Category Archives: Agriculture

Africa / Agriculture / Crop-Livestock / Farming Systems / Food Security / ILRI / Livelihoods / Trade / Value Chains

With the right investments, Africa’s small farms could make profits as well as food

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Mohamed Béavogui, director of the west and central African division of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has the following to say in the Guardian‘s Poverty Matters Blog. ‘Africa’s smallholder farmers not only have the potential to produce enough food for export—and thereby contribute to food security worldwide—but to help lead the way to … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Caribbean / Climate Change / Consumption / Environment / Food Security / Latin America / Markets

Lester Brown on ‘the new geopolitics of food’

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Youth in window of a poor farm household in Milange, located in Zambezia, the most populous province of Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). Lester Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute, writes in the May/June issue of Foreign Policy on ‘The New Geopolitics of Food: From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Central Africa / East Africa / Innovation Systems / Research / Rwanda / Uganda

Innovation platforms for development oriented agricultural research

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A central question in African agriculture is how to catalyze a more competitive, equitable and sustainable agricultural growth within the context of smallholder production systems, inefficient agricultural marketing, inefficient investments by private sector, and a degradation-prone natural resources base. Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) is a promising organizing concept that builds on the Innovation … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Caribbean / Crop-Livestock / Food Security / Latin America / Malawi

No solution to food crisis without involvement of the world’s small-scale farmers

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Regina Frazer: Maize, potato, cassava, chicken, dove, pig and vegetable farmer in central Malawi (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). A Guardian blog post today argues that the world’s many small farmers are critical to solving the world’s food, and food price, crises. The blog says, ‘We should celebrate one of the largest but least recognised groups in … Continue reading →

Agriculture / BecA / Biotechnology / Burundi / Capacity Strengthening / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda

Sweden funds innovations to drive crop production in 6 East African countries

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Swedish aid and diplomatic colleagues at the official launch of the Bio-Innovate Program in March at ILRI, with Claes Kjellström, representative of the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) at the Embassy of Sweden in Nairobi (middle); Kikki Nordin, Regional Team Leader of SIDA’s Environment and Economic Development department (left); and Björn Häggmark, Deputy Head of Mission at … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Food Security

Our food system is failing half the people, overfed and underfed, on the planet

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The world’s food system is failing half of the people on the planet. That’s the disturbing conclusion of the Global Farming & Futures Report, which synthesizes findings collected from more than 400 scientists and 34 countries. The British government’s Department for Business Innovation & Skills published the document in January. ‘Economic inequality among nations and … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Animal Production / Crop-Livestock / Dairying / East Africa / Livestock Systems

Sustainable intensification: increasing productivity in African food and agricultural systems

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The February 2011 issue of the journal International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability contains a series of case studies from Africa on ‘sustainable agricultural intensification’ -“defined as producing more output from the same area of land while reducing the negative environmental impacts and at the same time increasing contributions to natural capital and the flow of environmental … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Biotechnology / Burundi / East Africa / Ethiopia / ILRI / Kenya / Rwanda / Tanzania / Uganda

Using East Africa’s bio-resources to increase and sustain the region’s food production

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Seyoum Leta, manager of the Bio-Innovate Program (photo credit: ILRI/MacMillan). Last month, the Zecco (Trading) website published news of the official launch of a Bio-Innovate Program that will work on smart ways to use the region’s bio-resources to increase food production in sustainable ways in six countries in eastern Africa. Bio-Innovate is funded by the … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Cattle / Dairying / Livelihoods / Malawi / Pro-Poor Livestock / Southern Africa / Women

A woman and her cow: Of bovine bank loans and entrepreneurship

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In Khulungira Village, in central Malawi, farmer Jinny Lemson, 32, started acquiring livestock with her husband ten years ago as an investment. Neither grew up with animals. First they bought chickens, then goats, then pigs, sheep, and cows. They also have ducks, cats and dogs. They grow all the feed on their farm. ‘Our life … Continue reading →