary session on Democracy and Development, the overarching focus of which is Citizenship and Development. Other plenary sessions will deal with the response to the global economic downturn; and climate change: the road to Copenhagen.

CTA is organising a high-level round table on Global land acquisition on 22nd October

Video interview: Mr Stefano Manservisi has been the European Commission’s Director-General for Development since November 2004.

Mr Stefano Manservisi explains the European Development Days (EDD) which is a key European platform for discussion and exchange on global challenges in all key areas – governance, climate change, international finance, trade, food security, water, energy, the role of the media and human and social rights. This forum blend a great diversity of political leaders and parliamentarians, international institutions, local authorities, NGOs, business leaders, academics, researchers, media representatives and the young.

References:

• Website of the Euopean Development Days
• UN - Secretary-General's message to European Development Days
• European Development Days Has Record Turn Out Gov Monitor
• European Development Days: Remarks By President Barroso eGov monitor
• Europe celebrates European Development Days in Sweden Le Mali en ligne
• Liberia: Leading World Figures Gear Up for European Development Days ...
  AllAfrica.com
• Climate Lite: Making climate change and development issues easy to digest
  Institute of Development Studies - ‎Oct 21, 2009‎

Africa Alliance of sub-regional Farmer Organizations (AAFO)

8 – 9 October, 2009. Accra, Ghana. Promoting Inclusiveness of Farmers Organizations in
African Agricultural Research Agenda: a FARA –PAFFO (Pan African Farmers Forum) Collaborative Initiative.

In order to further consolidate the achievement recorded by FOs, FARA convened a 2-day multi-stakeholder consultation that aimed to catalyze the participation of FOs in African ARD. During the meeting, stakeholders identified some of the stumbling blocks to FOs’ participation in ARD. These include weak human and institutional capacity, poor governance, poor linkage and access to research outputs and outcomes, and poor market access and infrastructure.
List of participants (excluding FARA):

1. Dr. Stephen Muchiri, Chief Executive Officer, East African Farmers Federation EAFF, Nairobi
2. Mr. Ewole Gustave, Chargé de Programme, PROPAC, Cameroon
3. Mr. Alangeh Romanus Che, Executive Bureau Member, PROPAC, Cameroon
4. Dr. Ndiogou FALL, President, Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles de l’Afrique de l Ouest, ROPPA, Senegal
5. Dr. Mohamadou MAGHA, Coordinator , Réseau des Organisations Paysannes et des Producteurs Agricoles de l Afrique de l Ouest, ROPPA, Burkina-Faso
6. Mr. Motsepe Ramotse Donald Matlala, Vice President, SACAU, South Africa
7. Mr. Benito Odala Eliasi, Capacity Development Advisor, SACAU, South Africa
8. Mr.Mahaman Bader M.Dioula, Regional Coordinator for Africa, IFAP, France
9. Mr. Jacques Bonou, Vice President, IFAP, Benin
10. Dr. Sidi SANYANG , Manager of the Capacity Strengthening and Knowledge Management Programs, CORAF/WECARD, Senegal
11. Mr. Moses Oremo, Programme Assistant, ASARECA, Uganda
12. Mrs. Lydia Sasu, National Women’s Leader , F.O.N.G, Ghana
13. Mr. Max Olupot , Coordinator ASS/ Program Assistant, AFAAS, Uganda
14. Dr. Clesensio Tizikara, ICART project coordinator, SADC-FANR/ICART, Botswana

Audio files on climate change and agricultural information for community radios in Africa'

Title: Audio files on climate change and agricultural information for community radios in Africa

Community Url: http://dgroups.org/groups/fara-rails/Agric_podcasts
http://dgroups.org/?ftj1g7jh
Community Email: podcasts-agriculture@dgroups.org

FARA started an electronic group discussion of 10 days (20/10-30/10/2009). This discussion is to create a forum of interested parties in the topic “the creation of audio files on climate change and agricultural information for community radios in Africa" (CAFCCAICRA).

This platform (like You Tube) is to share radio programmes in Africa on agricultural issues. It follows the discussions held at the CTA 2009 annual meeting, on the Role of Media in Agriculture: 12 - 17th October

Background:
The FARA Inventory on Innovative Farmer Advisory Services (June 2009 : 66 pages) concluded that systems which use a voice-platform or audio files provide an innovative and promising entry point to farmer information. Other platforms (SMS and web-based platforms) remain essential to provide a back-end offering more detailed information. But there are two major elements that hinder the wider use of audio files among farmers and farmers’ organizations. These are local & scientific content and adoptable technology.

