In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people are forced to travel long distances and spend hours at a time collecting the water needed for cooking and drinking from far away streams or wells. But the residents of Cabazane, South Africa have found a much less labor intensive alternative. They use gravity and let water come to them.
In many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, people are forced to travel long distances and spend hours at a time collecting the water needed for cooking and drinking from far away streams or wells. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
Built at an altitude of 1,600 meters, steel cables held by wood posts support the two layers of shade clothe nets used to catch tiny droplets of water from the passing mountain fog near Brooks Nek Pass. The drops of water create run-off that is caught in gutters built at the bottom of the nets. This water is then carried by tubes down the side of the mountain and to the village. With each square meter of netting providing up to five liters of water per day, Cabazine can collect hundreds of liters on a good day.
And, most importantly, coming from the clouds, the water is very clean—an especially valuable commodity in area previously suffering from water shortages. The nearest stream to the village is two kilometers away and contaminated by animal use. Residents who used the stream were often exposed to water-borne diseases. Once dams were used to collect water in the area, but extreme drought has even dried up this source.
Nandi Ntsiko, a resident of Cabazane, in the Alternet article, “having piped water was a pipe dream for us. We were forced to share drinking water with animals in this stream. The situation was dire.”
Now the villagers not only have a steady supply of clean water, they have enough of it to store in newly constructed tanks. The netting also provides the additional benefit of being completely gravity-driven. No electricity is needed to power this innovation, making it affordable and environmentally friendly, and the technology is simple enough that maintenance is relatively easy.
Collecting water from fog is a technique that has been used for almost 30 years in some mountainous parts of Chile, and the project at Cabazane has been so successful that it’s already been replicated in other dry areas of South Africa, including Venda and Limpopo.
“I would like to see far more investment in small scale conservation agriculture. It promotes technologies that restore and build soil fertility, do not depend on excessive external inputs, and build more dynamic, and therefore resilient, farming systems that will be required to adapt to changing climate circumstances.”
“I would like to see more funding being directed to support and empower African women scientists. Female farmers play a very key role in African Agriculture, accounting for 80 percent of agricultural workforce. But only one in four agricultural researchers is female. There is an urgent need for a greater representation of women in the field of agricultural science and technology and to empowering them to contribute more effectively to poverty alleviation and food security in sub-Saharan Africa.”
Part 1: Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), & Pierre Castagnoli (Italy) Part 2: Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), & Pascal Pulvery (France) Part 3: Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (USA), & Amadou Niang. Part 4: Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), & Ron Gretlarson Part 5: Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), & Monty P Jones (Ghana) Part 6: Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), & Rob Munro (Zambia) Part 7: Tom Philpott (USA), Grace Mwaura, & Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran Part 8: Peter Mietzner (Namibia), Madyo Couto (Mozambique), & Norman Thomas Uphoff (USA) Part 9: Tilahun Amede (Ethiopia), Shree kumar Maharjan (Nepal), & Ashwani Vasishth (USA) Part 10: Mary Shawa (Malawi), Wayne S. Teel (USA), & Bell Okello (Kenya) Part 11: Mark Wells (South Africa), Pashupati Chaudhary (USA), & Megan Putnam (Ghana) Part 12: David Wallinga (USA), Ysabel Vicente, & Esperance Zossou (Benin) Part 13: Susi Basith (Indonesia), Diana Husic (USA), & Carolina Cardona (Togo) Part 14: Rachel Friedman, Jennifer Geist (USA), & Lowden Stoole Part 15: Antonio Requejo, Alexandra Spieldoch (USA), & Daniele Giovannucci (USA) Part 16: Mary Njenga (Kenya), Mabel Toribio, & Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada) Part 17: Dale Lewis (Zambia), Chris Ojiewo (Tanzania), & Molly Mattessich (USA) Part 18: Gregory Bowman (USA), Lucila Nunes de Vargas, & Caroline Smith Part 19: Tesfom Solomon (Sweden), Sahr Lebbie (USA), & Jenny Goldie (Austrialia) Part 20: Steven Sweet, Vicki Lipski, & Viola Ransel Part 21: Puspa R. Tiwari, Johan Staal (Netherlands), & Kevin Kamp (USA) Part 22: Steve Osofsky (USA), John Vickrey (USA), & Michael Levenston (Canada) Part 23: Vasan (India), Excellent Hachileka (Zambia), Royce Gloria Androa (Uganda) Part 24: Pam Allee, Dennis Calvan, and Salibo (Burkina Faso) Part 25: Tony Gasbarro (USA), John Hassall, and Kamal Khadka
This is the second part in our two-part interview withDavid Kaimowitz ,director of Sustainable Development at the Ford Foundation and its natural resource and climate work. To read the first part, a discussion of the reasoning and goals behind the Ford Foundation’s new initiative to address climate change through the inclusion and empowerment of rural and indigenous people, see: Strengthening Rural Communities and Improving Conservation.
