AsiaDHRRA Online

Here’s an interesting advice to world leaders from the tech titan and currently the biggest private philanthropist, Bill Gates who outlines in his 2012 Annual letter the need to invest more in agriculture “We can help poor farmers sustainably increase their productivity so they can feed themselves and their families. But that will only happen if we prioritize agricultural innovation.”

The private market does a great job of innovating in many areas, particularly for people who have money. The focus of Melinda’s and my foundation is to encourage innovation in the areas where there is less profit opportunity but where the impact for those in need is very high. That is why we have devoted almost $2 billion to helping poor farm families, most of which are led by women, boost their productivity while preserving the land for future generations. Those funds are invested in many areas of innovation, ranging from sustainable land management, to better ways to educate farmers, to connecting farmers to functioning markets.

Continue reading Bill Gates 2012 Annual Letter here…

Here’s great news straight from  José A. Osaba and our good friends at WRF. Thanks to all partners and friends and the Asiadhrra Network for actively participating in the IYFF campaign!

“We have got finally the good news that many of our organizations have been waiting for. Today, December 22nd 2011, at 4.55 pm, New York time, the UN General Assembly has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming-IYFF. Last October, the Permanent Mission of the Philippines  to the UN, introduced to the GA Second Committee a draft resolution about the IYFF declaration, co-sponsored afterwards  by many other countries and, eventually approved by consensus of all its members. We are extremely grateful to the Permanent Mission of the Philippines for its leadership and its commitment to the IYFF declaration procedure, and to all the countries that have co-sponsored the draft Resolution or given their final approval.

Thanks to the kidness of the Spanish Permanent Mission, I have been present during today´s GA plenary session in New York, keeping in mind with admiration during such historical moments, the more than 350 organizations from 60 countries that have been supporting the IYFF Campaign.

We have reached the main objective of our common Campaign in favour of the IYFF declaration,  started on February 2008, after the celebration of the II IFAD´s Farmers´s Forum in Rome.  For the first time in history, an International Year has been promoted by Civil Society. Many thanks to everybody!”

José A. Osaba

AsiaDHRRA joined two Seminars organized by the International Poverty Reduction Center of China (IPRCC). The first seminar on “Policies and Practices of Rural Poverty Reduction in China and ASEAN countries” was held in Wuhan City, Hubei Province last October 12-18, 2011. Twenty five (25) participants from 9 ASEAN countries and China. The second seminar on  “Theory and Practice of International Development (Poverty Reduction) for Asian Countries” held in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province, China on November 16-25, 2011. It was participated by government representatives from 30 Asia-China Dialogue partners.

Both seminars were received support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the provincial government units of Hubei and Sichuan Provinces.

In both seminars, Florante “Nonoy” Villas, AsiaDHRRA’s LSFM regional program manager shared AsiaDHRRA’s experience in anchoring ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community’s participatory process in drafting the 2011-2015 Framework  Action Plan for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication and AsiaDHRRA’s strategies, models and experiences in implementing the Linking Small Farmers to Markets.

IPRCC is an international anti-poverty organization established jointly by the Chinese Government and the United Nations Development Program and other international organizations in June 2005. IPRCC has committed to make contributions to poverty reduction in the world through the promotion of policy research, experience-sharing, knowledge exchange and South-South Cooperation in the field of poverty reduction and development.

IPRCC was established by the Chinese Government to provide a platform for various professionals and development practitioners from different developing countries to share theoretic studies and policy analysis and explore effective approaches for agricultural growth and rural development. It is one of the 5 new measures to assume China’s international responsibilities announced by China’s president Hu Jintao at the High-Level Meeting on Financing for Development, on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations. On June 22, 2004, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a keynote speech titled Promote Asian Cooperation in New Century at the Third Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue held in Qingdao in which he pointed out that strengthening regional cooperation is not only an important part of China’s new-era foreign policy but also the need of its own development.

Asiadhrra is set to participate in a forum on food security sponsored by FAO RAP. The Forum entitled, “Nutrition-Sensitive Food Production Systems for Sustainable Food Security” will take place on December 7-8, 2011 in Bangkok, Thailand, at Conference Hall of the FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Asiadhrra will be joined by participants composed of Senior-level officials from Ministries of Agriculture and other related government institutions responsible for food security and nutrition; Regional economic communities; Civil society organizations and private sector representatives;  UN Agencies, donors and development partners; International and regional financial institutions and Academia and research institutions

“The main objective of the Forum is to broadly discuss issues associated with hunger and malnutrition with a particular emphasis on nutrition-sensitive agricultural development and food-based nutrition approaches, review past and ongoing interventions and policies, share experiences and lessons learned, and identify way forward to promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture for improving nutrition. The increased consultation among all actors involved in food and nutrition security will achieve greater complementary and coordination in strategic planning and action.”

Binadesa shared with us a declaration document they signed together with a multitude of Indonesian CSO’s on the issue of people’s sovereignty in ASEAN. The declaration is entitled “Building People’s Sovereignty in South East Asia Region: Refuse and Oppose the Domination of Global Capitalism”

“We, Indonesian people, representations of peasants, workers, migrant workers, fisher folk, indigenous people, women, students, urban poor, consumers, human rights activists, gather in Denpasar, Bali from 16-18 November 2011. We organize series of action to express our concerns on Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bali.

