We’re a bit proud to say that we had a little hand in the production as WRF entrusted us with the design and layout of the booklet.

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Learn more about the Campaign for the International Year of Family Farming

Franz Chávez interviews Bolivian expert in natural resource management WILFREDO QUIROZ
Wilfredo Quiroz / Credit:Franz Chávez/IPS

LA PAZ, Apr 3 , 2010 (IPS) – The gradual loss of traditional farming practices that preserve the land has pushed into extreme poverty small farmers in Bolivia who 20 years ago were producing surplus produce to sell at market and now are barely able to feed themselves.

This was the conclusion reached by agricultural engineer Wilfredo Quiroz, who is working on follow-up and evaluation in the Management of Natural Resources in the Chaco and High Valley Regions Project (PROMARENA), a Ministry for Development Planning programme that receives support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

The project, which operates with a 14.9 million dollar fund, including 12 million from IFAD and 1.1 million from the national treasury, is aimed at reducing poverty and boosting food security in rural areas.

Continue reading about how Bolivia plans to fight hunger through eco-friendly farming practices….

Yang Youde is a farmer who had contracted to rent 25 mu of land.  The lease was set to continue until 2019.  Over the years, Yang has been raising fish, cattle, cotton, melons and fruits on the land.

Last year, Yang Youde learned that his land had been requisitioned.  Since the compensation terms for breaking the contract had not been settled, he has refused to move out.

“The evictors said many times that they will move on me.”  Earlier this year, Yang took measures to protect himself.  He took a hand-truck and removed the front.  Then he put in a set of rockets for use as an artillery battery.

On February 26 this year, a team of more than 30 evictors approached his site ready to demolish his house by force.  “At the time, I set off the rockets.  They hid behind the bulldozer.  After the rockets were all fired off, they came out and administered a thrashing on Yang.   But they did not bulldoze the house immediately.  Instead, they only said that they will come back and finish the job.  Afterwards, Yang upgraded his defense by building an “cannon tower” with help from friends and relatives.

Continue reading about Farmer Yang Youde’s battle with forced evictions teams here….

ASEAN Secretariat, 17 May 2010

The cost of doing business in ASEAN will be lower and trade-related transactions simpler as the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA), one of the region’s landmark economic agreements, entered into force today.

The ATIGA, which is comprehensive in its scope and brings transparency to regional trade liberalisation, consolidates all commitments related to trade in goods. It focuses on not only tariff liberalisation and non-tariff measures, but it also includes matters related to simplification of rules of origin and its implementation. Various agencies and regulatory bodies dealing with entry of goods, such as the Customs, and health and agricultural authorities, will jointly operate in ensuring smoother operations at the Customs entry points.

“The ATIGA is a major achievement towards the establishment of a single market and production base under the ASEAN Economic Community 2015,” said the Secretary-General of ASEAN, Dr Surin Pitsuwan. The entry into force of the ATIGA will help facilitate trade by simplifying processes and procedures thereby reducing transaction time and cost of doing business hence benefitting the business community and the public, he said upon the deposit of Thailand’s instrument of ratification with his office in Jakarta. All ASEAN Member States have now ratified the ATIGA.

The ATIGA contains the full import duty liberalisation schedule among ASEAN Member States and spells out the tariff rates to be applied on products. This provides businesses with transparency and certainty in making business and investment decisions. Dr Surin also urged the ASEAN Member States to implement the ATIGA through timely incorporation of the ATIGA commitments into domestic legislation to meet the agreed tariff reduction schedules.

With the coming into force of ATIGA, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand will issue their legal enactments in 90 days, while Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, and Viet Nam will do so in 180 days. Thereafter, tariff liberalisation commitments under the ATIGA will be implemented retroactively from 1 January 2010.

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.”

They sift the powder through their fingers, smell it and admire its soft, brownish shimmer. The members of the delegation from Japan, dressed in black suits and yellow helmets, stand attentively in a factory building in Leoben, Austria, marveling at a seemingly miraculous transformation, as stinking sewage sludge is turned into valuable ash.

