Rotting food scraps picked out of the dirt and the bins of the backstreets of Harare are piled together in a slimy heap on the ground with torn cardboard as a serving plate. Elias, 15, squats and pushes both hands into the pile, scooping out a chunk of something pink. He gnaws on it, then shouts: "Dinner! Come and eat."
At the Makumbi children's home, half an hour's drive from the city, Sister Alois is upset to report she has had to turn away three abandoned babies brought in by social workers in the last week. "More and more children abandoned, it's not the African way. There are so many now. They are being left in the bush, some are eaten by the ants."
"When you walk through the markets, you can see that there is food here. The problem is that the ability to buy it has disappeared. People here depend on livestock to support themselves, but animals are being killed on the edge of exhaustion, and that means they are being sold for far less money. And on top of that, the cost of food basics has risen," explained Gluck.
"Yesterday I saw women sifting through gravel at the side of the road, trying to find some grains that may have been blown from aid trucks."
Crossposted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
Originally featured in the North Carolina News Observer.
It's not every day you meet someone from Raleigh while traveling in Lusaka, Zambia. Dale Lewis might not have intended to spend decades in the landlocked African country of 12 million, but his passion for protecting wildlife and for conservation led him there - and his entrepreneurial spirit and desire to lift farmers from poverty while protecting the environment compelled him to stay.
Cross posted form Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
In Accra, Ghana, most homes do not have indoor plumbing or sewage systems. Instead, households dispose of waste into the same ditches and streams that urban farmers use to irrigate the crops they sell at local markets. The use of wastewater on farms presents a significant health risk and has been banned by the government. But because many farmers don't have access to clean sources of water, they lack other options for irrigating their crops.
"Ideally we would start at the city level to address wastewater treatment through infrastructure," says Ben Keraita, an irrigation and water engineer and researcher with IWMI. "But there is no money or support for a big project like that, so we start with the farmers to find affordable, small, and simple ways to reduce the risk of contamination."
We are going to try to write the article we wish we had been able to read before attempting to bus our way across Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda (December 2009). Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
First things first: this will be one of the most worthwhile experiences of your life. Start by flying into Nairobi, Kenya (huge and somewhat affordable airport hub for international flights). More than 30 airlines service flights into Nairobi Embakasi Airport including British Airways, EgyptAir, Emirates, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and tons of others.
Take your time to enjoy Kenya. People will put the fear of god into you that you are unsafe in Nairobi (they call it "Nairobbery")-but just ignore the hype and check out this amazing city full of incredible food, nightlife, and energy. We traveled all over the country but an especially worthy stop is El Doret (it is on route to Kampala, Uganda) where tea is produced in fields that stretch as far as they eye can see.
We took Kampala Coaches from Nairobi to Arusha, Tanzania. We hated the bus company so much that we wrote a blog about them. Not much competition, even Scandinavia Express discontinued this international route. A spin-off from Kamapala Coaches was in the works and might be a good option, but if Kampala Coaches is your only choice, don't take it all the way to Dar es Salaam. We suggest you go halfway to Arusha and switch companies.
Maralal, Kenya, is mostly known for its wildlife. And as we made the seven hour, bumpy trek from Nairobi - half of it on unpaved roads - we saw our fair share of water buffaloes, rhinos, impala, and giraffes. But we weren't here to go on safari. We were here to meet with a group of pastoralists - livestock keepers who had agreed to meet with us and talk about the challenges they face.
We met in the community primary school and it was humbling to see so many people - many wearing traditional Maasai clothing, brightly woven clothe, beads, elaborate earrings - come through the door to greet us.
Over the years, pastoralists like the well-known Maasai here in Kenya have been pushed out of their traditional grazing lands to drier and drier regions, places where it was easy to ignore them. But as the effects of climate change, hunger, drought and the loss of biodiversity become more evident, it's increasingly hard to push livestock keepers' rights aside. Governments need to recognize that pastoralists are the best keepers of genetic diversity.
In this regular series, we profile advisors to the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we feature Louise Buck, Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University. Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet
Name: Louise Buck
Affiliation: Cornell University and Ecoagriculture Partners
Location: Ithaca, New York, United States
Bio: Louise Buck is Senior Extension Associate at Cornell University. She joined the university's Department of Natural Resources in 1996 and has been associated with the Cornell International Institute for Food Agriculture and Development (CIIFAD) since 1993. Presently, Louise leads the Cornell Ecoagriculture Working Group. Her interests include community-based natural resource management, agroforestry, curriculum development for experiential learning, and participatory research.
Recent Work:
-L.E. Buck and S.J. Scherr, "Building innovation systems for managing complex landscapes," in K.M. Moore, ed., The Sciences and Art of Adaptive Management: Innovating for Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Resources Management (Ankeny, IA: Soil and Water Conservation Society, 2009).
-J. Sayer and L.E. Buck, eds., "Learning from Landscapes," IUCN Forest Conservation Program and Ecoagriculture Partners, Arborvitae Special Issue, September 2008.
-"Farming the Forest," Cornell Plantations Magazine, vol. 62, no. 2 (2007), pp. 6-13.
-L.E. Buck, T.A. Gavin, N.T. Uphoff, and D.F. Lee, "Scientific Assessment of Ecoagriculture Systems," in S.J. Scherr and J.A. McNeely, eds., Farming with Nature: The Art and Science of Ecoagriculture (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2007).
On Nourishing the Planet: The Nourishing the Planet project will stimulate much-needed innovation in the development of integrated land-use and market systems that can deliver food production, environmental conservation, and livelihood security outcomes. It will also support innovation in the collaborative management of agriculture and natural resources at a landscape scale.
In many parts sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of children come to school in the morning without breakfast, if they attend school at all. Many suffer from health and developmental problems, including stunted growth. Exhausted from hunger and poor nutrition, they often have trouble paying attention and learning during class.
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) provides school meals for about 20 million children in Africa. While some national governments, including in Côte d'Ivoire, have provided school meals for decades, the food, fuel, and financial crises of 2007-08 highlighted the role that school nutrition programs can play in not only improving education, health, and nutrition, but also providing a safety net for children living in poverty. For some children, these programs provide the only real meal of the day.
Improved school menus provide students with much-needed nutrition while also creating an incentive for both students and parents to keep up regular attendance. Some programs include a take-home ration, targeted specifically at improving the attendance of girls. In exchange for an 80-percent attendance rate for one month, for example, students are able to take home a jug of vegetable oil to their family. Students also often share the nutrition information they learn at school with family members, helping to improve the nutritional value of meals made at home.
Earlier this year, the Partnership for Child Development (PCD), in partnership with the WFP and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, launched the Home Grown School Feeding (HGSF) program. HGSF, modeled in part after programs developed by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), works with governments to develop and implement school feeding programs, improving the diets and education of students while also creating jobs and supporting local agriculture.
"Meet the Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group" is a regular series where we profile advisors of the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we're featuring David Spielman, who is a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
Bio: David Spielman is a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agricultural science, technology, and innovation policy; seed systems and agricultural input markets; and community-driven rural development. Prior to this, David worked in agriculture and rural development for the World Bank (Washington, D.C.), the Aga Khan Development Network (Pakistan), and several other organizations. His regional emphasis is on East Africa and South Asia. Spielman received a Ph.D. in Economics from American University in 2003, an M.Sc. in Development Studies from the London School of Economics in 1993, and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University in 1992.
Recent Publications:
• David J. Spielman et al., "Policies to promote cereal intensification in Ethiopia: A review of evidence and experience," Food Policy, vol. 35 (2010), in press;
• Anwar Naseem; David J. Spielman, and Steven Were Omamo, "Private-sector investment in R&D: A review of policy options to promote its growth in developing-country agriculture," Agribusiness, vol. 26, no. 1 (2010), pp. 143-73;
• David J. Spielman, Javier Ekboir, and Kristin Davis, "The art and science of innovation systems inquiry: Applications to Sub-Saharan African agriculture," Technology in Society, vol. 31, no. 4 (2009), pp. 399-405;
• David J. Spielman and Rajul Pandya-Lorch, Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development (Washington, DC: IFPRI, 2009).
On Nourishing the Planet: "Nourishing the planet" means investing in growth, development, and the improvement of human livelihoods in new and more sustainable ways than what we have done in the past. This means encouraging greater innovation in how we produce food, manage our natural resources, steward our environment, and assist those least able to benefit from innovation.
What is the relationship between agriculture, the environment, and global hunger and poverty? Agriculture is a fundamental source of both sustenance and income for many of the world's poor, whether directly or indirectly. Their long-term ability to earn a living from agriculture depends acutely on how we manage the environment that provides agriculture with its essential inputs-soil, nutrients, water, light, and so many other elements. With the world waking up to climate change, there is more recognition that agriculture and the environment are inextricably linked, and thus that our lives and livelihoods are similarly linked.
What is the role you see small-scale farmers playing in the eradication of global poverty and hunger? There are skeptics who argue that small-scale farming is not a viable livelihood option in developing countries, and that the consolidation of land holdings and the expansion of capital-intensive farming will eventually push small farmers out. Yet there is ample empirical evidence indicating that small farmers-particularly small farmers who are able to innovate, commercialize, and compete in the marketplace-have some real advantages over more corporate-style agriculture. But realistically, creating a new generation of competitive and dynamic farmers will take more investment in rural education and health services, market institutions and infrastructure, and science in the interest of the smallholder. The new generations of small farmers should not be bound to the drudgery and uncertainty of agricultural life; rather, they should be sharp, savvy farmers endowed with the skills and education needed to compete successfully.
When you met with Nourishing the Planet co-director Danielle Nierenberg in the fall of last year, you said that "farmers are now faced with decisions that it would take a Ph.D to solve," but that there are enormous opportunities for creative innovations that can help lift farmers' incomes, protect the environment, and increase food security. Can you provide examples of what you mean? Policymakers, administrators, and development practitioners seem to expect that farmers will readily respond to their concerns about sluggish agricultural productivity growth, rising food prices, poor household nutrition, climate change, and a host of other complex challenges. But the solutions on offer-a new cultivation practice here, a new market niche there-are not always an obvious opportunity for every farmer. The ability of a farmer to seize an opportunity-to cultivate her crops in a new way, or to sell her farm surplus in a new market-depends acutely on her sense of household security now and in the future, her perceptions of risk, and her level of education and degree of experience.
