AsiaDHRRA Online

This article from IGTN suggests that the recent collapse of the WTO mini-ministerial, July 2008, reflects the new geopolitics of the global economy. The emerging economies are approaching trade issues and negotiations differently. Particularly they place more emphasis on supporting women employed in agriculture. There is new conviction among negotiators that poverty and livelihood issues [...]

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 [...]

Stumbled upon this worrisome article in reddit..
http://onthecommons.org | 17 Nov 2006 / Jonathan Rowe
In my wife’s dialect of kari-ya, spoken on the island of Panay, in the Philippines, there is a word, binhi, which refers to the grains of rice that are set aside and used as seeds in the next planting season. There is [...]

This is big! and its all over the net. From IHT
GENEVA: A high-level summit meeting to salvage a global trade pact collapsed Tuesday after the United States, China and India failed to compromise on farm import rules, according to trade officials.
Trade diplomats, who were not authorized to speak publicly, said that the meeting of seven [...]

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 [...]

HA NOI — The agriculture sector will put in maximum efforts to increase the area of hybrid rice to 70 per cent of the country’s total rice area by 2010, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Bui Ba Bong in a meeting of the ministry on Wednesday held to discuss the result of [...]

IHT| By Keith Bradsher and Andrew Martin | Published: June 30, 2008
At least 29 countries have sharply curbed food exports in recent months, to ensure that their own people have enough to eat, at affordable prices.
When it comes to rice, India, Vietnam, China and 11 other countries have limited or banned exports. Fifteen countries, including [...]

For TechTuesday, we are very excited to try out the new version of FrontlineSMS. I’ve been having fun toying with the previous version and am now looking forward to testing the new version on a suitable popular campaign here in the Philippines.
Visit Kiwanja.net- developers of the app and download frontlinesms here.

For TechTuesday, we have an announcement from MobileActive.org requesting for proposals on mobile applications.
To be held in Johannesburg, South Africa from October 13-15, MobileActive08 will convene practitioners, researchers, technologists, and donors to explore how mobile technology is being used to advance social development and the work of NGOs. SANGONeT and MobileActive.org invite interested individuals to [...]

MarketMonday presents this very useful writeup by the PhilRice team on how to increase income through implementing effective rice marketing strategies.Palay seeds should not stay long in warehouses. They should reach the market at once.
After three to four months of labor in the ricefield, the farmer’s much awaited benefit comes next. It is the selling [...]

Our good friend Conchi Quintana from WRF shared this interesting update on the rice crisis (from the BBC NEWS) affecting asian countries.
Asian countries have been struggling to cope as the cost of rice has reached record levels. The price of the staple crop has risen by as much as 70% during the last year, according [...]

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 [...]

i stumbled upon Mr. Kees Blockland’s very informative blog while googling for vietnam farmers. Kees’ blog “collects stories from all over the world on farmers fighting poverty and comments on the efforts of farmers worldwide in building their own development”

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

The Board of Trustees (BOT) of AWCF has appointed Ms Kruewan Boonrin Chonlanai of the Credit Union League of Thailand, Ltd. (CULT), Thailand as its new Chairperson. Ms Kruewan has been working for CULT for almost 18 years now starting as Training Staff of the Education Department (1990-1994), then became Education Manager (1995-2004), then Executive [...]