How does improved land tenure impact the economy? What is the role of the private sector in helping to conserve and develop natural resources in a way that will benefit the most people?
"It is important to target the poorest and most marginal regions, with high percentages of ethnic minorities, and to pay particular attention to the needs of women." (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
When people have secure land tenure they tend to invest more and make longer-term investments. That is good for the economy. It also tends to encourage more sustainable natural resource management. Farmers are more likely to plant trees and perennial crops and conserve their soil and water, if they know that they’re the ones that will benefit. (Although in some circumstances, paradoxically, secure land tenure may also promote long-term investments in less environmentally-friendly activities, such as clearing forest for cattle ranching or oil palm plantations.)
Secure land tenure does not necessarily mean having a formal title. Informal land rights are often just as good, as long as people generally respect them. In fact, some land titling projects have actually undermined land tenure security, by provoking conflicts over land or creating uncertainty about the validity of pre-existing informal rights to land
One needs to be careful when using the term “the private sector”. When people talk about “the private sector” they typically think of large private companies, but small farmers and community enterprises are also part of the private sector. That being said, large private companies can play crucial roles in helping small farmers and community enterprises process and market their products. This can be particularly beneficial if they do this as part of fair trade initiatives that ensure that the companies meet a set of social and environmental standards, and that there are clear mechanisms for dialogue between the companies and communities. Fortunately, Fair Trade markets are growing very rapidly, and involve an increasingly wide variety of products.
What is an example of a project that the Foundation has included in its new funding initiative focused rural land access? Where is the project located, what are its goals, and how many people will it impact?
The largest single project the Foundation is supporting related to this is the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). RRI is an international alliance of ten global, regional, and national organizations that have joined together to promote greater community rights to forests. It includes grassroots organizations, such as the Federation of Community Forest Users of Nepal (FECOFUN) and the Coordinating Association of Indigenous and Community Agroforestry in Central America (ACICAFOC), NGOs like the Civic Response in Ghana and the Forest Peoples Program (FPP), based in the UK, and research organizations such as the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Kenya. Ford’s grant to RRI supports research, policy dialogues, training, and communications activities designed to promote community rights, both at the global level and in about one dozen high priority countries. By influencing the policies of major global donors such as the World Bank and the European bilateral donors and government policies in countries such as China, Liberia, Bolivia, and Nepal, the initiative hopes to affect the lives of literally millions of people.
At the same time the foundation also supports smaller projects in individual countries. In Brazil for example, we are working with government agencies, universities, grassroots organizations, and NGOs to support greater recognition of the rights of Afro-descendent communities (called Quilombolas) in the Brazilian Amazon. In Kenya and Uganda we have been supporting the National Land Alliances, which are working to promote tenure reforms that give greater rights to women, pastoralists, displaced peoples, and ethnic minorities, among others. Since most of the project’s Ford funds through this initiative are designed to promote better policies, they can potentially affect large numbers of people, with relatively small investments.
Where would you like to see more funding directed? How would you like to see this initiative develop in the future?
It is important that the major global donors such as the World Bank, the regional development banks, and the main bilateral donors devote more attention to ensuring community rights to forests, mountainous areas, grasslands and arid lands, aquatic resources, and low fertility croplands. That is where many of the world’s poorest people live and they depend heavily on those resources for their survival. Private foundations such as Ford definitely don’t have enough funds to take on this issue alone. Indeed our most important role is to serve as catalysts to get the large donors and national government agencies to take these issues up.