My favorite "innovation" example is conservation agriculture which, loosely defined, is a set of cultivation practices designed to improve soil fertility and water retention that depend on the adoption of closely related farming techniques-residue retention, minimum tillage, land leveling, strategic crop rotation, improved or specialized varieties, etc. The idea is to conserve the natural resource base of agricultural production while also improving yields or lowering costs for the farmer. There are a range of crop-specific technologies designed to make these approaches work (direct seeded rice, zero tillage wheat, etc.), but they are pretty complicated. I have seen it practiced in Zambia, India, and several other countries, and I take my hat off to these farmers. It doesn't look that easy.
I'm not much of a farmer myself, but if you gave me a half hectare of land and asked me to try some of these techniques out, I would fail miserably. And even if I got the techniques right-preparing the land correctly, planting seed, managing the irrigation, and harvesting at the right time-who knows what would happen when I tried to sell my output in the market. Being a good farmer, a good agronomist, and a good businessperson all at the same time is challenging. That's why I focus on the need for greater investment in agricultural science, rural education, and rural infrastructure, so that tomorrow's farmers are better equipped with the skills and education needed to experiment, adapt, and ultimately, compete.
What sorts of innovations, policies, etc. would you like to see implemented to reduce global poverty and hunger? Reducing global poverty and hunger hinge on several key policies and investments. First, continued and accelerated investment in science and technology is critical. This means not only "high" science like genomics and crop genetic improvement, but also the more "day to day" science of soil fertility and water management, as well as the managerial and organizational aspects of how we actually do science.
Second, greater investment in the hardware and software of innovation are also needed. This means physical infrastructure like roads and power; market infrastructure like price information systems and laws to effectively settle commercial disputes; rural education and health services; and many other areas that are often lacking in the lives of small farmers and rural entrepreneurs.
Third, investment in communities is essential because collective action can often contribute dramatically to social and economic change. There is much to be gained from encouraging communities to identify their own development priorities, marshal their own resources to effect change, and act as independent but constructive partners to both state and non-state actors.
Can you describe the Millions Fed project and your involvement? "Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development" is a project that examines "what works" in agricultural development-what types of programs, policies, and investments have had a proven impact on hunger and food security. The project looks at 20 proven successes in Africa, Asia, and Latin America during the last 50 years that have played an important role in reducing the proportion of people suffering from malnutrition from about one-third to one-sixth of the world's population. The project, commissioned by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, was undertaken by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in 2008-09.
Our flagship output from this project is a book by the same title. The book-along with the website, video, booklets, technical papers, and seminar presentations-has helped inform the debate on the future of the global food and agriculture system by focusing attention on large-scale successes that have had a demonstrated impact on hunger and food security, and on the importance of accumulating real evidence on where, why, and how interventions succeeded.
Can you discuss the relationship-if you think there is one-between food consumers in the United States and global hunger? Increasingly, consumers in both industrialized and developing countries are driving the choices that farmers in developing countries make. About 30 years ago, this was not necessarily the case, as policymakers with food self-sufficiency targets, local administrators with subsidized inputs, or scientists with new plant varieties held sway. Of course, this shift to a more consumer-driven global system offers many opportunities. Think about the small farmer in Tanzania who is able to make good money producing organic green beans for export to Europe, or the small farmer in India who is enjoying high returns on his mango and grape exports to the Middle East.
But I often wonder whether there is a need for us to cautiously interpret the gains associated with the expansion of this global system. The natural skeptic in me would ask whether we are simply replacing cacao, tea, rubber, and other colonial cash crops with pesticide-free strawberries, shade-grown coffee, or organic broccoli for wealthy consumers in industrialized countries. The economist in me would ask whether poverty reduction and global hunger can be effectively reduced by these products (and interventions to promote these products), or whether there are better uses of our scarce resources.
In some countries such as Ethiopia, research shows that greater poverty reduction can be achieved by investing in the improvement of food staple and livestock productivity. Although this doesn't preclude investment in high-value export crops, it should be a warning message to policymakers and development practitioners who are overly enamored with the idea that quaint fruits, organic vegetables, or pretty flowers will end poverty.
Why should food consumers in the United States care about the state of agriculture in other countries? During my undergraduate studies, I had an international relations professor who published extensively on the theory of deterrence and mutually assured destruction-key principals during the Cold War. But recognizing that the Berlin Wall was falling at the same time as he was lecturing, he talked a bit about interdependence-the idea that the security of all countries would depend not on rival military might, but on the depth of their economic and social relationships. I think we are moving closer and closer to a tightly interdependent world. This means that food consumers in the United States need to care more about the state of the world because their choices at the supermarket, in the kitchen, and in the voting booth affect the livelihoods of millions beyond their borders.
"We’ve got hundreds of local foods, almost 600 that we’ve categorized through our research," said Kristof Nordin in a January interview with Nourishing the Planet project co-Director, Danielle Nierenberg, at the permaculture project he runs in Malawi with his wife, Stacia (see also: Malawi’s Real Miracle). "But we are starving because we are only planting one crop: maize, which came originally from America."
Many efforts to combat hunger and drought across Africa emphasize boosting yields of staple crops such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice, which can provide much-needed calories as well as income to millions of farmers. These staples, however, lack many essential micronutrients, including Vitamin A, thiamin, and niacin. That is why many communities rely on indigenous vegetables such as amaranth, dika, moringa, and baobab to add both nutrients and taste to staple foods. These vegetables are rich in vitamins and nutrients and are often naturally resistant to local pests and climatic fluctuations, making them an important tool in the fight against hunger and poverty.
"We are not saying stop growing maize, we grow maize as well," continued Kristof. "But we try to show people how it can be part of an integrated system, how that integrated agriculture can be part of a balanced diet."
Greater variety can lead to a better tasting diet, too, according to Dr. Abdou Tenkouano, the World Vegetable Center’s Regional Director for Africa in Arusha, Tanzania. "None of the staple crops would be palatable without vegetables," he told Danielle when she visited the center last November. For almost 20 years now, the Center—part of the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center based in Taiwan—has been working in Africa to breed cultivars that best suit farmers’ needs (see Listening to Farmers).
In addition to providing the vitamins and nutrients needed for a complete diet, indigenous vegetables are more affordable and accessible to farmers who might otherwise be forced to pay for costly imported staple crops and the inputs they require. According to the Center’s website, vegetable production also generates more income on and off the farm than most other agricultural enterprises. Indigenous vegetables help to preserve culture and traditions as well.
"If a person doesn’t know how to cook or prepare food, they don’t know how to eat," said Edward Mukiibi, a coordinator with the Developing Innovations in School Cultivation (DISC) project in Uganda, in a December interview with Danielle. The DISC project, founded by Edward and Roger Serunjogi in 2006, hopes to instill greater environmental awareness and appreciation for food, nutrition, and gastronomy by establishing school gardens at 15 preschool, day, and boarding schools. By focusing on indigenous vegetables, the project not only preserves Ugandan culture, but also shows kids how agriculture can be a way to improve diets, livelihoods, and food security (see How to Keep Kids Down on the Farm).
Sylvia Banda is another cultural pioneer. She founded Sylva Professional Catering Services in 1986 in part because she was tired of seeing Western-style foods preferred over traditional Zambian fare like chibwabwa (pumpkin leaves) and impwa (dry garden eggplant) (see Winrock International and Sylva Professional Catering Services Ltd).What started as a catering business grew into a restaurant, cooking school, and hotel, with training programs that teach farmers in Zambia, mostly women, to grow indigenous crops. Sylva’s company purchases the surplus crops from the farmers it trains and uses them in the traditional meals prepared by her facilities, improving local livelihoods and keeping the profits in the local economy.
"When I first met some of these families, their children were at home while school was in session," Sylvia said during a Community Food Enterprise Panel and Discussion hosted by Winrock International in Washington, D.C., in January. "They told me that they didn’t have money to pay for education. But after becoming suppliers for my business, the families can afford to send their children to school and even to buy things like furniture for their houses."
Women who grow vegetable gardens in Kibera slum outside of Nairobi, Kenya, were among the best prepared for the country’s 2007 food crisis, despite being some of the poorest members of society. Their gardens provided family meals at a time when no other food was coming into the city. With food prices on the rise in Africa and the impacts of climate change becoming more significant, home gardens raising indigenous vegetables that are resistant to extreme weather and are rich in vitamins and nutrients have become even more important (see Vertical Farms: Finding Creative Ways to Grow Food in Kibera).
As these examples illustrate, most parts of sub-Saharan Africa "have everything they need right here," according to Kristof.
Crossposted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
Full disclosure: We had never heard of the Republic of Mauritius until the day we bought a ticket to go there.
Our pathetic excuse: Lonely Planet doesn't list it in their Africa book.
When we arrived people seemed shocked to meet two people from the United States - hotel clerks, cab drivers, and street vendors who've worked on the island for years said they never met Americans before.
Yet, this is clearly America's loss because sitting in the middle of the Indian ocean is one of the most incredible islands we've ever visited.
We always try to reduce our carbon footprint by traveling via public buses, but in this case a boat didn't seem like a good option and flights from Johannesburg were extremely cheap. We resisted the urge to splurge on an all-inclusive beach holiday and opted for the more budget hostel pay-as-you-go experience.We had only four days and wanted to make the most of them and interacting with people seemed more interesting than lounging forever on a beach.
While English is the official language, few people spoke it. Bernie's upbringing in Montreal came in handy as we interacted with people using French. Our cab driver from the airport to Grand Bay, Shivan, told us how safe the country was and how people co-exist harmoniously, "we are different colors, with different cultures, but we live together peacefully here. People are all the same, and we all treat each other that way." The more we interacted with locals, the more people echoed the same sentiments. The traditional foods we ate reflected this multi-ethnicity melting pot, blending Indian, Creole, Chinese and European influences.
