Decades of food delivery and ‘miracle’ seeds haven’t addressed underlying causes of hunger. But new efforts to replicate Africa’s original ecosystems are generating impressive, sustainable results Faith-based aid groups in Africa have a long and mostly admirable history of working to alleviate hunger. Too often, however, faith groups have focused their relief solely on food … Continue reading »
Monthly Archives: December 2010
In Kenya, generating wealth–one cow at a time
With mainstream banks and microfinance organizations mainly helping business startups in urban Kenya, a group called Juhudi Kilimo decided to focus on rural small-holder farmers. In the largely agricultural east African country of Kenya, many small-holder farmers need a way to start generating income. An organization called Juhudi Kilimo has stepped in with a new … Continue reading »
Commercialization of smallholders: Does market orientation translate into market participation?
This working paper by Berhanu Gebremedhin and Moti Jaleta on Commercialization of smallholders: Does market orientation translate into market participation? was released on 15 December, 2010. It makes little distinction between market orientation (production decision based on market signals) and market participation (sale of output). It analyses the determinants of market orientation and market participation … Continue reading »
African huts far from the grid glow with renewable power
For Sara Ruto, the desperate yearning for electricity began last year with the purchase of her first cellphone, a lifeline for receiving small money transfers, contacting relatives in the city or checking chicken prices at the nearest market. Charging the phone was no simple matter in this farming village far from Kenya’s electric grid. Every … Continue reading »
Climate change effects vary widely between rich and poor countries
When Ulamila Kurai Wragg visited New York in 2009 to speak about the frightening climatic changes taking place in the Cook Islands, some audience members stunned her. “I was hearing, ‘There’s no such thing as climate change. What proof have you got?’ ” Wragg recalled. “The experience I had in New York was not easy … Continue reading »
African farmers displaced as investors move in
The half-dozen strangers who descended on this remote West African village brought its hand-to-mouth farmers alarming news: their humble fields, tilled from one generation to the next, were now controlled by Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and the farmers would all have to leave. “They told us this would be the last rainy season for … Continue reading »
Computers serving Ugandan cows
A computer programme for feeding dairy cows has won the top prize in the 2009-2010 Africa-wide science competition held by CTA together with partner organisations. The Endiisa Decision Support Tool was developed by a team of scientists led by the National Livestock Resources Research Institute of Uganda. Team leader Dr Sarah Mubiru said the software … Continue reading »
Exceeding expectations: The ‘degraded pastures’ project in Central America
In the past 40 years the area under pastures in Latin America increased from 473 to 555 million hectares, and the number of cattle has risen from 195 to 394 million. This growth has resulted in forest loss and fragmentation. Pastures are now the main agricultural land use, particularly in areas like El Petén, in … Continue reading »
Demand led transformation of the livestock sector in India
The South Asia Agriculture and Rural Development Department of the World Bank has produced its first assessment of the livestock sector in India since 1996. According to the report, a ‘livestock revolution’ has occurred on a large scale in India over the last couple of decades. Demand for all major livestock commodities (milk, eggs, meat) … Continue reading »
Traditional knowledge key to managing Rift Valley fever
By assessing key risk factors and symptoms, such as an increase in rainfall and high abortion rates, Somali and Maasai herders accurately predicted the outbreak of Rift Valley fever in 2006/07 long before veterinary and public health interventions began, researchers have discovered. “Timely outbreak response requires effective early warning and surveillance systems,” say authors of … Continue reading »