One particular area that deserves much more attention than we are able to give it at this point is the defense of the human rights of grassroots activists that promote greater community control over natural resources. These activists are often threatened, imprisoned, or even killed by groups and individuals that feel threatened by their work, and much more needs to be done to defend them from repression and harassment.
How can the funding community ensure that it is addressing the needs of those most in need? How does the Ford Foundation makes sure that the projects it supports are actually helping the people they are intended to help?
It is important to target the poorest and most marginal regions, with high percentages of ethnic minorities, and to pay particular attention to the needs of women. Within that context it is also important to recognize that even in very poor communities there can be major differences in wealth and power and not allow the more well-off groups to get all of the benefits. That is not easy to do, but funders really need to make an effort. It is also important to strike a reasonable balance between working with and through governments and through civil society organizations. Each has important roles and cannot substitute for the other.
The Ford Foundation works to ensure its’ projects reach the people they are intended to help by having field offices in many of the countries we work in and hiring Program Officers with extensive experience in low-income rural communities. We regularly monitor our projects and do studies to learn from our experiences.
What is the role of the funding community in the alleviation of hunger and poverty, worldwide? How do you think the funding community could better direct its resources towards achieving this goal?
The main reason that hunger and poverty continue to exist in the world is that governments and large private companies tend to respond more to the needs of better off groups, which are better organized and have more resources at their disposal. We will probably never be able to change that situation entirely, but we can help to partially level the playing field by supporting groups that can effectively represent the interests of low-income people, ethnic minorities, women, and other traditionally marginalized groups. The Ford Foundation sees itself as making a modest but significant contribution to that effort, but it is essential that more and more donors in the funding community join those efforts.
“I am not an agricultural expert, but I have had a chance to work with poor farmers as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador and have visited farmers in the Amazonian region of Peru. In my opinion strengthening agricultural extension services would be a good use of any additional agricultural funding.”
2. John Hassall says:
“I would like to see more agriculture funding go to food security projects that build the capacity of farmers to produce crops that are sustainable long-term rather than short term high yield crops.”
“I am from a NGO in Nepal known as LI-BIRD. I am a plant breeder by profession. Regarding your question, being a citizen of one of the poorest country in the world, I would like to see more fund directed towards agricultural research. In Nepal, the investment in agricultural researches is extremely low. The donors are usually interested in investing in development oriented projects. On the other hand government of Nepal is unable to allocate minimum resource for agricultural research. Hence, I feel that in a poor country like Nepal investment in agricultural research should be promoted along with investment in development sector.”
To read more responses, see:
Part 1: Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), & Pierre Castagnoli (Italy) Part 2: Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), & Pascal Pulvery (France) Part 3: Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (USA), & Amadou Niang.
Part 4 : Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), & Ron Gretlarson Part 5: Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), & Monty P Jones (Ghana) Part 6: Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), & Rob Munro (Zambia) Part 7: Tom Philpott (USA), Grace Mwaura, & Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran Part 8: Peter Mietzner (Namibia), Madyo Couto (Mozambique), & Norman Thomas Uphoff (USA) Part 9: Tilahun Amede (Ethiopia), Shree kumar Maharjan (Nepal), & Ashwani Vasishth (USA) Part 10: Mary Shawa (Malawi), Wayne S. Teel (USA), & Bell Okello (Kenya) Part 11: Mark Wells (South Africa), Pashupati Chaudhary (USA), & Megan Putnam (Ghana) Part 12: David Wallinga (USA), Ysabel Vicente, & Esperance Zossou (Benin) Part 13: Susi Basith (Indonesia), Diana Husic (USA), & Carolina Cardona (Togo) Part 14: Rachel Friedman, Jennifer Geist (USA), & Lowden Stoole Part 15: Antonio Requejo, Alexandra Spieldoch (USA), & Daniele Giovannucci (USA)
Part 16: Mary Njenga (Kenya), Mabel Toribio, & Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada) Part 17: Dale Lewis (Zambia), Chris Ojiewo (Tanzania), & Molly Mattessich (USA) Part 18: Gregory Bowman (USA), Lucila Nunes de Vargas, & Caroline Smith Part 19: Tesfom Solomon (Sweden), Sahr Lebbie (USA), & Jenny Goldie (Austrialia) Part 20: Steven Sweet, Vicki Lipski, & Viola Ransel Part 21: Puspa R. Tiwari, Johan Staal (Netherlands), & Kevin Kamp (USA) Part 22: Steve Osofsky (USA), John Vickrey (USA), & Michael Levenston (Canada) Part 23: Vasan (India), Excellent Hachileka (Zambia), Royce Gloria Androa (Uganda) Part 24: Pam Allee, Dennis Calvan, and Salibo (Burkina Faso)
In this video produced by The New School Milano program for Management and Urban Policy in partnership with the United Nations, graduate students take to the streets of New York City as part of a social media campaign to educate the public about the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
In 2009 the total number of malnourished people rose above 1 billion. (photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
In September of 2000 after a decade of major United Nations conferences and summits, world leaders came together to adopt the eight MDGs, which range from halving extreme poverty to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing primary education universally by 2015 to meet the needs of the world’s poverty. But UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon admits that the implementation of these goals has “been unacceptably slow.” In fact, in 2005-2007, the number of undernourished people had actually increased from the initial benchmark, with the total exceeding one billion in 2009 after the 2008 spike in food prices due to the financial crisis, according to the 2010 MDG report.
