BALKANS: Farming Prospers as Farmers Suffer
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Mar 16 (IPS) – Official statistics put Serbian agriculture as the single most productive branch of the economy and one that not only survived the financial meltdown but chalked up a record trade surplus of almost a billion US dollars in 2009.
With the start [...]
TANZANIA: Weather Changes Turn Farming into Gamble with Nature
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Denis Gathanju
DAR-ES-SALAAM, Mar 10 (IPS) – Changes in weather patterns have turned agriculture into a gamble with nature for Tanzanian farmers. Prolonged droughts and floods have made the lives of small-scale farmers, who don’t have access to irrigation, extremely difficult.
In Tanzania, where the economy is largely driven [...]
UN Warns Against Over-Dependence On GMOs
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IDN
By Maria Luisa Vargas
IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
MEXICO CITY (IDN) – Some nine billion people are expected to inhabit the planet earth by 2050. This growth forecast is giving rise to the question how the growing number of people will be fed. The biotech industry sees no problem [...]
ZIMBABWE: Water Scarcity No Obstacle To Bulawayo Farmers
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Jan 22 (IPS) – A project in Zimbabwe’s second city, Bulawayo, is creatively using ”marginal water” to ease water scarcity while helping residents provide food and earn a living.
Water scarcity has led urban farmers to turn to treated waste water to grow food within the [...]
DEVELOPMENT: Climate Change Likely to Increase African Hunger Woes
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Julio Godoy
BERLIN, Nov 18 (IPS) – Africa, the continent already most affected by hunger and food scarcity, is likely to see its woes increased due to climate change and the changing rain patterns it provokes, experts and scientists say.
According to data gathered by the German Institute [...]
DEVELOPMENT: To Grab, Or To Invest
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Analysis by Paul Virgo
ROME, Nov 18 (IPS) – The World Food Security Summit in Rome this week opened up a dispute between what may be investment in farmland to some, but is seen as land grab by others.
There has been widespread alarm at a recent acceleration in [...]
AGRICULTURE: Exporting Afghanistan
Global Analyst Online – Global News Blog / IPS
P.J. Tobia
KABUL, Nov 17 (IPS) – The 60 hectare stretch of farmland in north Kabul’s Badam Bagh neighbourhood looks much like farmland all over this country. Colourful rows of neatly planted crops stretch out from a dusty road and up the gentle slope of an [...]
AGRICULTURE-ZIMBABWE: New Methods to Maximise Yields
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Vusumuzi Sifile
GURUVE, Zimbabwe, Nov 12 (IPS) – Last season, for the first time in her more than 20 years as a farmer, Elizabeth Runema harvested her maize crop at the beginning of February.
Many farmers get a first harvest in February, but for Runema this was never possible [...]
BRAZIL: Green Beans to Go, Roast Coffee Grounded
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 11 (IPS) – For over a century and a half, Brazil has led the world in green coffee bean production and exports, without ever achieving similar success with processed beans. Some of the internal and external hurdles reflect the dilemma of reliance on [...]
Q&A: ”One Can’t Work 18 Hours a Day and Still be Poor”
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Isolda Agazzi interviews BABACAR NDAO, West African farmer
GENEVA, Nov 9 (IPS) – Given the billions of dollars and euros that the U.S. and EU spend on trade-distorting support measures and the intractable lobby groups demanding these subsidies, these rich states’ promises to reduce such amounts will come to [...]
MEXICO: Women Package the Sweet Taste of Nostalgia
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Emilio Godoy
AYOQUEZCO, Mexico, Nov 7 (IPS) – Years ago, when Catalina Sánchez saw an opportunity to earn an income and improve her family’s living conditions by growing and selling nopales – an edible cactus native to Mexico – she probably never imagined that her idea would spawn [...]
SIERRA LEONE: New Dawn for Small Farmers?
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Mohamed Fofanah
FREETOWN, Nov 4 (IPS) – They call her ”Marie Nerica”, after a new breed of rice.
But Marie Kamara wanted nothing to do with the new strain of rice developed by award-winning Sierra Leonean researcher Monty Jones, was introduced in her area by Sierra Leone’s ministry of [...]
AGRICULTURE-SENEGAL: Groundnut Production in Freefall
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Koffigan E. Adigbli
KAOLACK, Senegal, Nov 3 (IPS) – Farmers are complaining about a lack of technical assistance and the poor quality of seeds they’ve planted this year in the Kaolack region, Senegal’s groundnut-producing area, 200 kilometres south of the capital Dakar.
The production of groundnuts, Senegal’s third-largest export [...]
COTE D’IVOIRE: Without Better Storage, We Are Farming to Feed Insects
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Fulgence Zamblé
BONDOUKOU, Côte d’Ivoire, Oct 31 (IPS) – Every year, Robert Assalé, a farmer at Tangamourou in the Bondoukou region in east-central Côte d’Ivore, produces an impressive amount of yams. He harvested 30 tonnes in 2007, 42 tonnes in 2008 and has almost surpassed 50 tonnes this year. [...]
AGRICULTURE-KENYA: Finally, a Windfall for Tea Farmers
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
Suleiman Mbatiah
NAIROBI, Oct 30 (IPS) – Despite the sweltering sun and with a heavy load on her back Mary Muthoni strides to the tea buying centre with joy and pride painted on her face. ”This is a different year,” she smiles, hurriedly greeting other women farmers at the [...]
WATER-BOTSWANA: A Garden In the Heart of the Village
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS
By Nicholas Mokwena & Terna Gyuse
MOKOBENG, Botswana, Oct 24 (IPS) – Look, there’s no drama with the borehole in Mokobeng. And that’s the way it should be.
The village of Mokobeng has just fewer than 3,000 people staying here. Most people in Mokobeng, they are seasonal farmers. They [...]
