How to promote investments that genuinely support local people? (IIED)

Read at : Land Degradation Announcement List <land-l@lists.iisd.ca>

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is proud to announce its latest Briefing Paper:

New IIED Briefing Paper

Farms and funds: investment funds in the global land rush
Abbi Buxton, Mark Campanale, Lorenzo Cotula

Investment funds show a growing interest in farmland and agriculture. They are buying up land and agribusinesses in developing countries with the expectation of high long-term returns linked to rising land prices, growing populations and increasing demand for food. While the media has reported extensively on the involvement of these funds in the global land rush, the mechanics remain little understood by the broader public. What is the interest and what is driving it? Who are the players and what processes do their investment decisions go through? What are the impacts in recipient countries? And what action can be taken to promote investments that genuinely support local people?

Kate Wilson
Publications & Marketing Manager
Follow us on twitter: https://twitter.com/IIED

International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
80-86 Gray’s Inn Road
London
WC1X 8NH,
United Kingdom

MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN IN YEMEN (UNICEF)

UNICEF WARNS ON HIGH RATES OF MALNUTRITION AMONG CHILDREN IN YEMEN

New York, Jan 25 2012  1:05PM

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned that half a million children in Yemen could die or suffer physical and mental damage as a result of malnutrition, unless sufficient resources are made available to alleviate the effects of conflict, chronic poverty and drought.

“Malnutrition is preventable… therefore, inaction is unconscionable,” Maria Calivis, UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a <”http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/media_61408.html”>statement yesterday after a two-day visit to Yemen.

Moonlight photos of the drought in Africa (Google / Oxfam)

Read at : Google Alert – images of the Africa Drought

http://firstperson.oxfamamerica.org/index.php/2012/01/26/alejandro-chaskielbergs-moonlight-photos-too-beautiful/

Alejandro Chaskielberg’s moonlight photos: Too beautiful?

Do an acclaimed photographer’s images for Oxfam bring attention to the drought in Kenya, or do they risk putting too much gloss on one of the world’s biggest crises?

Judging from the comments on our Facebook wall, many of you liked the stunning new photos taken in Turkana, Kenya, by Alejandro Chaskielberg. The acclaimed Argentinian art photographer traveled to the region with Oxfam to take portraits of people affected by the recent East Africa drought and food crisis. Last week the photos were featured in a slideshow on BBC News, raising awareness of both the crisis and Oxfam’s ongoing response.

In most of the photos, Chaskielberg used his trademark technique of shooting by moonlight, illuminating these scenes of herders and their families with a dramatic, unearthly glow. The results are memorable (and newsworthy) because they’re so distinctive.

However, when we saw how the photos came out, some of my Oxfam colleagues loved them, but others gave them mixed reviews.

Desertification in Bangladesh (Google / New Age)

Read at : Google Alert – desertification

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/op-ed/48235.html

Northern region at risk of desertification

Mindless withdrawal of river water and unbridled extraction of groundwater are to blame, Professor ASM Woobaid Ullah of the Delta Research Centre at Dhaka University tells New Age

by Shahidul Islam Chowdhury

MINDLESS withdrawal of river water and unbridled extraction of groundwater have put the northern region at a risk of desertification, says Professor ASM Woobaid Ullah, director of the Delta Research Centre at Dhaka University.

However, due to fund constraints, the centre, which came into being in 1991, has not been able to conduct any in-depth research into the formation of land in Bangladesh and desertification, he said in an interview with New Age on Tuesday.

The largest ‘living’  delta and its geological phenomena provide a large and rich area for geological research, the kind of research necessary for infrastructure design, risk reduction, and resources optimisation, which can ensure the well-being and prosperity of over 160 million residents of the delta., he added.

Excerpts:

Bangladesh is called a living delta created by silt carried by rivers. Observers often say that the rivers are dying. What would be its impact?

It is true that Bangladesh is a living delta as rivers flowing through the land have carried silt for millions of years. Most of the 54 major rivers have entered into Bangladesh, an almost horizontal floodplain, from mountains and hills in upper riparian countries including India, Myanmar and China.

