Global Food for Thought

Photo of the Week

Farmers load up bags of fertilizer on bicycles at input delivery in Matulo village, Kenya. Credit: Dominic Ochola. Photo courtesy of the One Acre Fund blog.

One Acre Fund is an NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that helps 135,000 smallholder farmers grow their own way out of poverty by providing a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access.

Photo of the Week

Pierre Ndagijimana weeds onions in Mataba village, Rwanda. Many farmers apply the planting, weeding, harvesting, and storage training they receive through One Acre Fund to the other crops they cultivate. Credit: Francoise Umarishavu 

Photo courtesy of the One Acre Fund blog. One Acre Fund is an NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that helps 130,000 smallholder farmers grow their own way out of poverty by providing a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access.

Photo of the Week

A farmer in Chwele, Kenya shells maize using a small metal device called a maize sheller. As she slides the sheller down the maize cob, the kernels separate from the cob. This makes it easier for farmers to dry and store their harvest. Credit: Dominic Ochola Photo courtesy of the One Acre Fund blog.

One Acre Fund is an NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that helps 130,000 smallholder farmers grow their own way out of poverty by providing a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access.

This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

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Photo of the Week

Farmers in Gitovu, western Rwanda, receive bags of fertilizer to apply to their fields. One Acre Fund delivers farm inputs within 2 kilometers of farmers' homes, allowing them to obtain seeds and fertilizer that were previously inaccessible.  Photo courtesy of the One Acre Fund. One Acre Fund is an NGO in Kenya, Rwanda, and Burundi that helps 130,000 smallholder farmers grow their own way out of poverty by providing a "market bundle" that includes education, finance, seed and fertilizer, and market access.

12 Innovations to Combat Drought, Improve Food Security, and Stabilize Food Prices

This post originally appeared on Worldwatch Institute Blog. 

Worldwatch Institute highlights 12 ways to make the U.S. agriculture system more resilient to drought and, in the long run, more sustainable.

Soaring temperatures and low precipitation could not occur at a worse time for many farmers in the United States. Intensifying drought conditions are affecting corn and soybean crops throughout the Midwest, raising grain prices as well as concerns about future food prices. The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that 88 percent of this year’s corn crop and 77 percent of the soybean crop are now affected by the most severe drought since 1988. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is providing drought assistance to 1,584 counties across 32 states and warns of increased food prices in 2013 as a result of corn and soybean yield losses.

Corn is currently selling at around $9 a bushel, a 50 percent increase from June, while soybeans are selling at a record high of $17 a bushel as a result of drought-related losses in crop yields. “The increased prices may benefit farmers in the short run,” said Danielle Nierenberg, director of the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project, “but consumers will experience the aftermath of price increases in the form of more money spent on poultry, beef, pork, and dairy products.”

This Week's Edition of the Global Food for Thought News Brief

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Dr. Daniel Hillel awarded 2012 World Food Prize

The 2012 World Food Prize will be awarded to Dr. Daniel Hillel for conceiving and implementing a radically new mode of bringing water to crops i­­n arid and dry land regions - known as “micro-irrigation.”

Dr. Hillel’s pioneering scientific work in Israel revolutionized food production, first in the Middle East, and then in other regions around the world over the past five decades.  His work laid the foundation for maximizing efficient water usage in agriculture, increasing crop yields, and minimizing environmental degradation.

Statement of Achievement

First drawn to the critical needs of the water supply in arid regions during his years of living in a small settlement in the highlands of the Negev Desert, the new approach Dr. Hillel developed provided for a low-volume, high-frequency, calibrated water supply to plants. As such, his research led to a dramatic shift from the prevailing method of irrigation used in the first half of the twentieth century: applying water in brief periodic episodes of flooding to saturate the soil, followed by longer periods of drying out the soil. The new innovative method developed and disseminated by Dr. Hillel applied water in small but continuous amounts directly to the plant roots, with dramatic results in plant production and water conservation.

Impact

Dr. Hillel’s development and promotion of better land and water management clearly demonstrated that farmers no longer needed to depend on the soil’s ability to store water, as was the case when using the previous method of high volume, low frequency irrigation. The technology he advanced, including drip, trickle and continuous-feed irrigation, has improved the quality of life and livelihoods throughout the Middle East and around the world.

Remarks by the President at Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security

May 18, 2012
Ronald Reagan Building, Washington, D.C.

Thank you so much.  Thank you, everybody.  Please have a seat.  Thank you.  Well, good morning, everybody.  Thank you, Catherine Bertini, and Dan Glickman and everyone at the Chicago Council.  We were originally going to convene, along with the G8, in Chicago.  But since we’re not doing this in my hometown, I wanted to bring a little bit of Chicago to Washington.  It is wonderful to see all of you.  It is great to see quite a few young people here as well.  And I want to acknowledge a good friend.  We were just talking backstage -- he was my inspiration for singing at the Apollo -- Bono is here, and it is good to see him. 

Now, this weekend at the G8, we’ll be represented by many of the world's largest economies.  We face urgent challenges -- creating jobs, addressing the situation in the eurozone, sustaining the global economic recovery.  But even as we deal with these issues, I felt it was also important, also critical to focus on the urgent challenge that confronts some 1 billion men, women and children around the world -- the injustice of chronic hunger; the need for long-term food security.

Global Leaders to Launch G8 Food Security Agenda at May 18 Symposium

On May 18, 2012, President Barack Obama, with G8 and African leaders, businesses, international organizations and civil society will convene to discuss new activities to advance global agricultural development, food and nutrition security in Africa.  The event, hosted by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, will feature announcements of significant new business commitments for African agriculture and discussions on addressing hunger and poverty in the changing development landscape.

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