"It's not like most places in Africa," another cab driver told us. "You can walk anywhere at night. You can leave your stuff unattended. We don't have much crime here, people will help you - not bother you - and its very rare that they will steal anything from you."
We asked another local named Richard why he thought it was so safe and he told me that the government took care of it's people. "Everyone gets a good pension, no matter how long or where you worked; all people get access to health care and free education; and if you're too poor to own a house then the government builds one for you with electricity for free (and after paying basic rent for seven years, you own it)."
Another person we asked, named Marie, said that Mauritius lacked the government corruption of most African countries, citing it as the reason people visit there over nearby islands such as Madagascar and Comoros. "We have a real democracy," she said.
In Mauritius, the government is elected on a five-year basis. The last general elections took place on July 3, 2005 in all the 20 mainland constituencies, as well as the constituency covering the island of Rodrigues.
The British left the country after they attained independence in 1968, and became a republic in 1992. According to the 2009 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, which measures governance using a number of different variables, Mauritius' government earned the highest rank among African nations for "participation and human rights" and "sustainable economic opportunity", as well as earning the highest score in the index overall. Mauritius came second in "rule of law", and fourth in terms of "human development" (source: Wikipedia).
Our hostel (Grand Bay Beach Residence), booked via Student Flights (affiliated with Liberty travel in the United States), was terrific value. It is located in short walking distance from the town of Grand Bay and the ocean. The price was around thirty dollars per night, but considering the fact that free 3G WiFi worked on the outdoor deck and taking into account the hours we spent uploading video files and talking on conference calls to the United States on Skype - we got lots of unexpected value. Things like restaurants and tourist destinations are very expensive on the island, but buying groceries and having drinks in the hotel room before heading out dancing allows budget travelers to enjoy everything without a hefty toll on your wallet. All the beaches everywhere in the country are public for both locals and tourists and that was something we enjoyed taking advantage of.
We drove across the Island learning more about the country's agriculture, which, next to tourism, is their biggest source of income. Sugar cane is the largest export, and the plots of land growing them stretched for miles. We were told that this crop accounted for a quarter of all exports from the country. We also saw lots of pineapple and coffee being grown.
Yet, an industry that surprised us was the booming hi-tech sector. We certainly didn't expect coast-to-coast wireless internet (3G) when we arrived (it covers 60 percent of the island and is cheap and widely assessable).
We also played tourists and visited Triolet Shivala, the biggest Hindu temple of the island. The temple is dedicated to the Gods Shiva, Krishna, Vishna, Muruga, Brahma and Ganesha. This place is also the longest village on the island.
We also saw the "Coloured Earths of Chamarel," among the oddest sites of the island. There are seven-coloured dunes at Chamarel, the result from the weathering of volcanic rocks. And a short drive away, we relaxed, eating spicy pineapple near the breathtaking Chamarel waterfalls. And we admit, we visited the beaches there as well.
As we boarded the plane, we looked at each other, and said we hoped to visit this magical island again.
The highways in southern Africa are filled with trucks carrying food aid across the continent. In the past, much of the maize, rice, soy, and other foods loaded onto these trucks came not from African farmers, but from the United States. And while these shipments provided much needed calories to people in need, they also disrupted national and local markets by lowering prices for locally grown food.
But today, more and more of the crops providing food aid come from African farmers who are selling directly to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) through local procurement policies. In Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and several other nations in sub-Saharan Africa (as well as in Asia and Latin America), WFP is not only buying locally, but helping small farmers gain the skills necessary to be part of the global market.
The WFP's Progress for Profit (P4P) program, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, and the Belgian government, is working with the private sector, governments, and NGOs to provide an incentive for farmers to improve their crop management skills and produce high-quality food, create a market for surplus crops from small and low-income farmers, and promote locally processing and packaging of products.
In Zambia, WFP buys food directly from the Zambia Agricultural Commodity Exchange while remaining "invisible," says Felix Edwards of the Zambia P4P Program. This way, WFP Zambia doesn't distort prices and helps create an alternative market for farmers. WFP also works through its partners, including USAID's PROFIT program, to help farmers and farmer associations meet the quality standards required by the Exchange. As a result, they are preparing Zambian farmers to provide high-quality food aid not only to programs and consumers in their own country, but also potentially to growing regional and international markets.
Crossposted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack
The majority of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa- in some areas up to 80 percent- are women. The average female farmer in the region is responsible not only for growing food but also for collecting water and firewood-putting in a 16-hour workday.
Deforestation and drought brought on by climate change have further increased women's time spent doing activities like gathering firewood and collecting water for bathing, cooking, and cleaning. Many women in Africa lack access to resources and technologies that might make these tasks easier, such as improved hoes, planters, and grinding mills; rainwater harvesting systems; and lightweight transport devices.
In Kenya, the organization Practical Action has introduced a fireless cooker to reduce household dependence on wood charcoal and other forms of fuel. Made easily by hand and at home, fireless cookers use insulation to store heat from traditional stoves that can then be used to cook foods over a longer period of time. Meals that are placed in a fireless cooker in the morning are baked with the stored heat and ready to eat later that day, reducing the need to continuously fuel traditional cook fires.
Meanwhile, biogas units that are fueled by livestock manure can save, on average, 10 hours of labor per week that would otherwise be spent collecting wood or other combustibles. The Rwandan government, recognizing the value of this time savings, hopes to have 15,000 households nationwide using biogas by 2012, and is subsidizing installation costs. (See also "Building a Methane Fueled Fire" and "Got Biogas?")
The "Mosi-o-Tunya" (Pump that Thunders) pressure pump, produced by International Development Enterprises (IDE), is a lightweight pump that sits on top of a well and is operated by foot. The pump's weight makes it easy to operate as well as to transport by foot or bike. Veronica Sianchenga, a farmer living in Kabuyu Village, Zambia, explained how, in addition to improving her family's diet and income, the pump gave her more independence: "Now we are not relying only on our husbands, because we are now able to do our own projects and to assist our husbands, to make our families look better, eat better, clothe better-even to have a house." (See also "Access to Water Improves Quality of Life for Women and Children.")
In Ethiopia, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) helped women living in the rural lowlands near Ajo improve their incomes and livelihoods by creating a milk marketing group. Before the USAID-funded project was implemented, women were carrying 1-2 liters of milk for seven or eight hours to sell at the nearest market in Dire Dawa. The milk would sell for only some 20 cents a liter, and after spending the night in town, the women returned home only to make the same trip again days later, forcing them to neglect their homes and gardens. Now, the women take turns selling each other's milk at the market, making the long trip only once every 10 days and keeping all of the profits from the day, putting some of the money into savings and using the rest to pay for food, school, and household supplies.
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Crossposted from BorderJumpers.org, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack. This piece originally appeared on Cheapflights.
We understand why Barack and Michelle Obama made Ghana their first stop on the African continent. When you touch down in Accra (or anywhere in Ghana), you are greeted with the word akwaaba or welcome and the place is buzzing with activity: construction projects, vendors hawking antennas and groundnuts to commuters, roads being built and new investment.
Ghanaians boast about their stable democracy – they just peacefully transitioned governments in a 2009 election decided by only 40,000 votes.
We visited several projects across the country, and each of them reinforced the fact that people are working hard to lift themselves out of poverty. In Abokobi, just outside of Accra, we met with women who are using dairy cows donated to them by Heifer International to make yogurt to sell to local businesses and schools.
In the village of Akimoda, we met the "King" of the village who is working with farmers to grow and market moringa, a plant known as the green gold of Ghana because of its health benefits for people and livestock.
In Kasoa we met small-scale livestock farmers who are helping prevent slash-and-burn agriculture by raising grasscutters – large rodents which, to the locals at least, are considered a delicacy.
And in Cape Coast we met with a group of women fishmongers who are working together to process and sell fish. While in Cape Coast, we visited the Cape Coast Castle, where slaves from all over Africa were imprisoned before being shipped to the US and Europe. We walked through the 'Door of No Return', which was the last thing some two million slaves saw before being loaded on to what the slave traders referred to as "floating coffins". For every one slave that made it to the US, at least four others died somewhere along the journey.
We learned that slaves were forced to walk to their prisons from all over West Africa. And once they arrived, hundreds were packed into dark dungeons with little food and water. The ones who survived were then herded on to ships, leaving behind their homes, their families and their culture forever. As disturbing as this was to hear, it only strengthened our admiration for the resilience and strength of Ghanaians.
We ended our journey visiting the Kakum National Park, watching birds and monkeys at eye level as they walked along their 350 meter 'canopy', located in a small rain forest about 35 miles from Cape Coast. Though we didn't see much of the beach, the Cape Coast sits along the Atlantic and the sound of the waves crashing around you undoubtedly beats the docile murmurs of a Caribbean island.
For many travelers, we doubt Ghana ever makes it onto the radar. But if you're bored of lying around on beaches and want to visit somewhere that will truly inspire you, then maybe it should.
Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet, www.nourishingtheplanet.com
"Meet the Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group" is a new regular series where we profile advisors of the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we're featuring Shayna Bailey, who is Director of International Development for Slow Food International."
Bio: Shayna Bailey is Director of International Development for Slow Food International. She works on organizational development, strategic partnerships, and resource mobilization at Slow Food's international headquarters in Italy. She has a M.A. in Sustainable Development and a B.A. in International Business, and has worked on and managed Community-Supported Agriculture programs in the U.S. states of California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Vermont, as well as in St. Croix. Bailey has researched perceptions of food security with Quichua women in the Ecuadorian Andes and has studied ecological horticulture at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at the University of California-Santa Cruz. She represents Slow Food in the Indigenous Partnership for Agrobiodiversity and Food Sovereignty and is involved in planning the 4th meeting of Terra Madre - World Meeting of Food Communities, to be held in October 2010.