Beneficiaries:
First beneficiaries: community radios can download pre-recorded audio files (initially in English and French) on a large number of themes related to agriculture and climate adaptation.

• It is essential to involve with community-based FM Radio Stations and their agricultural programme producers to create question and answer service radio programmes in local languages.
• Community radio stands out among information and communication technologies (ICTs) in reach and accessibility and is helpful in reducing barriers to price information, etc Secondary beneficiaries: rural actors and farmers need easy and timely information on a large number of themes related to agriculture and climate adaptation.

The discussion proper will be held from 25/10 onwards to allow interested participants to register. It will be followed by 2 face to face meetings (participation is self-sponsored):

1. Consortium creation + Write shop in Accra 2-3/11 on a Food Security Thematic Programme (FSTP) proposal.
2. Consortium creation + Write shop (continued) in Nairobi on 4-6/11 (TBC).

What has 1 billion YouTube watchers to do with African Agriculture

Mr. François Stepman is Communication Expert for the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa. He gives an idea of the popularity of ACP agriculture, by presenting some statistics on the number of videos existing on Youtube on this particular topic. Judging by the figures offered by Youtube, the conclusion of our interviewee is that there is a long ways to go towards making agriculture ’sexy’. (Briefing “ACP Rural Development: why Media matters?”: interviews of participants post of 05/11)

He was interviewed during the ACP/EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) international seminar on the "Role of the media in agricultural development in ACP countries” (Central, East, Southern and West Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific). The seminar was held in Brussels, Belgium from 12 to 16 October 2009.

A search on key tags reveals following figures:

• Total YouTube videos: 2,9 billion
• Total videos on American portals: 9,5 billion
• 70 % of the watchers are American
• 50 % is under 20 age
• 70% of the online population watches 73 minutes online video/month

How well is African agriculture represented...?

• 300.000 videos are about Africa
• 1.560 are about Africa + agriculture
• CGIAR has 49 videos
• CTA 22 vides
• FARA uses blip.tv with presently some 50 video interviews on line.

Dorienne Rowan Campbell of the Networked Intelligence for Development in Jamaica explained at the CTA conference on Media and Agriculture that NID is using YouTube videos to show farmers innovative climate adaptation techniques!

Video website YouTube revealed on 9th October it had passed a new milestone by serving up over 1 billion video streams a day. The news comes three years to the day that Google bought the hugely popular site for £1bn, at a time when it was only serving 100 million streams a day. According to YouTube statistics the site now provides 42 million video streams every hour or 700,000 every minute. To celebrate the landmark figure the YouTube logo has been altered to reflect the number of videos being watched each day.

Hereunder follows an overview of some powerful YouTube videos which can be used for extension purposes. Click on the title on the video to watch it on You Tube.
 
Sustainable Agriculture (Part 1) - African film about farming for the environment
Film made of real farmer in the rift valley of Kenya, Africa who is doing small things on his farm to be environmentally friendly and to benefit his crops. Filmed in Swahili with English subtitles.

Sustainable Agriculture (Part 2) - African film about farming for the environment
Film made of real farmer in the rift valley of Kenya, Africa who is doing small things on his farm to be environmentally friendly and to benefit his crops. Filmed in Swahili with English subtitles.

Outsourcing Agriculture to Africa Part 1/2
What is farm outsourcing?
What is new about these investments?

Eritrea - Greening Eritrea (Part 1)
Eritrea's mangroves show way to fight hunger

Eritrea - Greening Eritrea (Part 2)
Eritrea's mangroves show way to fight hunger

How to Feed the Hungry in Africa (bill mollison)
Bill Mollison surveys some of the permaculture projects he helped to establish in Africa. Features include: (a) a grade school with a schoolyard garden that produces food for the children's lunches and provides a tool for teaching the techniques to the students, most of whom come from farming families. (b) an african plant guild (c) compost pile and beekeeping

Restore Africa Part 4a:Irrigation and Farming
Irrigation and Farming methods.