Silt carried by rivers becomes deposited on riverbeds. Shoals are created in this process.  Now many rivers are dying due to natural and human interventions.

Unbridled and unplanned human interventions, including constructing dams, embankments and roads and encroachment into the rivers, in both upper and lower riparian countries, have expedited the process of siltation drastically reducing the river flows and the capacity of a river to carry silt.

Most of the rivers are flowing from north to south while most of the roads are constructed from east to west obstructing the riverbeds.

(continued)

Recovery from Forest Fire in Chile (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106519

CHILE

Recovery from Forest Fire Could Take 80 Years

By Pamela Sepúlveda

SANTIAGO, Jan 23, 2012 (IPS) – “It’s extremely serious, a full-blown environmental catastrophe,” environmentalist Sara Larrain told IPS, describing the impact of the fire that has been raging through the Torres del Paine National Park in Chilean Patagonia since Dec. 27.

The flames, fanned by high winds, took hold in a remote, hard-to- reach area and ravaged 16,000 hectares of natural vegetation, which park authorities told IPS will take eight decades to grow back to its former state.

The zone is now on amber alert, following the forest fire red alert declared in late December by the interior ministry’s National Emergency Office (ONEMI) at the request of the state National Forestry Corporation (CONAF).

At least 200 workers are fighting the blaze in the affected area, including CONAF brigades, the armed forces and police. Volunteer “brigadistas” from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have also joined the cooperative effort.

The Torres del Paine National Park, one of Chile’s major natural resources and a spectacular tourist attraction, is located over 3,000 km south of the capital city in the province of Última Esperanza in Magallanes region, between the massif of the Andes mountain range and the semi-arid Patagonian steppe.

Its total area is almost 200,000 hectares. It was declared a World Biosphere Reserve by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1978.

The latest official report indicates that the fire has damaged native lenga or lenga beech (Nothofagus pumilio) and ñirre or Antarctic beech (Nothofagus antarctica) forests, matorral (shrubland) and steppe ecosystems. CONAF and tourist concession buildings have also suffered fire damage.

(continued)

Drought in Argentina (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106562

ARGENTINA

Drought Threat Looms Again

By Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Jan 26, 2012 (IPS) – The low humidity in Argentina’s most agriculturally productive region has already caused a decline in grain yield – in particular corn and soybean – with ensuing losses for producers and the government.

So far, this austral summer’s drought has been less intense than the one that affected the 2008-2009 harvest. That drought, which was the worst in the last 100 years, caused a more than 37-percent drop in agricultural production and resulted in livestock losses.

However, and even with the respite afforded by the rains that finally fell in recent days, grain production, exports and revenue collection are expected to fall.

Cereals account for 38 percent of all foreign sales in Argentina, not counting agricultural processed goods.

“A record production of 111 million tonnes of grain had been projected for this year, but with the current lack of rainfall, estimates are down to 97 million for now,” analyst Gustavo López, of the consultancy firm Agritrend Argentina, told IPS.

López said that right now the “most compromised” grain was corn, with marked losses that could not be reversed even if heavy rains came, and he could not rule out the possibility that the 2008-2009 losses would be repeated.

Argentina is the second largest corn exporter in the world after the United States. In 2011, 23 million tonnes of corn were harvested, and 29 million were initially projected for this year, but López said a more accurate estimate now would be 22 million, at best.

The ministry of agriculture has already earmarked nearly 120 million dollars for an emergency fund to provide financial aid to small farmers who suffer the greatest losses.

Rural entrepreneurs say production has fallen as much as 30 percent in some areas, while in others the impact is much less or none at all. What is certain is that, contrary to what was projected, this year’s overall agricultural output will not exceed the 103 million tonnes of 2011.

(continued)

Moringa could help arid nations to fight food insecurity and malnutrition (IPS)

Read at :

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=106539

Miracle Tree is Like a Supermarket

By Kristin Palitza

CAPE TOWN, Jan 25, 2012 (IPS) – When a food crisis hits the continent, African countries tend to look to the international donor community to mobilise aid. But a fast-growing, drought-resistant tree with extremely nutritious leaves could help poor, arid nations to fight food insecurity and malnutrition on their own.