On Nourishing the Planet: Nourishing the Planet is an important opportunity to show the world that there are effective alternatives to solving the problems of hunger and poverty that are already in practice, and are replicable on a larger scale. Many of these innovations are not well known to diverse and international audiences. This project gives visibility to lesser-known sustainable approaches that tackle some of the most critical and complex issues of our time. Nourishing the Planet will surely shift policymakers', development workers', and ordinary citizens' perspectives on what it will take to decrease hunger and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Slow Food International states that it works to counteract fast food and fast life by bringing together pleasure and responsibility to make them inseparable. Can you give specific examples of how Slow Food does this?
Fast food and fast life create a gap between us and our food. There is less time to savor the tastes of the seasons and the joy of food shared in company. We eat to fill our stomachs, without thinking of the implications. Slow Food works to create a broad cultural shift in the relationship people around the world have with the food they eat. Pleasure is important to our daily food rituals. Responsibility without pleasure does not encourage us to enjoy mealtimes, to preserve our cultural traditions, or to value and appreciate our food. Pleasure without responsibility, however, is negligent. Our disconnection with food results in a negative impact on environment, economy, culture, and health.
Our decisions about purchasing and consuming food have a direct effect on the food production and supply chain. For example, the demand for artificially 'cheap' food on the market means: that our food is unfairly sourced from low-paid labor and, often, is inspected under questionable standards of quality; that varieties of fruits and vegetables are favored for their ease of transportation instead of for their vitamin and mineral content; that we produce enough food in the world for 12 billion people when we have a global population of less than 7 billion, meaning that we waste almost half of all food produced while 1 billion people go hungry; that our children eat food at school that causes diet-related diseases and obesity; and, that, as a result, we spend millions on health care and environmental clean-up to address these externalized costs of our food system.
The concept of making pleasure and responsibility inseparable permeates all of Slow Food's programs-from raising awareness through workshops and connecting consumers directly to food producers, to supporting small-scale farmers in creating a sustainable product that also has great taste quality and preserves culture, to teaching children that the sweetest carrot they have ever tasted comes not from a plastic bag in the supermarket, but right from their own garden.
Can you explain how preserving biodiversity helps improve quality of life and save communities and cultures?
Biodiversity in our food systems leaves us less vulnerable to climatic changes, to economic crises, to the homogenization of cultures, and to public health epidemics. Just as you would diversify your investment portfolio to manage financial risk, biodiversity in food and agriculture minimizes threats to these systems and lessens the impact of negative influences. The genetically uniform crop of potatoes planted and consumed in the 1840s greatly exacerbated the Irish potato famine, which killed 1 million people and caused the emigration of a million more. The blight that struck Europe would not have had such a terrible impact on the potato crop in Ireland if a diversity of potatoes had instead been planted.
Indigenous cultures are often the custodians of biodiversity, preserving not only traditional seed varieties but also diverse agricultural practices. This knowledge can serve to mitigate and adapt to adverse environmental changes that complicate the cycle of hunger and poverty. Some traditional communities use more than 200 different species in their diets, while the average community in developed countries uses a maximum of 30. These 30 food species, out of 7,000 domesticated species that have spanned the history of agriculture, account for 90 percent of our daily diets. Over the last 100 years, 75 percent of our food crops have disappeared. Agricultural systems that are rich in biodiversity increase food security and improve nutrition for communities, while protecting soil fertility and providing pollinators-essential for food production-with healthy ecosystems.
What are some of the fairs, events, and markets you organize to foster greater connection between producers and co-producers? What is the value in creating this connection?
The idea of 'responsibility' is demonstrated in Slow Food's use of the word 'co-producer' as opposed to consumer. Instead of passively making food choices, a co-producer makes educated decisions about the food they eat and, when possible, actively supports the people who produce their food. Slow Food organizes initiatives around the world to directly link producers and co-producers, including Salone del Gusto, Earth Markets, educational projects, and thousands of events by our local chapters (convivia) comprised of 100,000 members in 132 countries. Slow Food is also growing regional networks out of Terra Madre, a global network of food producers, cooks, academics, and youth, to create this cultural shift and grow sustainable food systems on national and regional levels.
This direct link between producers and co-producers is important since, in the United States for example, 91 cents of every dollar spent on food goes to middlemen for packaging, shipping, transportation, and marketing, while only 9 cents goes to the farmer. By shortening the supply chain, consumers pay less and eat better, and farmers earn a fair wage. Besides the obvious economic and health values, this connection also reinforces positive community development, preserves local cultural practices, and educates consumers on the realities of where their food comes from and from whom.
Do you see any connection or potential connection between the "slow food" or "whole food" movements in the United States and Europe, and the work that Slow Food is doing internationally? Why should consumers in the United States care about preserving biodiversity or food traditions in Uganda, for example?
In many ways, consumers are now facing similar food-system issues in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Lack of access to food that is healthy and fresh is not only happening in the neighborhoods of Yaoundé, but also in the food deserts of North America. Over-nutrition is a problem now in sub-Saharan Africa, right alongside under-nutrition, and both can be caused by poverty. People who have migrated to urban areas are eating foods that are low in nutritional value, and, consequently, are fighting diabetes and other diet-related diseases.
There are parents in every country who want their kids to eat good food at school, and gardens on school grounds are growing in every corner of the globe. Engaging the next generation of farmers, and ensuring that they have the skills and the markets to make a living, is another common thread of concern. Nearly everyone we speak with agrees that it is increasingly difficult to slow down and share a meal with friends and families, and that we are forgetting our cultural and culinary heritage.
The effort to feed the world almost exclusively by an industrial approach to food production and consumption is demonstrating its inadequacy in terms of health, environmental, economic, and cultural consequences. Consumers in the United States should care about preserving biodiversity and food traditions in Uganda because they are faced with the same dilemmas at home, because we can learn from one another to improve the situation, and because many American agricultural and trade policies, not to mention cultural influences, have had-and continue to have-a huge negative impact on less-developed nations' food systems. It goes back to the concept of pleasure and responsibility: we cannot enjoy our food and ignore the system that produced it. In the end, that system affects us all.
It’s hard to believe, but an estimated 2.6 billion people in the developing world—nearly a third of the global population—still lack access to basic sanitation services. This presents a significant hygiene risk, especially in densely populated urban areas and slums where contaminated drinking water can spread disease rapidly. Every year, some 1.5 million children die from diarrhea caused by poor sanitation and hygiene.
It is in these crowded cities, too, that food security is weakened by the lack of clean, nutrient-rich soil as well as growing space available for local families.
But there is an inexpensive solution to both problems. A recent innovation, called the Peepoo, is a disposable bag that can be used once as a toilet and then buried in the ground. Urea crystals in the bag kill off disease-producing pathogens and break down the waste into fertilizer, simultaneously eliminating the sanitation risk and providing a benefit for urban gardens. After successful test runs in Kenya and India, the bags will be mass produced this summer and sold for U.S. 2–3 cents each, making them more accessible to those who will benefit from them the most.
In post-earthquake Haiti, where many poor and homeless residents are forced to live in garbage heaps and to relieve themselves wherever they can find privacy, SOIL/SOL, a non-profit working to improve soil and convert waste into a resource, is partnering with Oxfam GB to build indoor dry toilets for 25 families as well as four public dry toilets. The project will establish a waste composting site to convert dry waste into fertilizer and nutrient-rich soil that can then be used to grow vegetables in rooftop gardens and backyards.
In Malawi, Stacia and Kristof Nordin’s permaculture project (which Nourishing the Planet co-director Danielle Nierenberg visited during her tour of Africa) uses a composting toilet to fertilize the crops. Although these units can be expensive to purchase and install, one company, Rigel Technology, manufactures a toilet that costs just US$30 and separates solid from fluid waste, converting it into fertilizer. The Indian non-profit Sulabh International also promotes community units that convert methane from waste into biogas for cooking.
On a larger scale, wetlands outside of Calcutta, India, process some 600 million liters of raw sewage delivered from the city every day in 300 fish-producing ponds. These wetlands produce 13,000 tons of fish annually for consumption by the city’s 12 million inhabitants. They also serve as an environmentally sound waste treatment center, with hyacinths, algal blooms, and fish disposing of the waste, while also providing a home for migrating birds and an important source of local food for the population of Calcutta. (See also “Fish Production Reaches a Record.”)
Aside from cost and installation, the main obstacles to using human waste to fertilize crops are cultural and behavioral. UNICEF notes in an online case study that a government-run program in India provided 33 families in the village of Bahtarai with latrines near their houses. But the majority of villagers still preferred to use the fields as toilets, as they were accustomed to doing their whole lives. “It is not enough just to construct the toilets,” said Gaurav Dwivedi, Collector and Bilaspur District Magistrate. “We have to change the thinking of people so that they are amenable to using the toilets.”
Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe with a company called EasyGo Bus company lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as they could from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered people at the crossing, they have mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, and they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).
Once we got going our bus abruptly stopped. A wild elephant stood in the middle of the road, staring down our bus, ears flaring. It was mad, and ready to charge. Seeing all the Zimbabwean passengers freak out made me really scared about our safety. Slowly the bus began to reverse away, even the driver was scared, and we sat and waited in silence till the elephant got bored.
When we finally arrived in Harare, it was nearly midnight, and the bus station isn't exactly the friendliest place for a bunch of Americans to chill out at that hour looking for a taxi. Our backpackers hostel is called "One Small World" and every room is named after the capital city of a different African country (we stayed in Windhoek, Namibia). We had a series of jam-packed days ahead, so we passed out, only to awaken to the fact that the water didn't work and the power was out. Power outages are something we've gotten used to, spending nearly three days in the dark in Lilongwe, and facing outages nearly everywhere in East Africa.
After the economic collapse here, inflation skyrocketed the Zimbabwe currency out of control (ever seen a trillion dollar bill?) As of today, they are using the US dollar as the main currency for the country (with several people telling us that it will soon switch to the South African Rand).
