Development Blogs.com

from IRIN News A new organization will help to provide high quality seeds to farmers thought Asia. - KaleIt brings together private and public sector producers in 10 ECO countries - Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.ECO, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) worked closely with member countries prior to the formation of the association on 18 July.“The main purpose of establishing this association is to create a forum for public-private sector partnership in the seed trade among ECO member countries. The association will represent the interests of the seed industry; facilitate dialogue with government; and put in place...

The word "crisis" is much abused. But the current food price crisis constitutes a genuine emergency. Urgency in tackling it is essential....(read more)...

from IRIN NewsADDIS ABABA, 7 April 2008 (IRIN) - Tayech Ali arrived half an hour before the grain distribution centre in Gojam Berenda, in the capital, Addis Ababa, opened, but still had to queue for three hours before she could buy some wheat."I cannot afford to buy wheat from the market," Tayech, a single mother of five, told IRIN. "It is too expensive."A beneficiary of an Ethiopian government programme that supplies 25kg of subsidised wheat monthly to low-income urban dwellers, Tayech has experienced this routine every two months since the initiative started in March 2007.She qualified for the programme because she is a widow and former street vegetable vendor with no regular income. Standing in the queue at the grain distribution centre - one of 77 in the capital - Tayech said she was...

Rising food prices are very much in the news.  Farmers may gain, but poor consumers are hard hit – and don’t hesitate to let the politicians know. Governments and aid agencies are under pressure to provide more robust safety nets, while simultaneously facing higher costs. This has played out in various ways.  On 25 February, The Financial Times led on an interview with Josette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the World Food Programme, under the headline ‘High food prices may force aid...(read...

Last week, I attended the World Economic Forum in Davos. This is the second of five blogs with my reflections and predictions on how the debates will be taken forward in 2008. (see my first blog - 'Global corporate citizenship in 2008')Substantively, my enduring memory is of the profile given to hunger and malnutrition, with Robert Zoellick (WB) and Josette Sheeran (WFP) both mounting major public initiatives on the ‘forgotten MDG’. Elsewhere in these Davos blogs I consider the power of story....(read...

from The Mail and GuardianPeter Apps | London, United KingdomA "perfect storm" of drought, conflict and rising costs has increased the ranks of the chronically hungry by millions of people, and forced aid workers to find and fund longer-term solutions to the food crisis.The United Nations says the number of chronically hungry people worldwide rises by an average of four million each year.At the same time global fuel prices have soared, pushing up road transport costs and global maritime shipping rates.The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) says the cost of cereals has risen 50% over the past five years, which experts say is due to the world's growing population -- particularly in non-food producing urban areas -- combined with bad harvests and an increased demand for cereal products in...

from IRIN NewsJOHANNESBURG, 9 February 2007 (IRIN) - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has suggested major reforms in the way food aid is managed and distributed in its annual report."In many cases, food aid is used because it is the only available resource, not because it is the best solution to the problem at hand. Increased and more flexible resources are needed to address food insecurity," said Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the FAO.Food aid should not be linked, either explicitly or implicitly, to commercial transactions or services in the donor country, the report proposed, reiterating what most development agencies, such as Oxfam, have been saying for years.The 2006 'State of Food and Agriculture (SOFA)' report, released in January, recommended that aid...

from All AfricaThis Day (Lagos) ANALYSISMax Amuchie LagosThe role of agriculture in addressing the continent's economic development is a foregone conclusion. Business as usual will not improve food productivity on the continent. Africa needs to change its ways in order to be able to feed its people and ensure its main source of economic development - agriculture - grows and develops. Prosperity by the farmer will influence economic growth and the management and handling of other factors such as infrastructure. Innovative agriculture, acquired through novel relationships with technology developers, and developed through mutually satisfactory relationships with partners in research, development and commercialisation, should lead to prosperity for the smallholder farmer, to food security...

Gender and Civic* ZAW promotes the enhancement of the postion of women (women's rights, women and inheritence, women and education, women and development etc.)* ZAW advocates for good governence and the promotion of peace.* ZAW works in conjunction with other NGO's on other vital issues such as the promotion of CEDAW - The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.Environmental and Sustainable Development* ZAW conducts sensitisation and training workshops in the areas of environment and health, educating communities about waste management and the disposal of urban and peri-urban waste.Social and Economic* ZAW promotes poverty eradication through food security programmes and other potentially income generating activities.* ZAW carries out and supports...

Gender and Civic* ZAW promotes the enhancement of the postion of women (women's rights, women and inheritence, women and education, women and development etc.)* ZAW advocates for good governence and the promotion of peace.* ZAW works in conjunction with other NGO's on other vital issues such as the promotion of CEDAW - The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.Environmental and Sustainable Development* ZAW conducts sensitisation and training workshops in the areas of environment and health, educating communities about waste management and the disposal of urban and peri-urban waste.Social and Economic* ZAW promotes poverty eradication through food security programmes and other potentially income generating activities.* ZAW carries out and supports...

Gender and Civic* ZAW promotes the enhancement of the postion of women (women's rights, women and inheritence, women and education, women and development etc.)* ZAW advocates for good governence and the promotion of peace.* ZAW works in conjunction with other NGO's on other vital issues such as the promotion of CEDAW - The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.Environmental and Sustainable Development* ZAW conducts sensitisation and training workshops in the areas of environment and health, educating communities about waste management and the disposal of urban and peri-urban waste.Social and Economic* ZAW promotes poverty eradication through food security programmes and other potentially income generating activities.* ZAW carries out and supports...

Gender and Civic* ZAW promotes the enhancement of the postion of women (women's rights, women and inheritence, women and education, women and development etc.)* ZAW advocates for good governence and the promotion of peace.* ZAW works in conjunction with other NGO's on other vital issues such as the promotion of CEDAW - The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.Environmental and Sustainable Development* ZAW conducts sensitisation and training workshops in the areas of environment and health, educating communities about waste management and the disposal of urban and peri-urban waste.Social and Economic* ZAW promotes poverty eradication through food security programmes and other potentially income generating activities.* ZAW carries out and supports...

Gender and Civic* ZAW promotes the enhancement of the postion of women (women's rights, women and inheritence, women and education, women and development etc.)* ZAW advocates for good governence and the promotion of peace.* ZAW works in conjunction with other NGO's on other vital issues such as the promotion of CEDAW - The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.Environmental and Sustainable Development* ZAW conducts sensitisation and training workshops in the areas of environment and health, educating communities about waste management and the disposal of urban and peri-urban waste.Social and Economic* ZAW promotes poverty eradication through food security programmes and other potentially income generating activities.* ZAW carries out and supports...

L'objectif de ce répertoire est d'aider les chercheurs qui se consacrent à la sécurité alimentaire et aux politiques alimentaires en Afrique à trouver des sources de données et d'informations sur le Web et d'améliorer leurs compétences professionnelles au niveau de la recherche et de la diffusion des politiques. Tags: agricultural information africa food security...

The objective of this directory is to assist African food security and food policy researchers to find important and high quality internet sources of data and information and to improve their professional skills for research and policy outreach. Tags: agricultural information africa food security...