A 15-hectare plantation of the “miracle tree” with the botanical name Moringa oleifera has already started to make a positive change in the rural village of Tooseng, which is located in one of South Africa’s poorest provinces, Limpopo.

Moringa leaves are dubbed a “super food” because scientists found that they contain the calcium equivalent of four glasses of milk, the vitamin C content of seven oranges, the potassium of three bananas, three times the amount of iron found in spinach, four times the amount of vitamin A found in a carrot and twice the amount of protein in milk. It is like a supermarket on a tree.

(continued)

Are these five media innovations really working to reduce hunger ? (WorldWatch Institute / Willem Van Cotthem’s comment)

Read at :

Five Media Innovations that Help Feed the Planet

“Worldwatch researchers offered a diverse selection of sustainability posts last week. In this one, we discussed five media innovations that are working to reduce hunger around the world. In this post, we discussed new environmental initiatives in China, including a Working Plan to Control Greenhouse Gas Emissions, to achieve the country’s energy and carbon emission intensity targets. And in this entry, we discussed the Jordan Valley Permaculture Program, which is using permaculture to re-green the Dead Sea Valley in Jordan.”

(continued)

Robert Engelman
President
Worldwatch Institute
http://www.worldwatch.org/

=================================================

Five Media Innovations That Help Feed the Planet

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/five-media-innovations-that-help-feed-the-planet/

By Isaac Hopkins

As modern technology is adopted in widespread regions of our planet, it can provide poor people with access to many forms of media. Innovations like the internet and satellite technology are changing the face of food system solutions in even the poorest countries.

Today, Nourishing the Planet introduces five forms of media that can use the power of information to combat hunger.

1. Television: Access to television is expanding all over the planet. ……………….

2. Videos: Airing informational programs may not always be the most efficient way to put television sets to work to feed people. …………………..

3. Community Websites: The foundation of successful and sustainable growth in food production is communication. …………………..

4. News Media Partnerships: News media, from local papers to international corporations, wield incredible power through the information that they distribute. ………………

5. Mobile Phones: ……………….  “With subscription services like daily weather and crop market updates, major service providers are utilizing this emerging form of media to aid farmers in making smart decisions.”

Isaac Hopkins is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project.

=====================

MY COMMENT  (Willem Van Cotthem)

Needless to confirm that (1) television, (2) videos, (3) websites, (4) news media partnerships and (5) mobile phones may “wield an incredible power through the information that they distribute“.

But, how are they helping to feed the planet ?

(1) Television : “……………. so thousands of Kenyans have learned a new method of increasing production by watching a soap opera!“

(2) Videos : ” …………….. farmer-to-farmer videos go beyond traditional training videos by fully explaining the techniques and why they work.“

(3) Community websites : ” …………….. Individual communities have begun to implement websites that foster open transfer of ideas and innovation throughout the community“.

(4) News Media Partnerships : ” ……………..  They are working to directly link farmers, researchers, and policy-makers, so that they can quickly implement and scale up innovations and policies that will provide food security for these countries. ………. an “important information hub on agricultural related issues.”

(5) Mobile Phones : “………………  With subscription services like daily weather and crop market updates, major service providers are utilizing this emerging form of media to aid farmers in making smart decisions”

================

For decades already international and national efforts have been produced and trillions of dollars have been spent at combating hunger, but more than 1 billion impoverished people are still living constantly in a situation of hunger or malnutrition.

It goes without saying that many members of the international community have a considerable interest in helping to feed the planet :

• through soap operas at television,
• through a choice of videos on low- and high-tech farming techniques,
• through community websites for the poorest,
• through partnerships between policy-makers, researchers and farmers to implement and scale up innovations providing food security,
• through messages on weather forecast and market opportunities on the mobile phones of the 1 billion hungry.