To galvanize support for reaching the goals, the United Nations created the MDG Awards Committee, a nonprofit organization with a mission to disseminate information to the public and to recognize and spotlight the successes of stakeholders who are making progress towards MDG implementation by the 2015 target date.
Want to see more? Check out the MDG Awards Youtube channel and these entries to the UN Citizen Ambassador video contest where participants around the world tell UN leaders why the MDGs are important and how the international community can achieve them.
Amanda Stone is Nourishing the Planet’s Communications Assistant.
Each day we run three of your responses to the question: Where Would You Like to See More Agricultural Funding Directed?
(Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
1. Pam Allee says:
“I’m not a farmer or any sort of expert and I haven’t traveled extensively for about a decade. But I can tell you that we here in the more fortunate North American continent have our hands full encouraging sustainable gardening and farming practices – no synthetics, no GMO’s, no monocultures, no processing or transporting things all over. I guess my vote would be for more education– world-wide, especially in the “developed” nations–regarding the fact that food is exported for money from the same areas where people are hungry. I like the idea someone mentioned of developing food security, not food “aid.” I’m guessing that if you take this question to many places and ask people on the ground what they need, you will get many different answers–perhaps with common themes, but still, answers that require solutions tailored by and for the people and lands involved.
2. Dennis Calvan says:
“I would like to see more funding for Community-Based Coastal Resources Management, where fishing communities are at the center of the development process. This is very important since the Philippines is considered to be the epicenter of global marine diversity. Around 2 million Filipinos are directly engaged in fishing but more than 60 percent of these fisherfolks are living below the poverty line. CB-CRM will facilitate participatory engagement of resource users in the planning, implementation and monitoring.”
“To halt the current tragedy of the commons that is core cause of ecological bankruptcy being experienced mostly in the Sahel area, including Burkina Faso, any investment in agriculture should focus at enabling the bulk of small holding farmers to have legal ownership of the lands they use. This will serve as key incentive to improved environmental stewardship and to improved family planning in the countryside. Land mapping and distribution should encourage farmers’ adoption of good practices against land degradation and for food production. Also, it should result in the long time cattle herders settling for a more rational, environment friendly farming system. Although improved land policy is primordial, I am tempted to add that the current socioeconomic marasmus in African countries necessitates that this proceeds jointly with or be followed by a livestock development program aiming to raise income rapidly for the vast bulk of poor villagers.”
