AsiaDHRRA Online

Our good friend Conchi Quintana from WRF shared this interesting update on the rice crisis (from the BBC NEWS) affecting asian countries.
Asian countries have been struggling to cope as the cost of rice has reached record levels. The price of the staple crop has risen by as much as 70% during the last year, according [...]

FarmFriday brings you this update on the maligaya flatbed dryer– one of the most popular search terms here in our blog.  To those interested in the dryer, please contact the Philippine Rice Research Institute for more info.
Drying palay on the road, which is a practice that most farmers do, is wasteful as it can result [...]

TechTuesday brings you these very useful tips on writing radio scripts. This is from our favorite farm radio resource – Farm Radio International
This paper is intended to share with the reader the steps in script writing that we at Farm Radio International follow to ensure that our final product – which is the written radio [...]

i stumbled upon Mr. Kees Blockland’s very informative blog while googling for vietnam farmers. Kees’ blog “collects stories from all over the world on farmers fighting poverty and comments on the efforts of farmers worldwide in building their own development”

Its’ FarmFriday! i picked up this interesting infographic at the very informative biofuels blog Gas2.0. Click the image for a larger view

Visit VietDHRRA’s newly launched website!
The bilingual website features organizational information about VietDHRRA, and updates about their programs and projects

Here’s another good read for HungerWednesday. Although this is not from Asia, still it presents an interesting viewpoint about the current gloabl energy crisis is brining to the fore the importance and relevance of small farmers doing diversified farming.
NYT | By DAN BARBER
Published: May 11, 2008
COOKING, like farming, for all its down-home community spirit, [...]

IHT | Keith Bradsher
Published: May 9, 2008
HONG KONG: After months of startling increases, the prices of rice, wheat, soybeans and several other foods have come down recently, a development that could ease some of the panic in global food markets.
Prices remain volatile and remarkably high by historical standards, and few agricultural experts expect the days [...]

TechTuesday again! here’s an interesting article from the NYT asking a rather intriguing question; can the cellphone be the savior of third world countries? This article shows how the mobile phone has benefited people from the developing countries by enabling them faster access to information, increasing income and becoming an important business tool. More interestingly, [...]

IFAD
The prices of basic food commodities have increased rapidly over the past three years. The threat to food security in developing countries increases in stride.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warns that “the rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions.” “Responding effectively to the impact of higher food prices must be a [...]

The Board of Trustees (BOT) of AWCF has appointed Ms Kruewan Boonrin Chonlanai of the Credit Union League of Thailand, Ltd. (CULT), Thailand as its new Chairperson. Ms Kruewan has been working for CULT for almost 18 years now starting as Training Staff of the Education Department (1990-1994), then became Education Manager (1995-2004), then Executive [...]

Here’s a very informative presentation from CEDAC on the rice crisis in Cambodia. It also presents the need to support small farmers and adoption of “farmers’ innovations such as the Systematic Rice Intensification (SRI) and the MASIPAG rice breeding program” instead of the IRRI’s “second” green revolution nonsense.
This powerpoint presentation was prepared by Winfried Scheewe, [...]

We are re-issuing this research paper as a contribution to a more vigorous discussion on the need for Asian countries to implement Emergency Rice Reserve Schemes. This has never been more timely as Asian countries are now facing serious socio-political problems generated by the ongoing rice/food shortages.
This research paper originally published in the book [...]

This paper, jointly published by AsiaDHRRA and AFA, and written by Ping Peria, raises issues on the existing rules of the international trading system and its supporting mechanisms. It discusses the need for an alternative approach to the dominant trade and development framework beyond the WTO and the ASEAN focusing on agriculture and rural [...]