Agriculture is crucial to India’s economy, as it provides 23% of GDP and employs 66% of the workforce. However, most of India’s poorest people are subsistence farmers who have little or no access no technology and markets for their produce. Farmers lack knowledge on which markets to target and what price to charge.
Deepa Bachu, Director
Chili farmers in Andra Pradesh used to lose up to 40 percent of their harvest to pest infestations. With poor quality crops, farmers failed to secure high prices in the market. In addition, excessive use of crop protection products resulted in high pesticide residue levels in produce, compromising food safety and risking rejection for export.
Muvva
Ajay Shriram, the President of the International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) will be speaking next week at the Interactive Hearings on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), on behalf of Farming First.
On 14th and 15th June, the UN General Assembly will gather in New York with representatives of international NGOs, civil society organisations and the private
Women play a vital, but often ignored, role in addressing hunger. Whilst a large proportion of farmers in the developing world are female, many lack voice and organisation. To boost women smallholders’ productivity and reduce their vulnerability to various challenges, women need to be able to access and apply appropriate training for rural livelihoods.
A recent project
The Gates Foundation has provided this video to show how one of their grantees’ low-cost treadle pumps are helping Indian farmers access irrigated water for their crops.
These water pumps are supplied by International Development Enterprises (IDE). They are designed to be cost-effective and low-maintenance, with only one part needed to be changed each year at
Recent data released by the UNESCO Institute of Statistics(UIS) indicates that the global technology gap has been shrinking from 2002 to 2007, but the poorest countries still lag far behind.
According to a recent article on scidev.net by its director David Dickson, global trends indicate that emerging economies such as China, India, and Brazil are accelerating
