On the occasion of World Food Week, FAO launched a new website on hunger. The FAO Hunger Portal features country specific statistics and an interactive world map to visualize the prevalence of hunger around the globe. A set of “Frequently Asked Questions” responds to standard queries on undernourishment. For those interested in deeper analyzes, the … Continue reading
Category Archives: Food Security
FAO/WFP publication: The state of food insecurity in the world economic crises—impacts and lessons learned
Did you know that: In Africa and Latin America, a 1 percentage-point increase in the ratio of remittances to GDP results in 0.29 percent and 0.37 percent declines, respectively, in the number of people living below the poverty line?. The impact of the financial crisis on remittances and more is discussed in this annual publication … Continue reading
Africa / Agriculture / Animal Diseases / Climate Change / Crop-Livestock / Drought / Drylands / DRYLANDSCRP / ECF / Environment / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock Systems / Pastoralism / Research / Vulnerability
Livestock research addresses issues underlying the pastoral crisis in the Horn of Africa
Things Fall Apart Things have quickly fallen apart in this particular drought in the Horn’s vast drylands because of a toxic mix of underlying factors. Land Use Among the things not being redressed are land-use policies and practices that fail to account for population increases and thus are restricting herders to ever smaller, drier and … Continue reading
Economic crisis is devastating for the world’s hungry
1.02 billion hungry people in 2009 – FAO hunger report published The sharp spike in hunger triggered by the global economic crisis has hit the poorest people in developing countries hardest, revealing a fragile world food system in urgent need of reform, according to a report released today by FAO and the World Food Programme (WFP). … Continue reading
Global hunger worsening, warns UN
Targets to cut the number of hungry people in the world will not be met without greater international effort, UN food agencies have warned. The UN’s annual report on global food security confirms that more than one billion people – a sixth of the world’s population – are undernourished. It says the number of hungry … Continue reading
Drought / East Africa / Food Security / Kenya
A profile of what could become the country’s irreversible tragedy
A profile of what could become the country’s irreversible tragedy Kenya’s worst drought in living memory has been overshadowed by political and economic crises and the destruction of the Mau Forest. Now, with 10 million people short of food, the drought has captured national attention. Read more (Daily Nation) Continue reading
Global crop diversity trust
Cary Fowler, in the latest issue of the Enews from the Global Crop Diversity Trust, argues that previously hidden national vulnerabilities were exposed in the 2007-8 global food price crisis. He says that crisis revealed weaknesses in national security, weaknesses that many capital-rich but land-poor countries are addressing by buying up farmland in developing countries … Continue reading
The omnivore’s delusion: Against the agri-intellectuals
Farming has always been messy and painful, and bloody and dirty. It still is. This is something the critics of industrial farming never seem to understand. I’m dozing, as I often do on airplanes, but the guy behind me has been broadcasting nonstop for nearly three hours. I finally admit defeat and start some serious … Continue reading
Drought / East Africa / Food Security / ILRI / Kenya / Report
Why is it some households fall into poverty while others do not? Evidence from Kenya
This Discussion Paper by Nelson Mango, Patti Kristjanson, Maren Radeny, Abisalom Omolo and Michael Arunga of ILRI and Anirudh Krishna on Why is it some households fall into poverty at the same time others are escaping poverty? Evidence from Kenya was released on 11 August, 2009. It presents study carried out to evaluate how different … Continue reading
A big heart for chicken, dead or alive
Growing up on the slopes of Mount Elgon in the small village of Namwela, chicken had widely become a staple for her community. A meal was considered incomplete without a chicken wing or a leg. And even though the imondo (gizzard) was reserved for the men, Sheila Ommeh loved the leg. It was, for her, … Continue reading
ILRI Clippings 