AsiaDHRRA Online

FarmFriday shares this interesting article by Elizabeth Pennisi in ScienceMag about the scientific community’s efforts in creating “the ideal crop” and “developing new technologies for a better farming future”
Substantial improvements are needed in current crops to achieve higher yields and sustainable farming. To achieve those gains, agricultural companies have turned to robotics and other measures [...]

Here’s an interesting read from the http://www.soilassociation.org asserting that those saying we need to double global food production by 2050 are basically using the wrong figures and interpretations.
‘Telling porkies: The big fat lie about doubling food production’, reveals that all those claiming we need to double global food production by 2050, or 50% by 2030, [...]

Here’s an interesting news about increasing yield of african rice varieties:
New findings reported by the Africa Rice Center counter the widely held view that African rice, preferred by local consumers for its taste, is inherently lower yielding than Asian rice. They also confirm its remarkable adaptability to harsh growing conditions in Africa and hence its [...]

FarmFriday shares this interesting newsbit we picked up from PhilRice about a research they conducted that showed Filipino rice farmers have steadily improved their socio-economic status over the past 10 years or so. Any reactions?
There is a steady improvement in the social and economic status among Filipino rice farmers and their household for the last [...]

From Rice Today we got this rice genebank map that “maps out the geographical source of rice genetic diversity preserved in selected rice genebanks—one of the first steps towards producing a global picture of rice biodiversity. This will help identify any gaps around the world where rice biodiversity has not been collected yet for conservation.”

Interesting reading on female farmers and gender issues we got from our inbox again.
Promising approaches to address the needs of poor female farmers : resources, constraints, and interventions
By Agnes R. Quisumbing and Lauren Pandolfelli
IN World Development, vol. 38, no. 4, April 2010.
This article critically reviews some recent attempts to increase poor female farmers’ access to, [...]

Got this from our friend Diderik. HungerWednesday shares this informative book published by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars about the worrisome trend of international landgrabbing for food production.
The world is experiencing a grain rush. With increasing frequency, food-importing countries and private investors are acquiring farmland across the developing world. This new [...]

We’ve been clicking stuff  ”round the FAO Database and its been an interesting time  so far. Good for FarmFriday. The coolest feature was the ability to choose and create 3 types of report in a kind of mix and match way.
Give it a try! pay a visit to the FAO Gender and Land Rights Database [...]

Ms. Chu Thi Mai Anh, Agricultural & Rural Enterprise Development Project Officer, Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
The CRS has partnered with the Province of Nghe An to promote a territory approach to agro-enterprise development. This means that the project needs to 1) be implemented through the Government administration structure; 2) improve the skills and knowledge of [...]

By Rene Guarin
Executive Director, Upland Marketing Program
Mr. Guarin introduced the Upland Marketing Program and related about its nearly twelve years of experience in selling directly to supermarkets. He said that direct selling to supermarkets is inevitable given the worldwide trend of increasing rate of grocery sales due to various factors, such as the modernization of [...]

By Mr. Jesus Vicente Garganera, National Coordinator, PhilDHRRA
A market research scanning on calamansi that was done revealed important statistics and information for any farmer or group of farmers interested in producing and marketing. It was found that the production of calamansi in the country has been increasing, with major supplies coming from Central Philippines (although [...]

We are sharing with you our latest publication – the Mapping of Marketing Intermediation of CSO in Indonesia and Value Chain Analysis of Organic Rice in Indonesia.
You can download the PDF version here (right click and choose “file save as…” or drop by our office for the print version. Copies are limited though so call [...]

Thanks again to our friend Jose Osaba for sharing this interesting book from TWN.
“THE world is now facing a new era of climate change and the impacts of climate change are already being felt everywhere, particularly in the developing countries and small islands. The local knowledge systems and agricultural practices and techniques adopted by local [...]

Here’s an oldie but goodie bag ‘o tips for TechTuesday from MobileActive.org about the effective use of mobile phones in issue campaigns.
Speed is often critical in an advocacy campaign and mobile phones allow the rapid dissemination of messages to a network of supporters with specific calls for action. In the developing world, where internet access [...]

Big thanks to our good friend Jose Osaba of WRF for sharing this info. A good read!

Climate change, hunger and poverty, loss of biodiversity, forest destruction, water crises, food safety – what all these threats have in common is that a principal cause for each of them is in the way we produce, trade, consume [...]