This week is World Antibiotic Awareness Week. Get yourself updated with this useful short overview on the rising global problem of antimicrobial resistance by reading this ‘Factbox’ from Thomson Reuters Foundation. Continue reading
The following excerpts are taken from an opinion piece on Brachiaria grass for livestock feed published by An Notenbaert, tropical forages coordinator for Africa at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), and published by Business Daily (Kenya) and the CIAT Blog. Continue reading
(Illustration on Flickr by Vintaga Posters.) Is Africa an agricultural basket case, or a potential bread basket? Michael Moran, in the GlobalPost, argues the case for the latter. ‘. . . Food security remains a problem in Malawi, as elsewhere in the so-called Guinea Savannah—a huge belt of arable (and largely untilled) land with unpredictable … Continue reading
Happy dragon in Fengdu, China (photo on Flickr by Major Clanger). SciDevNet’s David Dickson argues in an opinion piece last week that the outcomes of the June Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development illustrate that leadership from developing countries will be key to global sustainable development. Dickson says that the result of Rio-20 was ‘the … Continue reading
Planting soy in the state of Paraná, Brazil (photograph via Flickr by Dami Izolan). Daniel Kfouri reports in the New York Times that Brazil’s ‘$7 billion agreement signed last month—to produce six million tons of soybeans a year—is one of several struck in recent weeks as China hurries to shore up its food security and offset … Continue reading
Ancient Egyptian cow relief (photo credit: ILRI/Elsworth). The Washington Post’s op-ed columnist Robert J. Samuelson argued yesterday that the turmoil in the Middle East is related to a global food squeeze. ‘Here’s a question about the Mideast turmoil for future historians: How much did food inflation contribute? We know some basic facts. Middle East countries … Continue reading
Brazil has revolutionized its own farms. Can it do the same for others? IN A remote corner of Bahia state, in north-eastern Brazil, a vast new farm is springing out of the dry bush. Thirty years ago eucalyptus and pine were planted in this part of the cerrado (Brazil’s savannah). Native shrubs later reclaimed some … Continue reading
Romosinuano cattle grazing in South America (picture credit: ILRI/Edwin Perez) A July 2010 article in the leading science journal Nature highlights the gains Brazil is making in its agricultural productivity. ‘With its plentiful sun, water and land, Brazil is quickly surpassing other countries in food production and exports. But can it continue to make agricultural … Continue reading
In this weekly column, Roger Thurow, former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, describes the interest of Embrapa, the Brazilian agricultural research corporation that engineered a ‘green revolution’ in Brazil, in Africa. ‘. . . In Africa, Embrapa’s scientists are exploring soil and geological conditions that are similar to Brazil’s. . . . Embrapa has … Continue reading
The livestock industry has less economic clout than the oil industry, but ranchers say it has better arguments to defend itself from accusations regarding its share of responsibility for global warming. The livestock industry represents 40 percent of agricultural production worldwide and provides a livelihood and food security to one billion people. The fact that … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 