Nothing suggests that the brown dust comes from a cesspool. It doesn’t smell, is hygienic and is as safe as sand in a children’s sandbox. It’s also valuable. The powder has a phosphate content of around 16 percent. Phosphate, the most important base material in mineral fertilizer, is currently trading at about €250 ($335) a ton.

Untreated sewage sludge was once dumped onto fields as liquid manure, until it became apparent how toxic it is. Human excretions are full of heavy metals, hormones, biphenyls — and drugs. New processing plants are designed to remove these toxins far more effectively than before, thereby paving the way for the use of sewage sludge in safe, human fertilizer. Ash Dec, the company that operates the pilot plant in Leoben, has dubbed the program “Ash to Cash.”

continue reading this interesting article at speigel.de …

From Kansas to China’s Sichuan province, farmers treat their fields with phosphorus-rich fertilizer to increase the yield of their crops. What happens next, however, receives relatively little attention. Large amounts of this resource are lost from farm fields, through soil erosion and runoff, and down swirling toilets, through our urine and feces. Although seemingly mundane, this process cannot continue indefinitely. Our dwindling supply of phosphorus, a primary component underlying the growth of global agricultural production, threatens to disrupt food security across the planet during the coming century. This is the gravest natural resource shortage you’ve never heard of.

continue reading about peak phosphorus from ForeignPolicy.com here …

IPS|By Stephen Leahy

How’s this for short-sighted: A billion people go hungry every day, food prices have climbed 30 to 40 percent, climate change is reducing agricultural production – and for the past two decades, the world has slashed investments in publicly-funded agriculture until it is a pittance in most countries.

“Moral outrage is needed. We must abolish this… It can be done. It must be done,” Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria, Egypt and a former World Bank economist, told nearly 700 World Food Prize laureates, ministers, scientists and a few representatives from development and farmer organisations at the first Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) last month here in southern France.

“This is the launching pad to transform hunger in our time,” Serageldin concluded.

The “rocket” on the launching pad is a major transformation of the 500 million dollars of public funds for international agricultural research carried out by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an alliance comprising some 8,000 researchers in 100 countries.

read the full news article here….

Got this from our friend Diderik. HungerWednesday shares this informative book published by the

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 publication, Land Grab? The Race for the World’s Farmland marks one of the first efforts in the United States to bring together perspectives from international organizations, farmers, and investors alike about a trend often referred to as a new phase of the world food crisis. Contact asia@wilsoncenter.org for a free copy or click on the book image above to download the PDF version. Edited by Michael Kugelman and Susan L. Levenstein.

Visit the website here…

Download the free PDF copy of the book here…

The aim of the Continental meeting is to discuss issues related to the IYFF Campaign: how to involve more and more governments and civil society, how to reach a common understanding of the main issues and challenges of Family Farming, and the probable outstanding activities and benefits of the IYFF, once it is declared by the UN General Assembly.

About the Organizers

The Association for Development World Rural Forum –WRF-, is a worldwide network, a non-profit making entity whose main objective is the promotion of sustainable family agriculture and the rural environment in the context of globalization.

The WRF is coordinating the worldwide campaign for an International Year of Family Farming –IYFF- (www.familyfarmingcampaign.net).

AFA -Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Rural Development- is a regional alliance of 9 farmer federations in 8 Asian countries, representing 10 million of small men and women farmers.

AsiaDHRRA -Development of Human Resources in Rural Asia- a regional partnership of 11 social development networks and organizations in 10 Asian nations that envisions Asian rural communities that are just, free, prosperous, living in peace and working in solidarity towards self-reliance- is the Regional representative of WRF’s Asian Network in the Board of directors.

CIFA-The Consortium of Indian Farmers Associations, is an organization created to represent the farming sector, before the Government of India, the Planning Commission and other related authorities. Their aim is to promote adequate rural policies and the allocation of a significant budget for agricultural development, based on its contribution to the National GDP and also on the basis of the significance and importance of the total rural population.