Hope is a precious thing
Take a look inside a Ugandan school where Caritas is helping to teach students sustainable farming practices.

Senegal Agriculture Project
In an effort to stave off malnutrition and help provide food security for villagers in Senegal, Africa, Operation Blessing has launched an agriculture project that is transforming 20 acres of land into a fertile farm. It will also become a training facility where Senegalese from all over the country will be instructed in efficient agricultural methods they can take back to their communities to start similar farms.

Agriculture Training
Agriculture team teaches local villagers how to produce nutritious crops

Farming for a Future.
Alex James, farmer and former Blur band member, travels to Burkina Faso, West Africa with Christian Aid to find out about radical farming techniques developed there to counter the harsh effects of climate change.

Promoting sustainable agriculture in Nigeria: The PROSAB story
This video-zine tells the success story of IITA's PROSAB project - Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in Borno State - a collaboration between IITA and the state government in Northern Nigeria.

Ifijenia Kamtaza - Soya Farmer, Malawi
Armed with the new agriculture techniques she learned from local staff of the Clinton Hunter Development Initiative, Ifijenia Kamtaza, a Malawian soya farmer, is not only improving her harvest and turning more profit - she's helping her whole family. With the money she has earned in the last year, Ifijenia will be able to send her daughter to boarding school and make improvements to her home.

Ghana Rainy Season 2
Agriculture is crucially important for most people in rural Africa. This video shows a number of the farming steps taken to grow yams, cassava and maize in northern Ghana. You can even watch EWB volunteer Nick Jiminez struggle to be a farmer.

Taking The Heat Part 1
Canadian Foodgrains Bank video: African agriculture and climate change

Taking The Heat - Part 2
Canadian Foodgrains Bank video on climate change and African agriculture

Transforming Africa from subsistence to commercial Agriculture

Why NERICA? - Pourquoi NERICA?
The New Rice for Africa (NERICA) is bringing hope to millions of poor people in Africa.
This music video explains it all !

Wala Village
5-day stay in Wala Village, Tolon district, northern Ghana.

The NFU visits Kenya as part of FARM-Africa charity work - voiceover by Countryfile's John Craven
Sarah Whitelock, visited Kenya and saw first-hand how FARM-Africa projects are making a real difference in helping small-scale farming communities produce more food.

Bee Keeping and Sunflower Production
FARM-Africa works with poor African farmers, helping them to produce more food for their families. We want to make sure future generations don't have to depend on handouts of aid.

Increasing Cassava Production
FARM-Africa works with poor African farmers, helping them to produce more food for their families. We want to make sure future generations don't have to depend on handouts of aid

Sweet Potato Project
FARM-Africa works with poor African farmers, helping them to produce more food for their families. We want to make sure future generations don't have to depend on handouts of aid

Programme hatching for improved indigenous chickens
FARM-Africa works with poor African farmers, helping them to produce more food for their families. We want to make sure future generations don't have to depend on handouts of aid.

Bean Rot Control and Management
Food Security agriculture MATF Farmers sustainability environment Africa grassroots outreach nonprofit food crisis

Grains and Legumes
Nestlé implemented a sustainable agriculture strategy to target specific priorities in Central and West Africa.

Miracles with fertilizer microdosing
Applying small amounts of fertilizer with the seed at planting time to improve yield.

Millions Fed: Combating Cassava Mosaic Disease
Cassava has long been a staple crop in Africa, used for both food and income by most poor farmers. Learn how farmers and scientists have worked together to bring it back from the brink of destruction.

Farming in the sand and going solar
Day four: When the desert swallows your farm how do you grow? And how can a light bulb change a family's life? Mary Griffin reports from West Africa.

Sunflower pressing
This video shows Fred Mweetwa explain on how to grow sunflowers and the conditions necessary to do so.

Drip Irrigation Improves Africa Food Production
Farmers across West Africa are improving food production with a low-cost, low-tech method of irrigation that uses gravity to deliver water right where plants need it.

Mobile phone vital for Cameroon farmers
African agriculture is said to have undergone many metamorphoses but the penetration of the mobile phone in that sector is certainly the most revolutionary step ever.

Money From Honey
Polish agriculturalist and beekeeper Stanislaw Gebala came to Africa seven years ago to teach beekeeping to rural farmers.

