What we’ve been reading this week

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

Fairtrade: celebrating the first 20 years. What’s next?, Duncan Green, Oxfam

Linking school feeding programmes with local small-scale farmer production, PAEPARD

FAO Food Price Index sees sharpest rise in months, FAO

The GLOBE Climate Legislation Study, GLOBE International

Behind the Brands, Oxfam

RFA released for Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Sustainable Intensification, USAID

The magazine of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Special Issue 2014 on Food, John Hopkins

Crossfire: ‘Does Fairtrade have more impact than conventional trade or trade certified by other sustainability standards?’, Anderson et al, Food Chain

Changing sources of growth in Indian agriculture, IFPRI

We have no bananas today, The Economist

Renowned Expert: GMOs Pose More Risk Than We Think, The Motley Fool

Gene identified by Purdue scientists may ease the genetic modification of plants, Purdue University

FANRPAN has been ranked one of the world’s top think tanks, PAEPARD

What we’ve been reading this week

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

Highlight: the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association (NASFAM) in Malawi, PAEPARD

FAO launches new standards for plant genebanks, FAO

Africa and India cultivate agricultural research ties, SciDev.Net

Who will pay for ecosystem services?, IIED

It’s not the ‘skipping’ three who should be questioned, it’s the wasteful supermarkets, The Independent

Pesticides halve bees’ pollen gathering ability, research shows, The Guardian

Natural Gas and Albacore: What Tuna Says About the Future of Mozambique, New Security Beat

Press Briefing of H.E. Mrs. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, PAEPARD

Fertilizer nutrient imbalance to limit food production in Africa, IIASA

Genetic weapon against insects raises hope and fear in farming, New York Times

What we’ve been reading this week

This week’s summary on the news stories, reports and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

One small change of words – a giant leap in effectiveness!, World Agroforestry Centre

Policy: Twenty tips for interpreting scientific claims, Nature

Enabling African Farmers to Feed the World, Farming First

Roundtable on Sustainable African Agriculture and CAADP 2014 review, PAEPARD

Agricultural Input Subsidies. The Recent Malawi Experience, Ephraim Chirwa and Andrew Dorward

African Farmers Reap Gains Of Biotech Cotton, CoastWeek

Humans are becoming more carnivorous, Nature

Seeds of hope emerge across the world’s drylands, World Agroforestry Centre

Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to examine Food Security, UK Parliament

For sustainable growth, count on agriculture, Thomson Reuters Foundation

What we’ve been reading this week

UNDP’s Clark: balancing water, food and energy key to post 2015 goals, AlertNet

Can we feed the world?, Vibe Ghana

 

Cutting food waste crucial to ensuring food security, experts say, AlertNet

New Book: Virtuous Circles: Values, systems, sustainability, Andy Jones, Michel Pimbert and Janice Jiggins, IIED

Our nutrient world: the challenge to produce more food and energy with less pollution, Global Partnership on Nutrient Management

What went wrong? Lessons from Malawi’s food crisis, Africa Renewal Online

New pathways to resilience: interactive report on CCAA program, IDRC

Strategies to overcome collective action challenges in the CAADP, IFPRI

Food chain alert for investors, Financial Times

India’s rice revolution: Chinese scientist questions massive harvests, The Guardian

Vandana Shiva: ‘Seeds must be in the hands of farmers’, The Guardian

India’s wheat shortage, sorry, surplus, Financial Times

Gene giants seek “philanthrogopoly”, ETC Group

Credibility across cultures – Steps Annual Symposium 2013, Steps Centre

A hopeful continent, The Economist

Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness markets set to top US$ one trillion in 2030, The World Bank

Kenya’s urban poor feel the rural pull as insurance makes farming viable, AlertNet

Land grabs and fragile food systems, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Nutrition climbs up the global agenda, Bread for the World Institute

What we’ve been reading this week

Every week we summarise the news stories and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

Bill gates reviews One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World, The Gates Notes

How to manage post-harvest loss, The Guardian Farming and Food Security Hub

A vaccine to boost global food production, Israel 21c

Africa: underestimating GDP, Financial Times, beyondbrics

EU Parliament agrees CAP reform ‘compromises’, Farmers Guardian

Food and petrol prices keep inflation unchanged at 2.7%, The Guardian

Soil determines fate of phosphorous, Brown University

Recent patterns of crop yield growth and stagnation, Nature communications

Betting on Hunger: Is Financial Speculation to Blame for High Food Prices?, Time

Joyce Banda: ‘I want Malawians to say our country became a better place’, The Guardian

“Peak farmland” is here, crop area to diminish: study, Reuters

A global agricultural boom for Brazil, The Washington Post

 

What we’ve been reading this week

Every week we summarise the news stories and blogs that have grabbed our attention. We welcome your thoughts and comments on these articles.

How millions of farmers are advancing agriculture for themselves, Independent Science News.

Plant perennials to save Africa’s soils, Nature

Carbon dioxide could reduce crop yields, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Maize lethal necrosis (MLN) disease in Kenya and Tanzania: Facts and actions, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT)

Commentary – Biotechnology and Africa’s strategic interests, Calestous Juma, Global Food for Thought, Chicago Council on Global Affairs

Dismay at agriculture impasse in UN climate talks, AlertNet

Commodity prices rebound on supply shortfalls, International Monetary Fund

Agriculture: A climate solution still on the sidelines, Anette Engelund-Friis, Huffington Post

Bread prices set to rise after bad weather hits UK wheat crop, The Guardian

Malawi – from agricultural success story to food crisis, How We Made it in Africa

Farmer Innovation in Malawi

A new study conducted in 2011 by Find Your Feet aimed to document and promote farmer innovations in the district of Rumphi in northern Malawi. It did so through focus group discussions with farmers in four of the Extension Planning Areas of the district; through individual interviews with farmers (14 in total); and through visits to renowned innovative farmers (14 in total).

Due to the nature of agriculture farmers must adapt and innovate to ensure a stable and high level of food production. The outcomes of smallholder farmer innovation have not always been recognised, however, and it is only in the past thirty years that there has been a move away the traditional and linear ‘top-down’ approach to technology transfer to a recognition of the value of farmer knowledge and the importance, as end-users of technologies, of their inclusion in broader innovation systems.