Maybe I overlooked something in this fairy tale about all these poor people having a television set, a computer and a mobile phone ?  Maybe I don’t understand how these hungry people are getting something to eat before they are watching the soap opera or the videos at their television set ?  Aren’t they hungry anymore when sitting at night in front of their computer to study the community website ?  Who’s paying for the use of their cheap mobile phones to listen to the weather forecast or to read SMS messages about the market and banking conditions in their village ?

Please tell me where my reasoning is wrong when I am thinking that a kitchen garden for every family, a school garden for every school, a hospital garden for every medical center, bottle towers on every balcony in the cities or in every small backyard, are dramatically stronger tools to combat hunger than “innovations like the internet and satellite technology… changing the face of food system solutions in even the poorest countries by providing communities with important information. “

I remain convinced that the most valuable information on food system solutions is totally useless for a person with an empty stomach.

Instead of offering these poor hungry people technological innovations, for which they will have to pay, we should teach them how to grow their own food at home and give their children decent, vitamin-rich meals, instead of a handful of carbohydrates with some sauce.

A constantly growing number of people, both in rural and in urban areas, is showing that container gardening is the highway to a better food-secure future.  That’s the good news for the media.

2011 : Bottle tower gardening, the most affordable technique to grow food at home for every person on earth (Photo WVC)

2011 : Lettuce, celery, any vegetable, any herb can be grown in containers, recycled bottles, pots, buckets, sacks, ... That's combating hunger in every backyard or house, on all the continents, in villages, towns and cities, everywhere (Photo WVC)

High-tech versus low-tech agriculture (The Seattle Times)

Read at :

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2017322825_apusfoodandfarmgates.html

Gates defends focus on high-tech agriculture

By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP

Associated Press

KIRKLAND, Wash. —

Bill Gates has a terse response to criticism that the high-tech solutions he advocates for world hunger are too expensive or bad for the environment: Countries can embrace modern seed technology and genetic modification or their citizens will starve.

When he was in high school in the 1960s, people worried there wouldn’t be enough food to feed the world, Gates recalled in his fourth annual letter, which was published online Tuesday. But the “green revolution,” which transformed agriculture with high-yield crop varieties and other innovations, warded off famine.

Gates is among those who believe another, similar revolution is needed now. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has spent about $2 billion in the past five years to fight poverty and hunger in Africa and Asia, and much of that money has gone toward improving agricultural productivity.

Gates doesn’t apologize for his endorsement of modern agriculture or sidestep criticism of genetic modification. He told The Associated Press that he finds it ironic that most people who oppose genetic engineering in plant breeding live in rich nations that he believes are responsible for global climate change that will lead to more starvation and malnutrition for the poor.

(continued)

Online:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: http://www.gatesfoundation.org

Center for Food Safety: http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/

—

Associated Press writer Donna Blankinship can be reached at http://twitter.com/dgblankinship

Desertification of deserts (Google / Coursework.info)

Read at : Google Alert – desertification

http://www.coursework.info/International_Baccalaureate/Geography/Desertification_of_Sahara_and_Gobi_deser_L937308.html

Desertification of Sahara and Gobi desert

Desertification of Sahara and Gobi desert The planet Earth has many ecological problems, from small ones to very severe; some of them are not caused by humans although the biggest part of the ecological problems is created by human activity. It seems very illogical that we destroy our mother Earth the planet which is one and only home to us. We pollute the air we breathe, the water we drink and what is more we destroy animal habitat and also our habitat, the earth on which we build our houses. Destruction of the soil by human activity leads to many severe problems from degradation of the soil from farming, trough destruction from heavy machines used in agriculture to the soil erosion itself. Soil erosion can cause many problems and has a very bad influence on a fertility of the soil; it also causes a very severe problem which is desertification. Desertification is a huge problem in the areas around the deserts it destroys the habitat of people and animals and creates a new group of refugees, so called environmental refugees. Desertification is a consequence of unwise usage of the land in semi- arid and arid areas, it is created manly by humans and we have to fight it because it destroys the land, habitat and cultures.

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