Interview with Louise Clark about video sharing between farmers in Nigeria
Louise Clark shares an fascinating example how farmers in Africa share videos about agriculture practices such as rice cultivation to gain higher income.

Self Help Africa - an introduction
A short video which shows how Self Help Africa is changing lives in rural Africa.

Cleaning Beans
Masotho woman cleaning beans by pouring them into the wind

South African Farmer on Biotech Corn
A South African small-holder grower, her life was changed when she adopted farming innovations never used before in her community.

Mozambique: Fighting climate change
19 year old Elisa attends an agricultural school in Mumemo, Mozambique; where young people are taught about sustainable agriculture and how to care for the environment

Ox-plough demonstration in Barlonyo, Northern Uganda
Example of bottom-up development project by Action Aid Uganda. Ox-ploughs and oxen are distributed to small-holder farmers, therefore increasing the speed and efficiency with which they can plough the land. The end result is an increase in food production

Maize Innovation in Rwanda: Increasing farmers' livelihoods
Maize innovation Platform celebrates its first birthday in Rwanda's Eastern province. Maize is an important staple crop in Rwanda with the potential for export if production can be significantly increased.

The World Bank - Climate Change - Niger
The desert has been creeping into West Africa's Sahel for the last 30 years. Declining rainfall and overuse has taxed the land and brought drought and famine.

Rapid multiplication of cassava: Part 1 of 2
A training video on rapid multiplication of cassava stem

Rapid multiplication of cassava: Part 2 of 2
A training video on the rapid multiplication of cassava stem

Pump Aid: The Elephant Pump
Pump Aid's Elephant Pump was developed and tested in Zimbabwe by Pump Aid and is based on a 2000 year old Chinese rope-and-washer design. It is cheap, simple and durable. It can be easily constructed from materials available locally and can be maintained by local communities. This clip shows footage of a pump being built and describes the process by which the pump is constructed.

Media and Agriculture in Africa

12 to 16 October 2009. Brussels, Belgium. The ACP/EU Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), together with its partners, held an international seminar on the "Role of the media in agricultural development in ACP countries” (Central, East, Southern and West Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific).

Dr Hansjörg Neun, Director of CTA, &
Ms. Tumi Makgabo, Africa Broadcasting and Media, South Africa (former CNN)

Some 280 high level ACP and EU delegates as well as representatives from international organisations and development partners attended. The CTA week offered a unique forum to discuss topical issues which contribute to improving agricultural and rural development in the ACP countries.

The Seminar focused on the following themes:

• Contribution of the media to the development of agriculture in ACP countries;
• What is expected of the media at the various levels of agricultural development;
• Role of the media in creating awareness in the agricultural sectors of ACP countries (from political decision-makers to rural communities);
• The media's needs in terms of capacity building;
• Interlinkage of different media (local, national, regional, and international);
• Specific role of different types of media in the agricultural sector;
• Role of new media (mobile phones, YouTube, etc.) in collecting information.

FARA presented a poster on Innovative Farmer Advisory Services using ICT (June 2009 : 66 pages). This study concluded that systems which use a voice-platform or audio files provide an innovative and promising entry point to farmer information.

Urging the Pacific Media to Support Agriculture & Rural Development

References:

Themes of the conference Download full paper in PDF

Daily Reports from the conference (PDF): 12th October ; 13th October ; 14th October ; 15th October

Right Livelihood Award goes to DR Congo

13 October 2009. The Right Livelihood Award is also known as the alternative Nobel Prize. It honours those offering practical and exemplary answers to the most urgent challenges facing us today. Several winners are announced every year and receive the prize in early December.

René Ngongo, of Greenpeace DRC, has been named on 13/10 a recipient of the 2009 Right Livelihood award. René Ngongo has been working closely with Greenpeace to save the Congo Basin Forests (the second largest tropical forest after the Amazon) since 2004, first in his capacity as head of OCEAN and now as Political Advisor for Greenpeace Africa.

As part of his work to protect the Congo Basin Forest from industrial loggers, René actively developed grassroots solutions and local contacts in remote villages. This infrastructure soon became the basis for educational activities on deforestation/reforestation and general environmental awareness building. Between 1994 and 2002, René developed tools to fight “slash and burn” agriculture. Among these tools were demonstration fields in Kisangani that showed local people possible alternative agricultural techniques. These allowed to diminish the pressure on the forests and provide better income alternatives to local farmers.