We started the day meeting with Raol DuToit, who'd spent twenty years with the World Wildlife Fund and now works directly for rhino conversation. Listening to Raoul, he was an encyclopedia on every major conservation issue relating to Southern Africa. Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo's to break bread with a true hero of mine: Wellington Chibebe, the Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. A dedicated activist his whole life, Wellington is arguably the most important public figure in the fight for freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe. Despite having been jailed numerous times, badly beaten, and under constant surveillance -- this brilliant, mild-mannered man spent a few hours passionately telling us about the struggle to bring change to his country, the heroic role the labor movement plays in the movement for democracy, and the spirit of the people to overcome fear.
ZCTU was the force behind creating the first successful electoral opposition to President Robert Mugabe, winning a presidential and parliamentary elections for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader and the current Prime Minister under the 2008 power sharing agreement Morgan Tsvangirai, is also the former Secretary-General of the ZCTU. They won against seemingly insurmountable odds: almost all print, television and radio was controlled by the ruling party, people faced massive voter intimidation and suppression, and opposition activists were routinely arrested and jailed.
Wellington spoke with great hope and urgency about the direction of the country, feeling that some progress is being made under the 2008 power sharing agreement (Mugabe refused to give up power, but shares the government with the MDC), and also stressed that the labor movement belonged to no political party and would be an independent voice holding politicians accountable and standing strong behind policies of good governance and democracy. He reminded us that even good politicians sometimes lose their way.
Afterwards we visited the editor of "The Worker", Ben Madzimure. This newspaper, sponsored by ZCTU and supported by the Solidarity Center. "The Worker" is one of the five independent print media sources not controlled by the government, and one of it's most important watchdogs. The newspaper reaches deep into the country thanks to the structure of the ZCTU. Zimbabwe is one of the most literate on the African continent (approximately 90 percent), so their role in distributing alternative perspectives is so critical. I can't say enough about how important a role they serve, when almost all other print, television, and radio is government controlled.
The next day we spent with the leadership of ZCTU. Having the time to learn and listen from these courageous men was an experience I will never forget. As much horror that I felt about what continues to happen in Zimbabwe against the poor and basic democratic freedoms, as I looked at these strong and resolute leaders in the eyes, I couldn't help but feel so much hope for the future, especially after meeting with many rank and file members at the local level later that day.
We also spent the morning meeting with the General Secretary of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe, Getrude Hambira. She spoke about the current conditions for farm workers, many of whom are terribly exploited with few ways to adequately redress exploitation.
In addition, we visited the research arm of ZCTU, the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe. They are part of a regional alliance of labor researchers, called African Labour Research Network (ALRN), also supported in part by the Solidarity Center and the Canadian Labor Congress. They've put together a training manual that outlines ZCTU’s "8 core socio-economic rights" and are using that material to train union activists across the country.
More than 80 percent of jobs in Zimbabwe have been informalized resulting in a very large informal sector. These informal sector workers, often the most exploited and the most ignored, formed a union in 2002 called Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, an associate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to help win a voice in government.
We were given the opportunity to visit two community projects coordinated by the informal workers association with President Beauty Mugijima and program coordinator Elijah Mutemeri.
The first project was a village where they were working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during "Operation Restore Order." As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, the controversal leader of the country, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training. We met with this community, who although they had very little resources and volunteer support, where trying to build a school to teach area children. They recently succeeded in getting accredited by the local government and the community is pushing local public officials for additional resources to build the school. The visit was especially inspiring because the teachers working there endured long commutes because they believed in helping the community. Many families in the makeshift town were also raising orphan or abandoned children, as well their own.
The second project we visited was an orphanage for children that the union was helping support. As we arrived children were singing, clapping, and rushing to us to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the orphanage provides them not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives them a family.
The teachers and caretakers who work there are mostly volunteers and you can see that they shared a deep commitment and passion for the future of these kids.
Lots more to say about Zimbabwe, but I am well above 1,000 words. I just want to publicly thank Fisseha Tekie of the Solidarity Center and all the incredible people we met during our short visit.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:
1. Comment on our daily posts—we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you.
2. Receive regular updates—Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here.
3. Help keep our research going—If you know of any great projects or contacts in West Africa please connect us connect us by emailing, commenting or sending us a message on facebook.
Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe with a company called EasyGo Bus company lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as they could from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered people at the crossing, they have mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, and they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).
Once we got going our bus abruptly stopped. A wild elephant stood in the middle of the road, staring down our bus, ears flaring. It was mad, and ready to charge. Seeing all the Zimbabwean passengers freak out made me really scared about our safety. Slowly the bus began to reverse away, even the driver was scared, and we sat and waited in silence till the elephant got bored.
When we finally arrived in Harare, it was nearly midnight, and the bus station isn't exactly the friendliest place for a bunch of Americans to chill out at that hour looking for a taxi. Our backpackers hostel is called "One Small World" and every room is named after the capital city of a different African country (we stayed in Windhoek, Namibia). We had a series of jam-packed days ahead, so we passed out, only to awaken to the fact that the water didn't work and the power was out. Power outages are something we've gotten used to, spending nearly three days in the dark in Lilongwe, and facing outages nearly everywhere in East Africa.
After the economic collapse here, inflation skyrocketed the Zimbabwe currency out of control (ever seen a trillion dollar bill?) As of today, they are using the US dollar as the main currency for the country (with several people telling us that it will soon switch to the South African Rand).
We started the day meeting with Raol DuToit, who'd spent twenty years with the World Wildlife Fund and now works directly for rhino conversation. Listening to Raoul, he was an encyclopedia on every major conservation issue relating to Southern Africa. Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo's to break bread with a true hero of mine: Wellington Chibebe, the Secretary-General of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. A dedicated activist his whole life, Wellington is arguably the most important public figure in the fight for freedom and democracy in Zimbabwe. Despite having been jailed numerous times, badly beaten, and under constant surveillance -- this brilliant, mild-mannered man spent a few hours passionately telling us about the struggle to bring change to his country, the heroic role the labor movement plays in the movement for democracy, and the spirit of the people to overcome fear.
ZCTU was the force behind creating the first successful electoral opposition to President Robert Mugabe, winning a presidential and parliamentary elections for the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), whose leader and the current Prime Minister under the 2008 power sharing agreement Morgan Tsvangirai, is also the former Secretary-General of the ZCTU. They won against seemingly insurmountable odds: almost all print, television and radio was controlled by the ruling party, people faced massive voter intimidation and suppression, and opposition activists were routinely arrested and jailed.
Wellington spoke with great hope and urgency about the direction of the country, feeling that some progress is being made under the 2008 power sharing agreement (Mugabe refused to give up power, but shares the government with the MDC), and also stressed that the labor movement belonged to no political party and would be an independent voice holding politicians accountable and standing strong behind policies of good governance and democracy. He reminded us that even good politicians sometimes lose their way.
Afterwards we visited the editor of "The Worker", Ben Madzimure. This newspaper, sponsored by ZCTU and supported by the Solidarity Center. "The Worker" is one of the five independent print media sources not controlled by the government, and one of it's most important watchdogs. The newspaper reaches deep into the country thanks to the structure of the ZCTU. Zimbabwe is one of the most literate on the African continent (approximately 90 percent), so their role in distributing alternative perspectives is so critical. I can't say enough about how important a role they serve, when almost all other print, television, and radio is government controlled.
The next day we spent with the leadership of ZCTU. Having the time to learn and listen from these courageous men was an experience I will never forget. As much horror that I felt about what continues to happen in Zimbabwe against the poor and basic democratic freedoms, as I looked at these strong and resolute leaders in the eyes, I couldn't help but feel so much hope for the future, especially after meeting with many rank and file members at the local level later that day.
We also spent the morning meeting with the General Secretary of the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers' Union of Zimbabwe, Getrude Hambira. She spoke about the current conditions for farm workers, many of whom are terribly exploited with few ways to adequately redress exploitation.
In addition, we visited the research arm of ZCTU, the Labour and Economic Development Research Institute of Zimbabwe. They are part of a regional alliance of labor researchers, called African Labour Research Network (ALRN), also supported in part by the Solidarity Center and the Canadian Labor Congress. They've put together a training manual that outlines ZCTU’s "8 core socio-economic rights" and are using that material to train union activists across the country.
More than 80 percent of jobs in Zimbabwe have been informalized resulting in a very large informal sector. These informal sector workers, often the most exploited and the most ignored, formed a union in 2002 called Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations, an associate of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), to help win a voice in government.
We were given the opportunity to visit two community projects coordinated by the informal workers association with President Beauty Mugijima and program coordinator Elijah Mutemeri.
The first project was a village where they were working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during "Operation Restore Order." As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, the controversal leader of the country, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training. We met with this community, who although they had very little resources and volunteer support, where trying to build a school to teach area children. They recently succeeded in getting accredited by the local government and the community is pushing local public officials for additional resources to build the school. The visit was especially inspiring because the teachers working there endured long commutes because they believed in helping the community. Many families in the makeshift town were also raising orphan or abandoned children, as well their own.
The second project we visited was an orphanage for children that the union was helping support. As we arrived children were singing, clapping, and rushing to us to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the orphanage provides them not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives them a family.
The teachers and caretakers who work there are mostly volunteers and you can see that they shared a deep commitment and passion for the future of these kids.
Lots more to say about Zimbabwe, but I am well above 1,000 words. I just want to publicly thank Fisseha Tekie of the Solidarity Center and all the incredible people we met during our short visit.
Thank you for reading! If you enjoy our diary every day we invite you to get involved:
1. Comment on our daily posts -- we check for comments everyday and want to have a regular ongoing discussion with you. 2. Receive regular updates--Join the weekly BorderJumpers newsletter by clicking here. 3. Help keep our research going—-If you know of any great projects or contacts in West Africa please connect us connect us by emailing, commenting or sending us a message on facebook.
Care International's work in Zambia has two main goals: increase the production of staple crops and improve farmers' access to agricultural inputs, such as seeds and fertilizers.
But instead of giving away bags of seed and fertilizers to farmers, Care is "creating input access through a business approach," not a subsidy approach, according to Steve Power, Assistant Country Director for Zambia.
