African smallholder farmers are in the eye of the climate change storm. Increased flooding and droughts have seen crop yields diminish as many farmers struggle to support their own livelihoods. With over 70 percent of the continent’s populations dependent on agriculture, this is a problem which cannot be ignored. While Africa contributes less than 3
This year’s Chatham House Food Security conference saw some of the most influential speakers in agricultural development coming together to discuss the current pressures and challenges faced by farmers around the world.
The two-day conference held last week, of which Farming First was a media partner, heard from IFAD’s president, Kanayo Nwanze, UN Assistant Secretary General
Recent commitments of financial resources to boost agriculture and food security made by the international community in various forums indicate that there is scope for optimism in feeding the future population. Yet how to implement these programmes successfully is still up for debate.
Such were the discussions at a high-level panel discussion, ‘From summit resolutions to
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.
Edward Kateyia – IFAP/Kenya National Federation of Agricultural
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
Kanayo Nwanze, the President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has urged a meeting of African finance ministers to “nourish their agriculture sectors” if they hope to mitigate the impacts of a global economic downturn.
Nwanze said:
Resuming economic growth, resolving the food crisis and tackling the challenge of poverty must necessarily be based on
