Farming Crisis: Filling An Empty Plate

CIENFUEGOS, Cuba

Goat Farming, a Growing Alternative in Cuba’s Reform Process

By Ivet González
Goat farming is becoming popular among farmers given land to use as part of the economic reforms implemented in Cuba since 2008. The increase in goat rearing, in provinces like Cienfuegos on the southern coast, could help expand the limited range of basic food products available to Cubans.

Cameroonian Farmers Find Justice in Fair Fruit

By Monde Kingsley Nfor
The fruit farmers in Njombe, a small town in the coastal Littoral Region of Cameroon, learned a life lesson about “making lemonade out of lemons” - or rather “dried fruit out of fruit” when their land was taken from them by the government and leased to an international farming company.

From Brazil’s Family Farm to the School Lunchroom Table

By Fabiana Frayssinet
Separating Maria Gomes Morais’ farm and a school in Rio de Janeiro are fields, hills and dirt roads that are impassable when it rains. But a school meal programme has forged a path linking the fresh produce harvested by small farmers like her with the need to provide nourishment to 45 million schoolchildren around Brazil.

Green-Fingered Mauritian Farmers Go Green

By Nasseem Ackbarally
By Kritanand Beeharry’s side are thousands of watermelon seedlings that he has grown in small pots without the use of chemical fertilisers. As the farmer prepares his half-hectare piece of land in Soreze, near Mauritius’ capital Port-Louis, to plant the two-week-old seedlings, he takes a minute to admire his achievement. “Look at these, they look solid and better grown -- it’s the compost,” he says.

Market Gardening Provides Livelihoods for Refugees in DR Congo

By Taylor Toeka Kakala
Standing behind her market stall in Masisu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which overflows with cabbages, carrots and onions, Marceline Dusabe does not fit the traditional profile of an internally displaced person. She, unlike many others displaced by the internal conflict in North Kivu, is not in need of food aid.

African Smallholder Farmers Need to Become Virus Detectors

By Wambi Michael
Unless African smallholder farmers, who comprise the majority of food growers on the continent, are given the tools and knowledge to cope with the increased occurrences of plant virus diseases, the livelihoods of millions will be at stake, according to Nteranya Sanginga, the director general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture.

Traditional Farming Holds All the Aces

By Manipadma Jena
Last monsoon season, 65-year-old Sunadhar Ramaparia, a member of the Bhumia tribe in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, mixed indigenous crops like ‘para’ paddy, foxtail millet and oil seeds in his upland plot.

Diamonds are Not Forever, But the Land Is

By Tommy Trenchard

In the village of Makonkonde in western Sierra Leone, Mabinti, who no longer knows her age, sits on a low wooden stool in the dappled shade of several palm trees. She clutches a solitary papaya fruit in hands toughened by a lifetime of hard manual work.

Reviving Family Farming in Angola, Carrot by Carrot

By Mario Osava
"We never used to eat carrots, but now we like them," said Rebeca Soba, admiring her vegetable garden, an island of diversity in the midst of a vast sugarcane plantation. Vegetable gardening has been introduced at the Capanda Agroindustrial Pole (PAC) as a source of income for local small farmers.

Increasing Uganda’s Cotton and Coffee Production

By Will Boase
Cotton was once one of Uganda's key cash crops but a collapse in world prices in the 1980s led to a slump in the market and production. However, cotton production doubled in the 2010/2011 season and brought in 48 million dollars in export earnings.

Salvaging Waste Food for the Hungry in Spain

By Inés Benítez
A recurring question in crisis-stricken Spain is how to ensure that surplus agricultural products reach those most in need. One response is citizen initiatives to protest the waste of food and to advocate efficient management along the full length of the food chain.

Big Landowners Block Rural Development Law in Guatemala

By Danilo Valladares
An “integral rural development law” to promote access to land, employment and other rights for small farmers is bogged down in the Guatemalan Congress due to opposition from large landowners, who see it as an attempt at land reform.
Family farms produce most of the food consumed in Brazil. Credit: Fabíola Ortiz/IPS

Small Rural Businesses in Brazil Set Sights on Domestic Market

By Fabiana Frayssinet
"Canjinjin has special powers," said Deize Coelho de Barros. The recipe for this local liquor, made from a mixture of herbs, was handed down from her African ancestors, and is seen as a sort of traditional "Viagra" in her homeland, the western Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

Brazilian Communities Revitalise the São Francisco River

By Mario Osava
José Geraldo Matos fondly recalls the massive traíras (Hoplias sp), carnivorous freshwater fish found in the lagoons and rivers of Brazil, that he used to catch in the Dos Cochos River just a few metres from his house.

From Doha to Dakar, Food Insecurity is the Norm

By Mantoe Phakathi

Qatar may be one of the richest countries in the world, but it has something in common with its African counterparts – food insecurity.

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