To read more responses, see:
Part 1: Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), & Pierre Castagnoli (Italy) Part 2: Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), & Pascal Pulvery (France) Part 3: Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (USA), & Amadou Niang. Part 4: Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), & Ron Gretlarson Part 5: Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), & Monty P Jones (Ghana) Part 6: Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), & Rob Munro (Zambia) Part 7: Tom Philpott (USA), Grace Mwaura, & Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran Part 8: Peter Mietzner (Namibia), Madyo Couto (Mozambique), & Norman Thomas Uphoff (USA) Part 9: Tilahun Amede (Ethiopia), Shree kumar Maharjan (Nepal), & Ashwani Vasishth (USA) Part 10: Mary Shawa (Malawi), Wayne S. Teel (USA), & Bell Okello (Kenya) Part 11: Mark Wells (South Africa), Pashupati Chaudhary (USA), & Megan Putnam (Ghana) Part 12: David Wallinga (USA), Ysabel Vicente, & Esperance Zossou (Benin) Part 13: Susi Basith (Indonesia), Diana Husic (USA), & Carolina Cardona (Togo) Part 14: Rachel Friedman, Jennifer Geist (USA), & Lowden Stoole Part 15: Antonio Requejo, Alexandra Spieldoch (USA), & Daniele Giovannucci (USA) Part 16: Mary Njenga (Kenya), Mabel Toribio, & Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada) Part 17: Dale Lewis (Zambia), Chris Ojiewo (Tanzania), & Molly Mattessich (USA) Part 18: Gregory Bowman (USA), Lucila Nunes de Vargas, & Caroline Smith Part 19: Tesfom Solomon (Sweden), Sahr Lebbie (USA), & Jenny Goldie (Austrialia) Part 20: Steven Sweet, Vicki Lipski, & Viola Ransel Part 21: Puspa R. Tiwari, Johan Staal (Netherlands), & Kevin Kamp (USA) Part 22: Steve Osofsky (USA), John Vickrey (USA), & Michael Levenston (Canada) Part 23: Vasan (India), Excellent Hachileka (Zambia), Royce Gloria Androa (Uganda)
Check out this feature article in one of The Gambia’s largest circulating newspapers, The Point. While visiting with environmentally sustainable agriculture projects in Gambia’s capital city Banjul, Nourishing the Planet project co-director Danielle Nierenberg was interviewed by The Point staff. The article discusses NtP’s goals of portraying stories of hope and success from Africa and encouraging the exchange of working innovations between African farmers across the continent.
You may know it as that pretty ornamental flower in your garden, but did you know that Celosia could also be a delicious snack? This beautiful plant with flame-like flowers is actually a common and important food in parts of tropical Africa, its original home.
Photo Credit: J.M. Garg
Because of its flavor and nutritional value, Celosia is widely consumed in several parts of Africa. It is an especially important food in Nigeria, Benin and Congo because of its affinity for hot and humid climates, and it is also commonly eaten in Indonesia and India. The leaves, young stems, and flowers a can be made into soups and stews, served as a nutty-flavored side dish with meat or fish or with a cereal-based main course such as maize porridge. Celosia has a pleasant, mild flavor, and lacks the bitterness of other leafy vegetables.
Celosia grow easily, require little care, and often reseed themselves making them high yielding, cheap and simple to grow. Having proven widely tolerant to both tropical and dry conditions and usually unaffected by pests, diseases, or soil type, this crop is among the most flexible greens for harsh growing conditions.
In addition to their nutritional and aesthetic value, Celosia may also help repress striga, a parasitic weed which devastates other crops such as sorghum, millet and maize. Though the research on this trait is still far from clear, farmers call it “striga chaser”.
With the potential to increase food security, Celosia is valuable in more ways than one. When cultivated near homes, the colorful flowers will brighten villages and local cooks can also pluck off some leaves each day to add to dinner or for a snack.
Amanda Stone is Nourishing the Planet’s Communications Assistant.
Each day we run three of your responses to the question: Where Would You Like to See More Agricultural Funding Directed?
photo credit: Bernard Pollack
1. Vasan, India says:
“I am not sure whether i am the right person to answer this particular question about agricultural funding, for i am not aware of anything about Africa and Sub-Saharan region. But, by and large, I can answer this question based on the requirements of agricultural and allied agricultural practices in any dimension of climatic, geological and topographical conditions. Water: Rain water runoff should be checked completely by creating smaller water bodies depending on the amount of rainwater the area receives, catchment area and storage area. This avoids the dependency on sub-surface or ground water resources where power is necessary to lift the water. Surface water utilization is a must where water is replenished and we can convert more land as wetlands where crops can be grown throughout the year maintaining the required cropping pattern and not affecting the fertility of the soil. Areas which cannot be converted into wetlands can be used to afforestation programme maintaining both bio-diversity and allied agricultural activities to produce forest crops like honey, spices and other forest related crops and orchards.