René coordinated the creation of a seedling plantation (20,000 seedlings) of the most exploited tree species in the Eastern province. This plantation provided trees for several 'green city' events. During these 'green city' (Ville Verte) events, trees were planted in abandoned parks, along avenues and in schools.

Reference:

Greenpeace Africa press release 13/10. Greenpeace staff member wins alternative Nobel Prize

The need to mainstream media in ARD and increase donor’s attention to media

12th October 2009. The 14th Brussels Development Briefing highlighted the role of Media in Rural Development. This Briefing examined the need to mainstream media in development and increase donor’s attention to media as well as the challenges the journalists and media specialists face when addressing agricultural and rural development issues in their work.

The participants tried to find more on how media can better serve rural communities in ACP countries. This Briefing is part of the 25th Anniversary events of CTA. Prominent policy-makers and media specialists shared their experience and views on these issues.

The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) wants to see agriculture covered as a regular topic in the media because they have no choice as agricultural productivity must be boosted in order to feed the world’s population which is predicted to reach 9 billion people by 2050.

“Agriculture has a major role to play to provide food and bio-fuels but also employment and income and this has to be achieved in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way,” said Dr Hansjorg Neun the Director of CTA. He added that most journalists are not agricultural specialists and that CTA would like to assist them in better understanding of key agricultural and rural development issues to help facilitate their work. Through collaboration with journalists all development stakeholders can benefit from their public and journalistic skills.

References:

• Programme and note
• Resources
• CTA Annual Seminar 2009 blog
  

Information and Brokerage Day on Call FP7 - KBBE 2010

7 October 2009 in Brussels, Belgium. The BIOCIRCLE project, in collaboration with the European Commission organised an information and brokerage day on the new call for proposals under the 'Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology' theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7).

The objective of the event was to bring together research stakeholders, from both the public and private sectors from the EU and Third countries, together with Commission officers and provided information and ground for discussion and networking within the scope of the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology Theme.

The event included a general introduction with presentations of the main features and areas addressed by the 2010 call. The event also included a brokerage session, with flash presentations of proposal ideas and pre-arranged bilateral meetings to discuss potential partnerships in FP7 proposals. The event was attended by a large number of delegations from countries outside the European Union (Third Countries).

Reference:
Click here to download the Project ideas catalogue

7th EC EuroAfrica-ICT Concertation Meeting

1 October. Brussels. The EuroAfrica-ICT Project (supported by the EC DG INFSO and coordinated by Sigma Orionis) aims at enhancing S&T cooperation on ICT research between sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and Europe by:

• Supporting EuroAfrica-ICT dialogues
• Strengthening concertation between key stakeholders in the field
• Supporting the development of emerging Euro-African cooperation projects on ICT research
• Raising awareness in sub-Saharan Africa and in the Caribbean on FP7 and ICT
• Developing a web-based communication platform

Since an increasing number of regional, national and international initiatives addressing Euro-Africa S&T cooperation in ICT have been developed, EuroAfrica-ICT concertation meetings have been launched in the framework of the START FP6 project (in 2006) and are still organised on a regular basis (every 6 to 8 months) by the EuroAfrica-ICT FP7 project in Brussels, Belgium.

One of the interesting things about the latest EuroAfrica-ICT 7th Concertation Meeting was the opportunity that it provided to learn about the large number of overlapping initiatives funded by the European Commission that are exploring ways in which ICTs can be used both to support development initiatives in Africa, and also to facilitate increased collaboration between European and African researchers and organisations.

In particular, presentations by four of the European Technology Platforms drew attention to the potential for the work that they are doing in this ’space’:

• Networked and Electronic Media (NEM) ETP
• Networked European Software and Services Initiative (NESSI) ETP
• Integral Satcom Initiative (ISI) ETP
• Mobile and Wireless Communications (eMobility) ETP

Value-added processing of African traditional fermented foods for improved quality and food safety

This seminar of February 2009 aimed at collating the results achieved through the years towards a wider dissemination and application by local industry and other relevant agencies.

It brought together scientists and policy-makers to exchange information and ideas on how to harness the available scientific knowledge on African fermented foods in order to enhance quality and food safety, which is a pre-requisite for enhancing their competitiveness in both national and international markets.

