AsiaDHRRA Online

FrankenThursday goes back to that underreported tragedy that is the Indian Farmer suicides. Again from  Celsias. One of the least-reported tragedies that resulted from globalization and corporatization of agriculture is the farmer suicide story of India – a tragedy comprising several hundred thousand individual tragedies, and possibly the ‘largest wave of suicides in history’. Last [...]

HungerWednesday present this article from Celcias about the Oxfam Report that details how shifting seasons caused by climate change may severely impact food production and contribute to the rise in world hunger in the coming years. Shifting seasons are destroying harvests and causing widespread hunger – but this is just one of the multiple climate [...]

AsiaDHRRA is co-organizing the Regional Conference on the Impact of the Global Economic and Financial Crisis to the Vulnerable Sectors in the Region: Civil Society Voices and ASEAN to be held on July 28-29, 2009 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The regional dialogue seeks to strengthen a constructive civil society interaction with ASEAN and policy makers in [...]

FarmFriday found this interesting technology while browsing Celsias. So we followed the links and then ultimately came to Cleantech where they’re promoting this technology. High oil prices, the diversion of 30 percent of the U.S. corn crop for ethanol, and strong demand from China and India are causing food shortages in vulnerable countries around the [...]

HungerWednesday again and we highlight this interesting article from Celias about how “China ended its dependence on food aid, but almost overnight.. became the world’s third largest food aid donor.” And China got to this by dismantling collective farms and replaced them with family farms. Wow! Another convincing proof that family farming is the way [...]

One by one, biotech companies are steadily making GMO versions of our staple foods. We should stop this madness! Ya its FrankenThursday. Eat healthy today ok? From Grain: The looming GM sugar cane invasionOne of the most destructive developments in agriculture over the past two decades has been the boom in soya production in the [...]

Rose Sharon Hartig, a student taking up Master of Arts in International Social Sciences at Friedensau Adventist University (Theologische Hochschule Friedensau) in Germany starts her two-month internship in AsiaDHRRA. Her learning objectives during the period will focus on project planning, management and evaluation. Ms. Hartig’s field of specialization is  planning, management and evaluation of sustainable [...]

Here’s an interesting tidbit shared by our good friends over at WRF. This IFPRI produced table illustrates the various deals by the private sector to rent or buy lands in other countries.  Read the full article here.

FarmFriday presents this report from ELDIS about the growing trend in public-private partnership in Latin America. Might provide us Asians some new perspective or approaches in agricultural development work. Abstract This report outlines how public-private partnerships (PPPs) constitute a new mode of operation in many fields of development, including the development of innovation in developing [...]

TechTuesday relates this interesting story about how mobile phones play a huge part in disseminating info about crop diseases in Uganda. Read the full article here…

FarmFriday brings this very interesting article from Green Inc.,  about the new challenges facing farmers as they  struggle to feed an ever-growing global population amidst the specter of climate change.  Its interesting to note also that Deutsche Bank has a “climate change advice division” – kinda neat don’t you think so? read on… How will [...]

For TechTusday, here’s a rather serious and insightful reading especially if your work focuses on market intermediation. Lots of ideas to bounce around. Abstract This paper emphasizes the role of knowledge management and communication in value chains from the perspective of resource-poor producers in Latin America. Based on value chain literature, social network theories and [...]

Cagayan de Oro City, June 29 – Representatives from networks of rural NGOs and people’s organizations from nine countries in Southeast and East Asia gathered in Cagayan de Oro City from June 28 to July 2 to discuss how the small farmers and farmerholders can hurdle the extremely difficult challenges of entering and participating competitively [...]