Global

Yusup was 23 and working far from home in Japan when he spotted an unusual opportunity. He kept hearing that young people from his home region in West Java, Indonesia, were abandoning their family farms to work in factories. Yusup took the money he’d earned abroad and invested it, purchasing a rice farm and opening a farming supply shop in West Java. Today, Yusuf’s business generates 25… Read more

Nearly every coastal country in the world has the potential to meet its own domestic seafood needs through aquaculture, suggests a new study. Aquaculture is the farming of freshwater and saltwater aquatic organisms, including fish, crustaceans and molluscs such as oysters and mussels. The practice is the fastest-growing food sector, and it is hoped that aquaculture could help address… Read more

On the 2017 International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). The Declaration, formally adopted in 2007, is an international human rights instrument that sets a standard for the protection of indigenous rights. UNDRIP addresses the most significant… Read more

ndia’s farm produce is private; mills are private; traders are self-employed who arrange financing privately; market risk of profit and loss is private; buyers/importers too are largely private. Rice (Basmati+Non-Basmati) export of 75 million tonnes (mt) in a decade between 2007-17 with forex earnings of  Rs 2,76,000 crores—which as per current $/rupee parity equals $42.5… Read more

One of the critical limiting factors for the mismatch of supply and demand in food is barriers to international trade. For more than a decade, despite the tremendous amount of resources and time spent by World Trade Organisation (WTO) members, negotiations in agriculture trade have been to no avail. If trade policy makers are serious about making real progress in international trade… Read more

Ten years ago cotton farmer Stu Higgins decided to sell his Jandowae, Queensland farm and help other farmers in developing nations. He was making money but felt unfulfilled and was searching for a new challenge. Now based in Sydney, he is hoping to bring the latest research and farming information to farmers in developing countries who are often in remote or difficult environments, by using… Read more

GLOBAL trade deals, such as those falling under the remit of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), have long been difficult to negotiate, particularly those encompassing agriculture. The same goes for regional deals. The United States has pulled out of the newly-agreed Trans-Pacific Partnership and wants to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. There is also the similar situation… Read more

Rural women and girls are key agents of change to free the world from hunger and extreme poverty, said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today at a special side-event on gender equality and women's empowerment on the sidelines of the FAO's Conference. "Their role goes beyond agricultural production and extends throughout the food system but, as we all know, rural… Read more

DES MOINES, Iowa — The son of a Nigerian farm laborer who rose out of poverty to earn graduate degrees in agricultural economics and spent his career improving the availability of seed, fertilizer and financing for African farmers is the winner of this year’s World Food Prize announced Monday. Akinwumi Adesina, president of African Development Bank, says the future of global food… Read more

Technology has the potential to raise crop yields, cut fertiliser use, improve farming efficiency and, by its nature, make the world’s oldest and least digitised industry more sustainable. But without better communication of the benefits to farmers and the end consumer, agritech could suffer the same fate as genetically modified crops - misunderstood, rejected and demonised. That… Read more