After attending the G8 summit in Italy earlier last week, President Obama immediately flew down to Ghana, in his first visit to sub-Saharan Africa since being elected President.
Obama’s trips to Italy and Ghana both served to demonstrate his public support for an increased focus on the needs of farmers, particularly those without sufficient access to
IFDC has joined the group of organisations supporting the Farming First plan.
IFDC – an International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development – is a public international organization addressing critical issues such as international food security, the alleviation of global poverty, environmental protection and the promotion of economic development and self-sufficiency. IFDC is helping to
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
A recently published report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has announced that the total population of those going hungry has surpassed the 1 billion person mark for the first time in history.
“A dangerous mix of the global economic slowdown combined with stubbornly high food prices in many countries has pushed some 100 million
Africa is the only region in the world where hunger is worsening and per capita food production has stagnated over the last three decades. All research has clearly pointed out the necessity to invest in infrastructure building to unleash Africa’s agricultural potential, as highlighted in Principle 3 of the Farming First plan.
Traditionally, the public sector
In May 2009, Farming First (www.farmingfirst.org) interviewed Mr. Idrissa Mwale, Principal Economist at the Ministry of Agriculture in Malawi. Mr. Mwale has coordinated the country’s farm subsidy programme, which targets the most needy farming households with subsidised seed and fertilizer. The programme has produced record harvests over the past four years, which have
