Both seminars were received support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China and the provincial government units of Hubei and Sichuan Provinces.

In both seminars, Florante “Nonoy” Villas, AsiaDHRRA’s LSFM regional program manager shared AsiaDHRRA’s experience in anchoring ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community’s participatory process in drafting the 2011-2015 Framework  Action Plan for Rural Development and Poverty Eradication and AsiaDHRRA’s strategies, models and experiences in implementing the Linking Small Farmers to Markets.

IPRCC is an international anti-poverty organization established jointly by the Chinese Government and the United Nations Development Program and other international organizations in June 2005. IPRCC has committed to make contributions to poverty reduction in the world through the promotion of policy research, experience-sharing, knowledge exchange and South-South Cooperation in the field of poverty reduction and development.

IPRCC was established by the Chinese Government to provide a platform for various professionals and development practitioners from different developing countries to share theoretic studies and policy analysis and explore effective approaches for agricultural growth and rural development. It is one of the 5 new measures to assume China’s international responsibilities announced by China’s president Hu Jintao at the High-Level Meeting on Financing for Development, on the occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations. On June 22, 2004, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao delivered a keynote speech titled Promote Asian Cooperation in New Century at the Third Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue held in Qingdao in which he pointed out that strengthening regional cooperation is not only an important part of China’s new-era foreign policy but also the need of its own development.

“We, Indonesian people, representations of peasants, workers, migrant workers, fisher folk, indigenous people, women, students, urban poor, consumers, human rights activists, gather in Denpasar, Bali from 16-18 November 2011. We organize series of action to express our concerns on Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Bali.

ASEAN has become a free market, rent seeking and natural resources exploitation. The whole exploitation activities, with the interventions of the elites are now becoming official and more dangerous in global communities. With its close historical connection with the US and its allies, ASEAN is continuously used as a tool to implement the global capitalism agenda.”

Continue reading the declaration here…..

Participants come mainly from SOMRDPE focal agencies, other national agencies concerned with RDPE, and peoples’ organizations, CSOs and NGOs, resource agencies and other ASEAN national sectoral bodies.

The new RDPE FAP is subject to a regional SOMRDPE workshop at the ASEC HQ in August and for approval during the 7th AMRDPE in Nomber 2011 in Brunei Darussalam.

RDPE Consultation in Cambodia

RDPE Consultation in Malaysia

RDPE Consultation in Philippines

RDPE Consultation in Laos

RDPW Consultation in Thailand

MASIPAG-trained farmers have not used chemical pesticides for decades now, he said, with ducks for example an excellent natural control against golden snail; “it converts biomass into eggs and meat as well,” he observed.

MASIPAG organic farms, he said, average 6.7 tons of rice per hectare in North Cotabato, more than 7 tons per hectare in Laguna but only 5.1 tons per hectare in Surigao del Sur where soils are poor.

Edgardo S. Uychiat, president of the Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development Foundation, pointed out that in Bago, Negros Occidental, for example, a farmer averages 7 tons per hectare of organic rice compared with 6.3 tons per hectare for conventional rice farming.

A diversified organic farming system managed by Iliranan tribals at Mt. Kanlaon earns P332,000 in annual gross sales compared with P72,00 gross sales with traditional monocrop rice farming.

continue reading about why organic farming is cost-effective…

1. Provide background information on how the ADB operates
2. Analyze the ADB’s operations in two pilot countries (the Philippines and Indonesia) focusing on agriculture-related projects
3. In-depth analysis of two ADB projects on agriculture as case study (one per pilot country)
4. CSO participation in ADB processes

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The Economist

CELIA ORBOC, a cake-seller in the Philippines, spent her little stipend on a wooden shack, giving her five children a roof over their heads for the first time. In Kyrgyzstan Sharmant Oktomanova spent hers buying flour to feed six children. In Haiti President René Préval praises a dairy co-operative that gives mothers milk and yogurt when their children go to school.

These are examples of the world’s favourite new anti-poverty device, the conditional cash-transfer programme (CCT) in poor and middle-income countries. These schemes give stipends and food to the poorest if they meet certain conditions, such as that their children attend school, or their babies are vaccinated. Ten years ago there were a handful of such programmes and most were small. Now they are on every continent—even New York City has one—and they benefit millions.

Continue reading about why Conditional-cash transfers are good here….

The Rural Poverty Report 2011 is a comprehensive resource for policymakers and practitioners, especially those in developing countries.  The report looks at who poor rural people are, what they do and how their livelihoods are changing.  It explores the challenges that make it so difficult for rural people to overcome poverty, and identifies the opportunities and pathways that could lead towards greater prosperity for them and their communities.  And it highlights the policies and actions that governments and development practitioners can take to support the efforts of rural people themselves, both today and in the years to come.

Read the IFAD rural Poverty Report 2011…

There is a steady improvement in the social and economic status among Filipino rice farmers and their household for the last decade, according to a study conducted by the Socioeconomics Division (SED) of PhilRice.

The study Changing image of the Filipino rice farmer, led by Divina Gracia Vergara, focused on trends transpiring in rice-based farm households and rice lands, and among farmer operators in 33 provinces for the last ten years.

“This intensive study captures the farmers’ image from 1996 to 2007,” she said.

The study shows that the rice-based farm household income is increasing as gross household income raised from P68,974.85 in 1996-1997 to P127,799.95 in 2006-2007. The finding is also consistent with the result showing that almost 60 percent of the households are above poverty level (57 percent) in the 2006-2007.

continue reading about the PhilRice study showing Filipino rice farmers’ improved socioeconomic status …

“This year, I will not have enough rice to eat for the whole year,” says Kong Chanthorn, a rice farmer in Srayov Kharng Tbong village in Cambodia’s Kompong Thom province. “I am afraid I cannot earn the money to buy rice to support my families because this year its price is too high.”

Chanthorn is not alone. The global price of rice, a staple for half the world’s population, is rising inexorably again, up more than 25 percent in recent months, stoked by Philippine and Indian import demand although not to the stratospheric levels of late 2007 and early 2008. At that time the price rose from about US$300 per metric ton to as much as US$1,100. Prices later fell back to about US$400 as government panic subsided across the region and bans on export were lifted, and as planting pushed up stocks.

Read the whole article about the incoming rice crisis at Asia Sentinel…

MANILA, Philippines—Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) plans to allocate some $73 million for three proposed projects on coastal resource management, agribusiness and upland developments in the country.

According to project documents, the amount represented Ifad’s share in the cost of the three proposed programs, which are scheduled for implementation from 2010 to 2014.

Continue reading about IFAD’s $73M allocation for 3 projects in RP…