AsiaDHRRA Online

FarmFriday highlights this is very interesting newsbit from IFAD with its President Kanayo F. Nwanze pushing for more efforts  to linking smallholder farmers to the private sector: “In Davos, I intend to show business leaders how linking smallholder farmers to the private sector is key to building the economy of developing countries. The private sector [...]

For your weekend ruminations are two docs about the failed climate change talks. Oxfam Briefing Note 21 December 2009 Climate Shame: get back to the table -Initial analysis of the Copenhagen climate talks Copenhagen was a unique opportunity to turn the world’s course away from climate disaster, towards a safe future for all of us [...]

A presentation by By Mr. Peter Sousa Hoejskov, Food Quality and Safety Officer, FAO Regional Office in Asia Pacific, during the 2nd LSFM RTW. Mr. Peter Hoejskov started his presentation with a discussion on the importance of food safety and standards. He cited that food safety and control systems provide: the basis for inspection, testing, [...]

Excerpts from the presentation by farmer partners during the 2nd LSFM RTW. Cambodia Mr. Noun, chicken producer from FNN, presented Cambodia’s experience in marketing dressed chicken. He related that chicken feed during the dry season are not sufficient. They also experience difficulty in transporting the product given the great distances of markets from the farms. [...]

High Quality Products at Higher Prices: the Experience of TWADA which was presented by Dr. Wen Chi Hwang, General Secretary of the said organization during the 3rd LSFM RTW, explained about the experience of marketing based on product strength, quality, and competitive advantage. She narrated the history of TWADA as already having started with not [...]

Agri-Marketing in Asia: Agri-business Perspectives presented by Mr. Senen Bacani, CEO, Ultrex Management & Investment Corporation (former Secretary, Department of Agriculture, GRP) during the First LSFM RTW. Mr. Bacani explained that while he was here to offer an agri-business perspective from the side of the private sector, he has also worked extensively with government, cooperatives [...]

Enhancing the Competitiveness of Small Farmers was presented by Mr. Jing Pacturan, Executive Director Philippines Development Assistance Program during the 3rd LSFM RTW. He started the session with a competitive game which simulated the dynamics of market in the real world. Based on the experience of the game, he drew the participants’ insights about entrepreneurship, [...]

GRAIN has a nice article about enhancing the  global food system and here’s an interesting excerpt – Five key steps towards a food system that can address climate change and the food crisis.  Read the full article here though. HungerWednesday it is. 1. Move towards sustainable, integrated production methods The artificial separations and simplifications that [...]

Here’s an intriguing article in the brit newsie The Independent by  Matthew Stewart, formerly a management consultant, about the “dark arts” of the management consultancy business. It was 1988, and I was just finishing a D.Phil at Oxford University on the topic of “Nietzsche and German Idealism”. The annual recruiting season had long since gone. [...]

What’s worse than schoolkids raiding your treasured fruit orchard? why, those pesky fruitbirds of course! FarmFriday shares this interesting research paper in the Japanese Journal of Farm Work Research entitled Protection of Citrus from Bird Damage by a Dog.  The text is in japanese but the abstract is in english: Effectiveness of a dog (Canis [...]

Stumbled across this interesting book William Davies on management. Perfect for weekend reading!  This book by the way is available as a FREE PDF download over at DEMOS. The blurb sez; The financial crisis has called into question many of our core assumptions about economic structures, governance and institutions. But there has been little attention [...]

Here’s a TechTuesday golden nugget from MobileActive that’s especially useful to at-risk development workers. Do read through this to get a fuller understanding of how your cellphone can be used to track and gather information about you… Mobiles can be useful tools for collecting, planning, coordinating and recording activities of NGO staff and activists. But [...]

TechTuesday showcases this very interesting SMS application from the inventive guys over at Development Seed. Apparently, with this software, all you need is a USB drive, a computer with internet, and a GSM modem or cell phone…. and “you can have a gateway up and running that is totally decentralized and pushing information up to [...]

A good read we stumbled upon. HungerWednesday thinks this is good to reflect on… This is the award-winning article John Robbins originally wrote for the best-selling 2001 book Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century. It’s the year 2030. A meal is served. It was quick to prepare, just a few seconds in [...]

ToolkitSunday shares this guide on “how to facilitate participatory processes with multiple stakeholders” by D. Bradley and H. Schneider of the Voluntary Service Overseas. The benefits of participatory approaches can only be felt if all those involved have a common understanding and set of expectations. This guide, designed for volunteers, partner organisations and staff, is [...]