The seminar provided an opportunity to link into other international research findings in the areas of food quality and food safety, especially, the EU-funded research project "PathogenCombat”, an Integrated Project within the EU 6th Framework Programme.

Workshop in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 16.-19.02.2009. Seminar in the case of the EU-Project "PathogenCombat For Safe Food". Recorded from Television in Burkina Faso.

Reference:

PathogenCombat > INCO Portal > Workshop Burkina Faso

Science 2.0: Communicating Science in a Web 2.0 World

The increasing popularity of blogs, social networking sites, and twitter has created many new and interactive forums for people to communicate about science.

The National Academies recently invited Phil Plait, author of the blog BAD ASTRONOMY and president of the James Randi Educational Foundation to speak about these technologies and how they are being used by science. This podcast provides some highlights from his presentation.

Listen to a podcast of 1 July 2009.

The African Face To Face Consultation for the Global Conference on Agricultural Research and Development

5-7 October. Accra, Ghana . Sixty three (63) participants are meeting at FARA’s new secretariat in Accra to review GCARD consultation efforts in Africa. Reflections in this blog are from David Hughes, Communications and Networking Officer for the Future Agricultures Consortium.

E-CONSULTATIONS

As part of the GCARD stakeholder engagement process, e-consultations were held. For Africa, there were more than 320 contributions from 65 countries (highest number of contributions were from: 1. Ghana, 2. Kenya, 3. Uganda, 4. Nigeria, 5. Ivory Coast). Prevalent feeling is that contributions were informed by actual field experience and local conditions.

Discussion subjects raised (commonly used words in brackets):
1. Knowledge (18%) (knowledge, information, science, innovation)
2. Resources (15%) (resource/s, soil, water, climate change)
3. Training (14%) (extension, dissemination, training, education)
4. Production (12%) (production/s, crops, food/s, productivity, fertilizer, seed, plant/s, water, vegetable, animal, fish)
5. Technologies (11%) (technology/ies, ICT)
6. Mechanisation (9%) (mechanization, machinery, tractors, waterset)
7. Indigenous Knowledge (8%) (indigenous (plant/knowledge), traditional)
8. Markets (6%) (market, agribusiness)
9. Partnerships (4%) (partnership, network, collaboration, interaction)
10. Policy (3%)
11. Infrastructure (<1%) style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">

Some participants Views

Dr. Dennis Rangi,
Executive Director, CABI

Click To Play

Mrs Lydia Sasu, Farmers Women's league, Ghana

Click To Play

Dr Pape Seck,
Director Général, Centre du Riz pour l'Afrique

Click To Play

SABIMA Project Consensus/Kick-off workshop

29 – 30 September 2009. A workshop was held in Accra with the stakeholers of the Strengthening Capacity for Safe Biotechnology Management in Sub-Sahara Africa (SABIMA) project. It comes under FARA’s umbrella program on African Biotechnology Biosafety Policy Platform (ABBPP). The purpose of the SABIMA Project is to “strengthen Africa’s capacity in sound biotechnology management for enhanced food security.”

The specific objectives of the SABIMA Project include building the capacity for biotechnology project stewardship in countries participating. The project is funded by the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture (SFSA). The project participating countries are Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda and Malawi.

Besides the FARA Secretariat professional staff, following persons participated to this workshop:

• Prof. Abdourahamane Sangare, Biotech and Biosafety Program Manager, CORAF/WECARD, Director Central Biotech Lab CNRA, Abidjan,
• Dr. Charles Mugoya, Programme Manager, ASARECA, Agro-biodiversity and Biotech Programme, Entebbe, Uganda
• Dr. Keoagile Molapong, Senior Program Manager, SADC-FANR, Gaborone, Botswana
• Dr. Mohammed Ishiyaku, Institute of Agricultural Research (IAR), Nigeria
• Dr. Simon T. Gichuki Head, Biotechnology Centre, KARI, Kenya
• Dr. Andrew Kiggundu, NARO, Uganda
• Dr. Weston F. Mwase, University of Malawi
• Dr. DABIRE Clémentine Binso, Chef du Département Productions végétales, INERA, Burkina Faso
• Dr. Marian Quain, Research Scientist (Biotechnologist), CSIR-Crops Research Institute, Ghana