Farming First Press Release in Recognition of International Day of Biological Diversity:
Farming First calls on governments to enable agricultural innovation and empower farmers to safeguard the world’s biodiversity while increasing global food production.
Sustainable agricultural production needs to be achieved through both accelerated research programmes and broader uptake of existing technologies by farmers. Public-private partnerships are key
In the Cuchumatanes Highlands in Guatemala, The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has been supporting a rural community development project.
The project aims to improve the livelihoods of 22,000 families with incomes below the poverty line. A needs analysis demonstrated that one of the problems in the area was poor handling and application of crop
The fertilizer company, PotashCorp (PCS) teamed up with the government of Trinidad and Tobago, where their largest ammonia-based fertilizer production facility is located, to build a demonstration farm and research centre. The PCS Model Farm and Agricultural Resource Centre is a 75-acre educational and demonstration farm designed to help teach Trinidadian farmers, extension workers, and
Unilever has been an active proponent of schemes to broaden the supply-base and support local livelihoods, particularly in its tea and palm-oil estates.
Allanblackia plant
Lipton/Unilever Tea has a partnership with Rainforest Alliance on sustainability certification. Another partnership with Tanzania Forest Conservation Group, Ministry of Natural Resources, World Agroforestry Centre and the World Conservation Union also promotes
CNFA established credit insurance in 2001 in Malawi to guarantee repayment of half of the money borrowed by agricultural input retailers to stock their shops.
This greatly expanded the number of rural distributors and decreased the distances farmers travelled to obtain inputs, sometimes quite dramatically, resulting in savings in both time and travel costs.
By 2005, retailers