One way they're doing this is by creating a network of agro-dealers who can sell inputs to their neighbors as well as educate them about how to use hybrid seeds, fertilizers, and other inputs. At the same time, "we are mindful" of the benefits of local varieties of seeds, says Harry Ngoma, Agriculture Advisor for the Consortium for Food Security, Agriculture and Nutrition, AIDS, Resiliency and Markets (C-FAARM). Care and C-FAARM are working with farmers to combine high- and low-technology practices.
Care thinks that this "business approach" will help farmers get the right inputs at the right time, unlike subsidy approaches that give farmers fertilizer for free, but often at the wrong time of year, making the nutrients unavailable to crops. And Care's focus on training agro-dealers and giving them start-up grants allows the organization to remain invisible to farmers. Power says that Care wants to be a "catalyst to the market" and help transfer resources, without distorting the basic pricing structure.
Another component of Care's work is improving the production of sorghum and cassava. "Zambia is as addicted to maize as we are to Starbucks coffee," says Power. But by encouraging the growth of other crops, including sorghum, which is indigenous to Africa, Care can help farms diversify local diets as well as build resilience to price fluctuations and drought.
Care is promoting conservation farming in Zambia as well. The organization has been working in six districts since 2007, reaching 24,000 households. In addition to promoting minimum tillage practices and the use of manure and compost, Care is helping to train government extension officers about conservation farming so that eventually they'll be responsible-instead of Care-for training farmers.
According to Power, the key to Care's work is promoting business-like approaches to agriculture alongside more traditional ones, so farmers don't become dependent on the organization for gifts of fertilizer or seed. These sorts of programs, according to Care, will be more effective at feeding people and increasing incomes than traditional food-aid projects that rely on long-term donor support. This is a big challenge in a country-and a region-facing the impacts of both climate change and the global economic crisis.
Stay tuned for more blogs about how farmers are linking to the private sector.
We spent a couple of days in Durban which is the third largest city in South Africa. We arrived exhausted from Maputo, Mozambique after a 24-hour bus ride on Intercape (gotta love when they breakdown for hours in the middle of the journey and you have to jump on a replacement bus seven hours later).
Durban has a population of almost 3.5 million, and is a major domestic tourist destination, close to national parks and the historic sites of Zululand and the Drakensberg. Similar to our experience in J'burg, people kept warning us about the crime rate due to the economic crisis that resulted in very high rates of unemployment, reaching over 30% in many parts of the city.
Again we felt pretty safe, never felt threatened in any way or scared, despite staying at a hostel right in the city center, where we took advantage of all the terrific hi-speed wi-fi spots, nightlife, and affordable restuarants in walking distance.
We want to share with you the terrific site visits we had there...
We met with Richard Haigh, who probably doesn't look like your typical African pastoralist. Unlike many Africans who grew up tending cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock, Richard started his farm at the age of 40 after quiting his 9-5 NGO job and buying 23 acres of land outside Durban, South Africa. Today, he runs Enaleni Farm, raising Zulu sheep, which are considered endangered, and Nguni cattle, a breed indigenous to South Africa, which is very resistant to pests, as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables. Richard is cultivating GMO-free soya, as well as traditional maize varieties-"all the maize," says Richard, "tells a story."
Like the sheep and cattle, many maize varieties are resistant to drought, climate change, and disease making them a smart choice for farmers all over Africa. This sort of mixed-crop livestock system is increasingly becoming rare in South Africa, according to Richard, because of commercial farms that rely on monoculture crops rather than diverse agricultural systems.
But perhaps the most important thing Richard is doing at Enaleni doesn't have to do with the different agricultural methods and practices he is using, but with the "stories" he's telling on the farm. By showing local people the tremendous benefits of indigenous breeds of cattle and sheep and sustainably grown crops can have for the environment and for improving livelihoods, he's putting both an ecological and economic value to something that has been neglected. "Local people don't value what they have," says Richard, because of extension agents who promote exotic breeds of livestock and expensive inputs.
And Richard is also helping document the diversity on his farm. He's been sending blood samples to the South African National Research Foundation in order to help them build a DNA hoofprint of what makes up a Zulu sheep. This sort of research is important for not only conserving the sheep, but also helping local people by increasing their knowledge about the breeds they've been raising for generations.
We also met with Dr. Raymond Auerbach, the founder of Rainman Landcare Foundation, who nearly bursts with enthusiasm when he talks about the growth of organic agriculture practices in South Africa over the years. The Rainman Landcare Foundation (located outside Durban) is training farmers living outside of Durban on how to grow food without the use of artificial pesticides, insecticides, or fertilizers, as well as permaculture methods that efficiently use water and build up soils. The Foundation recently had to discontinue the trainings at its headquarters, which is also the home Raymond shares with his wife, Christina, because of lack of funding. Now, the Foundation works with farmers at their own farms, teaching them how to build swales to prevent erosion and runoff, use mulch to help protect soils, and make and utilize organic compost. "Compost is very much the heart of the farm," says Auerbach, referring to how compost can eliminate the need for many expensive outside inputs, such as inorganic fertilizers.
Organic farmers in South Africa share some of the same problems as their colleagues in the United States, says Raymond. While Raymond and others fought for organic certification standards for farmers in the 1990s, the requirements are usually too expensive and cumbersome for many small, rural farmers. Certification can cost anywhere from 10,000-20,000 Rand (about $1,300- $2,600) and requires complicated paperwork, which can be difficult for semi-literate farmers. But by developing Participatory Guarantee Standards (PGS) for Organic Agriculture, which includes developing local standards and training local inspectors, while eliminating expensive certification fees for small growers, Raymond believes that poor, rural farmers can benefit from the growing demand in South Africa for organic food.
Other things we recommend while visiting Durban:
1. Have breakfast or lunch at Earthmother Organic (134 Davenport Road) where you can choose from delicious salads, sandwiches, and hot meals with very healthy organic ingredients. For vegans this might be your best option in the city, and we highly recommend anything off the menu of freshly squeezed juices. Raymond is a supplier to them as are many of the local farmers outside Durban.
2. Whether you like walking along the beach, surfing, swimming, or all of the above -- Durban's "Golden Mile" boats warm water all year round.
3. Go check out the Durban Botanical Gardens, a beautiful get-away, with free live concerts on Sunday afternoons, and a laid-back atmosphere (they let you bring in groceries to have your own picnic).
Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.
We spent a couple of amazing days in Lilongwe, Malawi - although it was cut short because we took an emergency flight back to Canada for the funeral of Bernard's grandmother (by the time you are reading this, we are back in Africa).
We arrived after a long journey that started in Kampala, Uganda -- and there's nothing better than arriving somewhere new and having a great place to crash (at only $30 a night for a double). What makes a good hostel in Africa? If it were just the fact that it was clean and the prices fair, we would have been content with our stay at the Mufasa Lodge. Add on hot showers, friendly staff, Wifi internet, and a fun lounge bar in the back, and you have one of the best hostels we've been to so far.
After arriving we visited the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, a project, supported by companies like the Body Shop, providing sanctuary space for the rescued, confiscated, orphaned and injured wild animals of Malawi. While touring their facility we met Kambuk (which means "leopard" in Chichewa), who was soundly sleeping in his 2,500 sq meter backyard of fenced green landscape. He was rescued by the Lilongwe Wildlife Centre after poachers shattered his knee in Nyika National Park (making it impossible for him to ever return to the wild.) As we toured the facility nearly every animal we saw - from baboons to alligators - had a similar Cinderella story of overcoming insurmountable odds to survive and, in most cases, return back to the wild.
The Center is one of the leading organizations in Malawi pushing lawmakers to enforce and enact legislation in support of wildlife conservation and environmental protection. They also develop local partnerships and training programs with the farmers and communities surrounding national parks. The struggle between protecting wildlife and agriculture is becoming especially evident as drought, conflict, and hunger continue to affect sub-Saharan Africa.
In Lilongwe, we also met with Stacia and Kristoff Nordin who showed us permaculture techniques at their home in Lilongwe. They use their garden to promote indigenous crops as a source of nutrition to the Malawians who are currently focused on growing corn, subsidized by the government.
Malawi may be best known for this so-called "Malawi Miracle." Five years ago the government decided to do something controversial-provide fertilizer subsidies to farmers to grow maize. Since then maize production has tripled and Malawi has been touted as an agricultural success story. But the way they are refining that corn, says Kristof, makes it "kind of like Wonderbread," leaving it with just two or three nutrients. Traditional varieties of corn, however, which aren't usually so highly processed, are more nutritious and don't require as much artificial fertilizer compared to hybrid varieties. According to Kristof, "48 percent of the country is still stunted with the miracle."
Stacia and Kristof use their home as a way to educate their neighbors about both permaculture and indigenous vegetables. Most Malawians think of traditional foods, such as amaranth and African eggplant, as poor people foods grown by "bad" farmers. But these crops may hold the key for solving hunger, malnutrition and poverty in Malawi. Rather than focusing on just planting maize-a crop that is not native to Africa-the Kristofs advise the farmers they work with that there is "no miracle plant, just plant them all." Maize, ironically, is least suited to this region because it's very susceptible to pests and disease. Unfortunately, the "fixation on just one crop," says Kristof, means that traditional varieties of foods are going extinct-crops that are already adapted to drought and heat, traits that become especially important as agriculture copes with climate change.
And indigenous crops can be an important source of income for farmers. Rather than importing things like amaranth, sorghum, spices, tamarinds and other products from India, South Africa, and other countries, the Nordins are helping farmers find ways to market seeds, as well as value added products, from local resources. These efforts not only provide income and nutrition, but fight the "stigma that anything Malawian isn't good enough," says Kristof. "A lot of solutions," he says, "are literally staring us in the face." And as I walked around seeing-and tasting- the various crops at the Nordins' home, it's obvious that maize is not Malawi's only miracle.