Marketing: For marketing, we have to revive and restore our original practice(as for as our country – India is concerned), a de-centralised approach. All the villages surrounding a town or city used to be a self sustainable one except match boxes and salt whose production is restricted to the climatic and geological conditions suitable for their production. So, funding for creation of smaller water bodies and offering a de-centralised marketing infrastructure is a must for the Government.”
“More funding should go to small-scale irrigation along major river basins and conservation farming with agro-forestry for adapting agriculture to increasing rainfall variability, dry spells and shortening farming seasons in sub-Sahara Africa.”
3. Royce Gloria Androa, Uganda says:
“Invest in post-harvest handling processes and technologies that use solar energy for reducing losses by using cold stores for transportation from the gardens to the market, and in cooperatives and private/ public partnerships to handle post-harvest losses appropriately invest in abiotic/ biotic stress factor — develop resistant germ-plasm for major food security crops — invest in water management (drip irrigation, micro sprinklers and treadle pumps)”
Part 1: Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), & Pierre Castagnoli (Italy)
Part 2: Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), & Pascal Pulvery (France)
Part 3: Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (USA), & Amadou Niang.
Part 4 : Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), & Ron Gretlarson
Part 5: Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), & Monty P Jones (Ghana)
Part 6: Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), & Rob Munro (Zambia)
Part 7: Tom Philpott (USA), Grace Mwaura, & Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran
Part 8: Peter Mietzner (Namibia), Madyo Couto (Mozambique), & Norman Thomas Uphoff (USA)
Part 9: Tilahun Amede (Ethiopia), Shree kumar Maharjan (Nepal), & Ashwani Vasishth (USA) Part 10: Mary Shawa (Malawi), Wayne S. Teel (USA), & Bell Okello (Kenya)
Part 11: Mark Wells (South Africa), Pashupati Chaudhary (USA), & Megan Putnam (Ghana)
Part 12: David Wallinga (USA), Ysabel Vicente, & Esperance Zossou (Benin)
Part 13: Susi Basith (Indonesia), Diana Husic (USA), & Carolina Cardona (Togo)
Part 14: Rachel Friedman, Jennifer Geist (USA), & Lowden Stoole
Part 15: Antonio Requejo, Alexandra Spieldoch (USA), & Daniele Giovannucci (USA)
Part 16: Mary Njenga (Kenya), Mabel Toribio, & Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada) Part 17: Dale Lewis (Zambia), Chris Ojiewo (Tanzania), & Molly Mattessich (USA)
Part 18: Gregory Bowman (USA), Lucila Nunes de Vargas, & Caroline Smith Part 19: Tesfom Solomon (Sweden), Sahr Lebbie (USA), & Jenny Goldie (Austrialia) Part 20: Steven Sweet, Vicki Lipski, & Viola Ransel Part 21: Puspa R. Tiwari, Johan Staal (Netherlands), & Kevin Kamp (USA) Part 22: Steve Osofsky (USA), John Vickrey (USA), & Michael Levenston (Canada)
In addition to receiving tons of additional fascinating responses to our agriculture funding question, we’ve had a busy week of travel to The Gambia. In this week’s innovation we learned that the radio is not just for pop songs but also for spreading ideas to farmers in rural regions through Farm Radio International’s Africa Farm Radio Research Initiative (AFRRI). Check out the social entrepreneurship of Daniel Knoop and see how his new private sector organization, the Congo Business Case, will help farmers store, transport and sell their surplus harvest.
Livestock at the GTZ Project in Askum, Ethiopia. (photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has found that meat production accounts for about 18 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions! How can we change our eating habits for the better? Nourishing the Planet project co-director Danielle Nierenberg shares her thoughts in the Meat the Truth documentary sequel, book: Essays on Livestock Production, Sustainability and Climate Change. Time Magazine‘s Ecocentric blogger Eben Harrall shares his thoughts as well.
Worldwatch Institute's Sustainable Agriculture Program highlights the benefits to farmers, consumers, and ecosystems that can flow from food systems that are flexible enough to deal with shifting weather patterns, productive enough to meet the needs of expanding populations, and accessible enough to support rural communities. Questions? Comments? Please contact Worldwatch Senior Researcher Danielle Nierenberg at dnierenberg@worldwatch.org
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