AsiaDHRRA Online

HungerWednesday brings this very informative article about how secondary crops can enhance household food security.
“Secondary crop-based agribusiness development will contribute to the stabilization of household food security by promoting crop diversification, improving and fulfilling nutritional requirements, absorbing farm labour and generating farm household income. In addition, secondary crops will play a role in maintaining diverse [...]

FarmFriday is here again and we showcase this downloadable guideline on organic livestock production — it details the steps necessary to market livestock produce as ‘organic’.
The contents of this Primefact include:
* Role of livestock in organic farming systems
* Livestock nutrition
* Shelter
* Breeding
* Livestock welfare
* Livestock health
* Marketing
* Conclusion
* References
download the primefact here….

Here’s a very interesting article about how SRI is proving to be a viable rice production strategy worldwide.
By William J. Broad
IHT
Many a professor dreams of revolution. But Norman Uphoff, working in a leafy corner of the Cornell University campus, is leading an inconspicuous one centered on solving the global food crisis. The secret, he says, [...]

FarmFriday brings us this ingenious seed storage techniques from our friends over at Philrice.
SACLOB comes from the Filipino word saklob which means “cover”. True to its name, SACLOB shields stored seeds from pest infestation.
In their paper, Orge and coworker Engr. John Eric Abon described SACLOB as a hermetic or airtight seed storage enclosure made of [...]

FarmFriday brings your this expense saving tip from PhilRICE
A common practice among farmers is to routinely apply 3-4 bags N fertilizer during panicle initiation.
This is not entirely a wrong practice, according to Ms. Evelyn Javier, soil scientist of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice). “It is crucial for rice at this stage to have the [...]

This is another interesting article about the supertree, moringa oleifera.
This is the first of four planned papers on the nutritional, therapeutic, and prophylactic properties of Moringa oleifera. In this introductory paper, the scientific evidence for health effects are summarized in tabular format, and the strength of evidence is discussed in very general terms. A second [...]

FarmFriday showcases this rice farming tips from Philrice on “Controlling water during the rainy season”
Don’t let your ricefields overflow with water.
“Too much water, like the lack of it, could cause stress on the rice plant, affecting its growth and yield,” explained Jovino de Dios of the PhilRice’s Agronomy, Soils, and Plant Physiology Division.
According to PhilRice [...]

FarmFriday again and we share this article from FFTC about the looming soil pollution problems in the Asian REgion associated with “contamination of heavy metals in soils due to rapid industrialization, urbanization and intensive agriculture.”
TSUKUBA, JAPAN - The Asian economy has been growing fast in recent decades, and environmental stresses are building up rapidly along [...]

FarmFriday brings you this interesting concept of “community-supported agriculture” fromt he LEISA Magazine.
In a situation of growing globalisation of food systems, questions are increasingly being raised about the integrity of our food supply, the impact of its production on the environment and animal welfare, and the fairness of trade between consumers and workers along the [...]

HungerWednesday features this interesting article from PANOS that furthers the discussion on the effects of commercial scale biofuel cultivation to food security.
7 March 2008 | Imelda Abano

The Philippine government wants farmers to plant crops for biofuels on a vast scale. But could the quest for green energy create food shortages?

Growing world energy demand, the insecurity [...]

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 [...]

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

FFTC | February 18 2008
LOS BAÑOS, PHILIPPINES - Excessive and inappropriate use of agrochemicals has undeniably resulted in negative and sometimes irreparable effects on the environment. In an effort to increase crop yield, the once fertile soils have become acidic due to heavy chemical fertilizer application. Degraded soils and groundwater pollution caused by chemical leaching [...]

Urban agriculture is the growing of plants and the raising of animals for food and other uses, and related processing and marketing activities, within and around cities and towns. In the past few years, it has received increasing attention from development organizations and national and local authorities in developing countries. With its multiple functions, urban [...]

Here’s another very interesting article on how SMS phones are revolutionalizing rural farming in Asia. Indeed it seems the SMS phone IS the Computer.
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Through its Warana Unwired project, researchers at the Technology for Emerging Markets (TEM) group at Microsoft Research India (MSR India) worked with a 70,000-person rural sugarcane cooperative to run an experiment replacing [...]