As an aside, the toilet at Stacia and Kristoff Nordin's house was so environmentally sustainable, you almost felt like you were doing a heroic act for the garden just by going to the bathroom. The vegetables and fruits they're growing, thrive off human manure and the water to wash your hands comes from captured rainfall.
One other thing we ought to mention is that Malawi is surprisingly expensive, or maybe we continue to feel firsthand the decline of the value of the American dollar. We found good value for lodging, but the food (maybe because all the fields were converted to Maize) was very expensive. People are suffering here from malnutrition and hunger, and we found it hard to maintain a varied diet at a reasonable price. Good vegetarian food would have been very difficult in Lilongwe if it weren't for the local Chinese restaurant near the hostel.
Richard Haigh runs Enaleni Farm outside Durban, South Africa, raising endangered Zulu sheep, Nguni cattle (a breed indigenous to South Africa that is very resistant to pests), and a variety of fruits and vegetables. Check out this video from my conversation with Richard about his sheep, his garden, and the meaning behind the name of his farm:
Richard Haigh doesn't look like your typical African pastoralist. Unlike many Africans who grew up tending cattle, sheep, goats, and other livestock, Richard started his farm in 2007 at the age of 40. He quit his 9-5 job at a nongovernmental organization and bought 23 acres of land outside Durban, South Africa.
He wanted to totally change his life.
Today, he runs Enaleni Farm (enaleni means "abundance" in Zulu), raising endangered Zulu sheep, Nguni cattle (a breed indigenous to South Africa that is very resistant to pests), and a variety of fruits and vegetables.
Richard is cultivating GMO-free soya, as well as traditional maize varieties. "All the maize tells a story," he says. Like the sheep and cattle, many maize varieties are resistant to drought, climate change, and diseases, making them a smart choice for farmers all over Africa.
This sort of mixed-crop livestock system is becoming increasingly rare in South Africa, according to Richard, because of commercial farms that rely on monoculture crops rather than on diverse agricultural systems.
Richard likes to say that his farm isn't organic, but rather an example of how agro-ecological methods can work. He practices push-pull agriculture, which uses alternating intercropping of plants that repel pests (pushing them away from the harvest) and ones that attract pests (pulling them away from the harvest) to increase yields. He also uses animal manure and compost for fertilizer.
But perhaps the most important thing Richard is doing at Enaleni doesn't have to do with the various agricultural methods and practices he's using. It's about the "stories" he's telling on the farm. By showing local people the tremendous benefits that indigenous cattle and sheep breeds, and sustainably grown crops, can have for the environment and livelihoods, he's putting both an ecological and economic value on something that's been neglected. "Local people don't value what they have," says Richard, because extension agents have tended to promote exotic livestock and expensive inputs.
In addition, Richard asks himself "what can we do that is specific to where we live?" In other words, how can we promote local sources of agricultural diversity that are good for the land and for people?
Richard is also helping document the diversity on his farm. He's been sending blood samples to the South African National Research Foundation to help them build a DNA "hoof print" of what makes up a Zulu sheep. This sort of research is important not only for conserving the sheep, but for helping to increase local knowledge about the breeds that people have been raising for generations.
As a result of his conservation work, Richard and Enaleni Farm have been recognized by Slow Food International, which wants to work with the farm and local communities to find ways to ensure that the Zulu sheep don't disappear.
Richard hopes to share his knowledge about agriculture with local farmers, teaching them how to spot and prevent disease in indigenous sheep, as well as explaining agro-ecological methods of raising food.
This is the first in a series of blogs where we'll be asking policy makers, politicians, non-profit and organizational leaders, journalists, celebrities, chefs, musicians, and farmers to share their thoughts-and hopes-for agricultural development in Africa. Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.
Last week, I had the privilege of meeting with the new U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray. Ambassador Ray was gracious enough to take the time to answer my questions about agricultural development in a country facing political turmoil, high unemployment, and high food prices.
What do you think is needed in Zimbabwe to both improve food security and farmers incomes?
Over the past decade, Zimbabwean small holder farmers have endured a litany of economic, political, and social shocks as well as several droughts and floods resulting in the loss of their livelihoods and food security. Poverty for small holder farmers has greatly increased throughout the country.
In order to restore farmers' livelihoods they need to be supported in a process of sustainable private sector-driven agricultural recovery to achieve tangible household-level impact in food security and generate more household income, as well to promote more rural employment.
The U.S. government through USAID is doing this by supporting programs that provide effective rural extension, trainings and demonstration farms in order to improve farm management by small holder producers. The programs also include support for inputs and market linkages between the farmers and agro-processers, exporters and buyers. These programs are broad-based and cover all communal small holder farmers throughout the country.
The result of this work is increased production, and productivity, lowered crop production costs and losses, improved product quality, and production mix and increasing on-farm value-adding. Together these programs are increasing food security and farmer's incomes as well as generating more farmer income and rural employment of agro-business.
At present, the U.S. is the largest provider of direct food aid in Zimbabwe. We are working with our partners to move from food aid to food security assistance which will use more market oriented approaches and combine livelihoods programs as noted above, which will reduce the need for food distribution.
Do you think Zimbabwe needs more private sector investment? If so, what are ways the U.S. government and other donors can help encourage both domestic and foreign investment?
Zimbabwe certainly needs more foreign direct investment. There is little chance that the country can internally generate the investments required to promote the economic growth it needs without it. But it is the government of Zimbabwe that is responsible for creating the business enabling environment to attract investment including both foreign and national.
At present, much more needs to be done in policy and the legal and regulatory framework and in the rhetoric and actions by the government in order to create the environment conducive to attract investment. Without the clear will of the government to be FDI-friendly there is not much that the donors can do.
By Danielle Nierenberg and Abdou Tenkouano, special thanks to the Kansas City Star
As hunger and drought spread across Africa, a huge effort is underway to increase yields of staple crops, such as maize, wheat, cassava, and rice.
While these crops are important for food security, providing much-needed calories, they don't provide much protein, vitamin A, thiamin, niacin, and other important vitamins and micronutrients-or taste. Yet, none of the staple crops would be palatable without vegetables.
Vegetables are less risk-prone to drought than staple crops that stay in the field for longer periods. Because vegetables typically have a shorter growing time, they can maximize scarce water supplies and soil nutrients better than crops such as maize, which need a lot of water and fertilizer.
Unfortunately, no country in Africa has a big focus on vegetable production. But that's where AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center steps in. Since the 1990s, the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center (based in Taiwan) has been working in Africa, with offices in Tanzania, Mali, Cameroon, and Madagascar, to breed cultivars that best suit farmers' needs.
By listening to farmers and including them in breeding research, AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center is building a sustainable seed system in sub-Saharan Africa. The Center does this by breeding a variety of vegetables with different traits-including resistance to disease and longer shelf life-and by bringing the farmers to the Regional Center in Arusha and to other offices across Africa to find out what exactly those farmers need in the field and at market.
Babel Isack, a tomato farmer from Tanzania, is just one of many farmers who visits the Center, advising staff about which vegetable varieties would be best suited for his particular needs-including varieties that depend on fewer chemical sprays and have a longer shelf life.
The Center works with farmers to not only grow vegetables, but also to process and cook them. Often, vegetables are cooked for so long that they lose most of their nutrients. To solve that problem, Mel Oluoch, a Liaison Officer with the Center's Vegetable Breeding and Seed System Program (vBSS), works with women to improve the nutritional value of cooked foods by helping them develop shorter cooking times.
"Eating is believing," says Oluoch, who adds that when people find out how much better the food tastes-and how much less fuel and time it takes to cook-they don't need much convincing about the alternative methods.
Oluoch also trains both urban and rural farmers on seed production. "The sustainability of seed," says Oluoch, "is not yet there in Africa." In other words, farmers don't have access to a reliable source of seed for indigenous vegetables, such as amaranth, spider plant, cowpea, okra, moringa, and other crops.
Although many of these vegetables are typically thought of as weeds, not food, they are a vital source of nutrients for millions of people and can help alleviate hunger. Despite their value, these "weeds" are typically neglected on the international agricultural research agenda. As food prices continue to rise in Africa-in some countries food is 50-80 percent higher than in 2007-indigenous vegetables are becoming an integral part of home gardens.
The hardiness and drought-tolerance of traditional vegetables become increasingly important as climate change becomes more evident.
Many indigenous vegetables use less water than hybrid varieties and some are resistant to pests and disease, advantages that will command greater attention from farmers and policymakers, and make the work of AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center more urgent and necessary than ever before.
Abdou Tenkouano is director of the Regional Center for Africa of AVRDC - The World Vegetable Center in Arusha, Tanzania. Danielle Nierenberg is a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Institute blogging daily from Africa at Nourishing the Planet
"Meet the Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group" is a new regular series where we profile advisors of the Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we're featuring Dr. Samuel Myers, who is an Instructor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School and a member of the Worldwatch Institute Board of Directors.
Bio: Samuel Myers is an Instructor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. His research interests include human health impacts of large-scale, anthropogenic environmental change including climate change, land use change, and deterioration of ecosystem services. Dr. Myers also studies the consequences of large-scale environmental change to human nutrition and impact of food production systems on the environment. He is Board Certified in internal medicine and is a Staff Physician at the Mount Auburn Hospital where he continues to see patients. Dr. Myers is also a member of the Worldwatch Institute Board of Directors.
On the Nourishing the Planet project: At the same time that billions of people are suffering from protein-calorie malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, we are encountering numerous environmental headwinds in nourishing the global population. These include land degradation, soil nutrient depletion, biodiversity loss and a host of factors associated with climate change including temperature rise, altered access to water, more natural disasters, increased ground level ozone concentrations, and altered exposure to pests and pathogens. These challenges will manifest differently in different locations, and overcoming them will require solutions that have been developed in a way that is sensitive to local context. I see this as the great value of the Nourishing the Planet project. We need to identify a suite of agricultural innovations appropriate for different locations and contexts that we can employ to improve nutritional security around the globe. Nourishing the Planet is a very valuable effort towards this goal.