ASEAN has become a free market, rent seeking and natural resources exploitation. The whole exploitation activities, with the interventions of the elites are now becoming official and more dangerous in global communities. With its close historical connection with the US and its allies, ASEAN is continuously used as a tool to implement the global capitalism agenda.”

Continue reading the declaration here…..

FINAL DECLARATION
Family Farming World Conference: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth
October 5-7, 2011 / Bilbao, Spain  

We, 200 women and men, leaders of national, regional and international farmers’ organizations, civil society groups and social movements, and key academic and research institutions, from four continents of the world –Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe-, as well as representatives from national governments and inter-governmental organizations, have gathered in Bilbao, Spain, for the Family Farming World Conference with the theme “Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth.”

Continue reading the IYFF declaration here….

Read more about the campaign towards an International Year of Family Farming in 2014…

“On 20th.July 2011 the RDPE National Consultation  for Viet Nam was held at the meeting room of the Center of Agricultural Extension Volunteers (CAEV), 4th.Floor, A1 Building, Phuong Mai, 102 Truong Chinh, Ha Noi which is also Executive Office of the Vietnam Partnership of Human Resource Development for Rural Areas (VietDHRRA).”

Read the details of the RDPE Consultation Meeting at the VietDHRRA website

Robots for TechTuesday! Bots in the farms is pretty interesting in itself coz, well, they’re robots. Apparently commercial farmers are enamored with robots because they help address the farmers’ perennial problem of labor costs and labor availability. But you have to wonder though the sense of this as world population continues to increase which means an increase also in human labor pool- do we really need robots to work the farms when there’s so much human labor available?

When it comes to farm robots, fruit gets all the attention. But it looks like trees and shrubs could win the prize for first significant agricultural market for small mobile robots.

Massachusetts startup Harvest Automation is beta testing a small mobile robot that it’s pitching to nurseries as the solution to their most pressing problem: a volatile labor market.

Continue reading the farmbots increasing presence in agriculture in Wired Mag…

FarmFriday has this to share to our readers who have installed the maligaya flatbed dryer or planning to install one. Here’s a few reminders from PhilRice:

1. Check/monitor the temperature of drying air, air static pressure at the plenum, and grain depth when operating the dryer.
2. When drying palay for seed purposes, the temperature should not exceed 43oC.  For commercial purposes (milled rice), a higher temperature of  up to 52oC can be used.

Continue reading the rest of the guidelines in using the Philrice dryer here

Here’s a cool website that show’s each country’s adaptability to climate change. Very well designed. Another great work from our idols at Development Seed

What is GAIN?

The Global Adaptation Index™ (GAIN™), a project of the Global Adaption Institute, provides a data-driven approach to help countries and the private sector invest in adaptation to climate change and other global forces.

Climate change is a reality and the challenge is only increasing as population growth, urbanization and economic expansion continue. All countries must adapt in order to minimize the effects of climate change and other global forces. Despite expanding resource commitments from international institutions, public funding alone is not the solution. The private sector will play a key role in providing the necessary additional resources. GAIN offers information on a country’s vulnerability and its readiness to undertake adaptive actions to prioritize and evaluate these needed investments.

From Grain

Food is a key driver of climate change. How our food gets produced and how it ends up on our tables accounts for around half of all human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Chemical fertilizers, heavy machinery and other petroleum-dependant farm technologies contribute significantly.

The impact of the food industry as a whole is even greater: destroying forests and savannahs to produce animal feed and generating climate-damaging waste through excess packaging, processing, refrigeration and the transport of food over long distances, despite leaving millions of people hungry.
Continue reading “Food and climate change: the forgotten link” at Grain….

AsiaDHRRA together with its members and partners participated in the recently concluded Workshop On The Framework Action Plan On Rural Development And Poverty Eradication held at the ASEAN Secretariat last Sept.29-30, 2011.

Dr. Toan of VietDHRRA, in his talk during the information sharing, highlighted the centrality of small-holder farmers,fishers and indigenous peoples both men and women in the quest for poverty eradication and sustainable development. He mentioned that investment in small-holder agriculture is an important driver for attaining sustainable development. In ending he expressed the CSO call for a more action-oriented and binding programs and policies and programs on sustainable rural development. He also stressed the need for political will to address critical RDPE issues including regulation on massive land investment displacing farmers,fishers and IPs as well as the promotion of food sovereignty as essential to address poverty and hunger.

Crossposting from PhilRice (they’re up again) this interesting news:

Farmers can soon cut on fuel expenses as the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) tests the efficiency of its developed biofuel on machines.

The plan is an offshoot of a recent lecture by Dr. Rico O. Cruz, an expert on biofuel from Oregon, USA, who promoted Cruzesterification, a process of producing biodiesel from used vegetable oils. “Producing biodiesel using Cruzesterification makes the production of biodiesel as “easy as making coffee, in which the catalyst is the coffee, alcohol as the sugar and oil as the hot water. Blend the three ingredients and you a have a coffee or a biodiesel in minutes,” Cruz said.

continue reading “PhilRice machines to test biodiesel”over at PhilRice….