As part of GCARD 2010, Farming First hosted a session entitled ‘Better Benefiting the Poor through Public-Private Partnerships for Innovation and Action.’ Within the discussions, our panel of experts addressed several case studies that present different ways that partnerships have helped to empower smallholder farmers around the world.
Marco Ferroni – Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable
Over the weekend mainland China and Taiwan produced a common initiative on cooperation in the agriculture sector. More than 220 officials, experts and representatives from agriculture, fishery and water resources joined the meeting. Chinese state media Xinhua has more:
The two sides will promote the development of new-type agriculture, encourage cooperation in agricultural biotechnology industry, and work
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has just launched an interactive world map highlighting some of the many success stories in agricultural development from around the world. It is part of a wider upcoming launch of their newest publication, Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development, which will be released on 12 November.
The interactive
Across Asia, millions of rice farmers depend on urea fertilizer to meet the nitrogen needs of the continent’s primary crop. Many farmers still spread urea into floodwaters to fertilize rice. This is highly inefficient – about two-thirds of the fertilizer is lost as greenhouse gas or becomes a groundwater pollutant.
Urea deep placement (UDP) is a
As a response to methane emission from rice production being flagged as part of the global climate debate, Thailand’s agricultural ministry, as reported in the Bangkok Post, has prioritised its research efforts towards developing climate-friendly rice strains.
Prasert Gosalvitra, Director General of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives’ Rice Department said:
We are developing a number of
In March 2008, the Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) launched a project to leverage communication technology, in particular mobile telephony, to disseminate expert agricultural knowledge to small-scale farmers in rural India. The newly created business, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), is a joint venture between one of India’s largest retailer of agri-inputs (IFFCO) and