In your report 'Global Environmental Change: The Threat to Human Health' you describe the health impacts of climate change as an opportunity as well as a challenge. Can you describe those challenges and the alternate opportunities they present? Why should countries like the United States, who are the primary source of climate change, care about the health impacts of climate change on people in developing countries? Let me just say that there is a clear moral imperative for people in the wealthy world to address the suffering of people in the poor world given that our consumption patterns have put them in harm's way. Addressing the health impacts of climate change is an opportunity as well as a challenge, because if we recognize this moral imperative, and rise to the challenge of helping to address these health threats, we will be addressing some of the most entrenched scourges of human wellbeing: malnutrition, poverty, infectious disease, inadequate water and sanitation, etc. I believe that Nourishing the Planet can play an important role in helping to identify and highlight approaches to meeting nutritional needs that increase resilience to climate change-as well as other types of ongoing environmental change. This need for the wealthy world to help the poor world increase its resilience to environmental threats is central to all the health-related challenges of climate change and an area where Nourishing the Planet has a lot to offer.
1. Myers SS, Patz J. 2009. Emerging threats to human health from global environmental change. Annual Review of Environment & Resources 34: 223-52
Check out the most recent issue of the journal Science which takes a look at ways to improve food security as the world's population is expected to top 9 billion by 2050. To best nourish both people and the planet, the journal suggests a rounded approach to a worldwide agricultural revolution by encouraging diets and policies that emphasize local and sustainable food production, along with the implementation of agricultural techniques that utilize biotechnology and ecologically friendly farming solutions.
In Maputo, Mozambique I had the opportunity to sit in on a workshop organized by Prolinnova, the Spanish NGO Centro de Iniciativas para la Cooperación/Batá, and the National Farmers Union of Mozambique, UNAC, about different agricultural innovations. But the farmers weren't there to be trained by the NGOs. Instead, they were in Maputo to share their experiences and learn from each other about different innovations each farmer was practicing in her or his community
Energindo Paulo, from Nicassa province, for example, was there to explain how to make pesticidas natural, natural, non-toxic pesticides to protect crops. His ingredients-including leaves from the Neem tree-were displayed on the floor in front of him as he talked about different methods for controlling pests. When Energindo finished his presentation, the group of 50 farmers asked questions about how to apply the pesticide-directly on the leaves-and how long they should wait after applying the pesticide to eat the produce-two or three days.
Throughout the morning, farmers presented other innovations and practices-including how to prevent diseases that affect their crops and fruit trees and how to raise farmed fish.
According to Santiago Medina of Batá, this workshop was the culmination of a series of workshops that Batá/Prolinnova/UNAC held in 2009 to help farmers identify innovations in their communities and then share them with other farmers. They plan to identify 12-14 innovations and practices identified at the workshops for a book which will be translated into three of Mozambique's languages, allowing these different innovations to spread throughout the country. And the workshops help farmers value-and invest in-their own local knowledge.
This is the second in a two-part series about my visit to the Rainman Landcare Foundation in Durban, South Africa. Cross posted from Nourishing the Planet.
The Rainman Landcare Foundation, founded by Raymond Auerbach, is training farmers living outside of Durban on how to grow food without the use of artificial pesticides, insecticides, or fertilizers, as well as permaculture methods that efficiently use water and build up soils. "But it won't be enough to just grow organic food," says Raymond. "You also need to market it." Check out this video where Raymond explains how, in addition to teaching farmers organic agriculture practices, the Rainman Foundation helps them establish links with the private sector:
Earthmother Organic Store and Restaurant is an example of a business that is also providing a link for farmers to the private sector. Check out this video of Danielle explaining how the store and restaurant gives farmers, like those trained by the Rainman Landcare Foundation, a market for their produce.
Madyo Couto has a tough job. He works under the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism to help manage the country's Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). These areas were initially established to help conserve and protect wildlife, but they're now evolving to include other uses of land that aren't specifically for conservation.
Madyo explained that in addition to linking the communities that live near or in conservation areas to the private sector to build lodges and other services for tourists, they're also helping farmers establish honey projects to generate income. In many of national parks and other conservation areas, farmers resort to poaching and hunting wildlife to earn money. Establishing alternative-and profitable-sources of income is vital to protecting both agriculture and biodiversity in the TFCAs.
Stay tuned for more blogs about the links between wildlife conservation and agriculture.
Everywhere I travel in Africa, there's increasing acknowledgement about the importance of nutrition when it comes to treating HIV/AIDS. Many retroviral and HIV/AIDS drugs don't work if patients aren't getting enough vitamins and nutrients in their diets or accumulating enough body fat.
According to Dr. Rosa Costa, Director of the Kyeema Foundation in Mozambique, many farmers are often too sick to grow crops, but "chickens are easy."
Unlike many crops, raising free-range birds can require few outside inputs and very little maintenance from farmers. Birds can forage for insects and eat kitchen scraps, instead of expensive grains. They provide not only meat and eggs for household use and income, but also pest control and manure for fertilizer.
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It's not every day you meet someone from Raleigh while traveling in Lusaka, Zambia. Dale Lewis might not have intended to spend decades in the landlocked African country of 12 million, but his passion for protecting wildlife and for conservation led him there - and his entrepreneurial spirit and desire to lift farmers from poverty while protecting the environment compelled him to stay.
First things first: this will be one of the most worthwhile experiences of your life. Start by flying into Nairobi, Kenya (huge and somewhat affordable airport hub for international flights). More than 30 airlines service flights into Nairobi Embakasi Airport including British Airways, EgyptAir, Emirates, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and tons of others.
Maralal, Kenya, is mostly known for its wildlife. And as we made the seven hour, bumpy trek from Nairobi - half of it on unpaved roads - we saw our fair share of water buffaloes, rhinos, impala, and giraffes. But we weren't here to go on safari. We were here to meet with a group of pastoralists - livestock keepers who had agreed to meet with us and talk about the challenges they face.
Name: Louise Buck
In many parts sub-Saharan Africa, 60 percent of children come to school in the morning without breakfast, if they attend school at all. Many suffer from health and developmental problems, including stunted growth. Exhausted from hunger and poor nutrition, they often have trouble paying attention and learning during class.
Name: David Spielman
Full disclosure: We had never heard of the Republic of Mauritius until the day we bought a ticket to go there.
While English is the official language, few people spoke it. Bernie's upbringing in Montreal came in handy as we interacted with people using French. Our cab driver from the airport to Grand Bay, Shivan, told us how safe the country was and how people co-exist harmoniously, "we are different colors, with different cultures, but we live together peacefully here. People are all the same, and we all treat each other that way." The more we interacted with locals, the more people echoed the same sentiments. The traditional foods we ate reflected this multi-ethnicity melting pot, blending Indian, Creole, Chinese and European influences.
Another person we asked, named Marie, said that Mauritius lacked the government corruption of most African countries, citing it as the reason people visit there over nearby islands such as Madagascar and Comoros. "We have a real democracy," she said.
We drove across the Island learning more about the country's agriculture, which, next to tourism, is their biggest source of income. Sugar cane is the largest export, and the plots of land growing them stretched for miles. We were told that this crop accounted for a quarter of all exports from the country. We also saw lots of pineapple and coffee being grown.
The highways in southern Africa are filled with trucks carrying food aid across the continent. In the past, much of the maize, rice, soy, and other foods loaded onto these trucks came not from African farmers, but from the United States. And while these shipments provided much needed calories to people in need, they also disrupted national and local markets by lowering prices for locally grown food.
The majority of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa- in some areas up to 80 percent- are women. The average female farmer in the region is responsible not only for growing food but also for collecting water and firewood-putting in a 
It’s hard to believe, but an estimated 2.6 billion people in the developing world—nearly a third of the global population—still lack access to basic sanitation services. This presents a significant hygiene risk, especially in densely populated urban areas and slums where contaminated drinking water can spread disease rapidly. Every year, some 1.5 million children die from diarrhea caused by poor sanitation and hygiene.
The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe with a company called EasyGo Bus company lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where everyone’s belongings were examined, less for security and more to squeeze as much money as they could from undeclared goods. Baboons outnumbered people at the crossing, they have mastered the art of swiping food from unaware passengers, and they seemed to want to be near the humans most afraid of them (ie. me).
Following that meeting, we visited an Italian restaurant called Leonardo's to break bread with a true hero of mine: 
Afterwards we visited the editor of "The Worker", 
The first project was a village where they were working with the local community to build a school in an area where hundreds of people were forced to relocate during "Operation Restore Order." As part of a de-urbanization program under Mugabe, the controversal leader of the country, nearly 2 million workers were forcibly removed from their homes in cities, stripped of their belongings, and forced to live in rural areas, without any agriculture skills or training. We met with this community, who although they had very little resources and volunteer support, where trying to build a school to teach area children. They recently succeeded in getting accredited by the local government and the community is pushing local public officials for additional resources to build the school. The visit was especially inspiring because the teachers working there endured long commutes because they believed in helping the community. Many families in the makeshift town were also raising orphan or abandoned children, as well their own.
The second project we visited was an orphanage for children that the union was helping support. As we arrived children were singing, clapping, and rushing to us to offer hugs and high fives. Most of these hundreds of kids lost their parents to HIV/AIDS, and the orphanage provides them not only a place to go to learn and go to school, but also gives them a family. 
We spent a couple of amazing days in Lilongwe, Malawi - although it was cut short because we took an emergency flight back to Canada for the funeral of Bernard's grandmother (by the time you are reading this, we are back in Africa).
Today, he runs 
Last week, I had the privilege of meeting with the new U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, Charles Ray. Ambassador Ray was gracious enough to take the time to answer my questions about agricultural development in a country facing political turmoil, high unemployment, and high food prices.
In Maputo, Mozambique I had the opportunity to sit in on a workshop organized by 
Madyo Couto has a tough job. He works under the Mozambique Ministry of Tourism to help manage the country's Transfrontier Conservation Areas (TFCAs). These areas were initially established to help conserve and protect wildlife, but they're now evolving to include other uses of land that aren't specifically for conservation.