Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Sharing of information by farmers made easier:Google!

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Paul Kagame; If all were like you.............

I have said this many times and am not gonna stop; for agriculture to be more sustainable, environmental friendly and attractive to the youth there is need for change in the way we perceive it and support from all corners given its multifaceted nature.President Paul Kagame of Rwanda understands this too well and other leaders should emulate him. Can you imagine where Africa would be with several other leaders like him? He is rallying support for smallholder farmers.   

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Thought you'd like this! Analysis: Land grab or development opportunity?:

With land central to the livelihoods of millions of people in Africa, Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute for Environment and Development examines the impact of large-scale land acquisitions on the continent's farmers.
"Land grabs" are now one of the biggest issues in Africa.
Over the past few years, companies and foreign governments have been leasing large areas of land in some of Africa's poorest countries.
BBC News - Analysis: Land grab or development opportunity?:


Thursday, February 23, 2012

Lest you did not know......

................you can enhance seed security through the FAO's crop calender. The Crop Calendar is a tool that provides timely information about seeds to promote local crop production. It contains information on planting, sowing and harvesting periods of locally adapted crops in specific agro-ecological zones. It also provides information on the sowing rates of seed and planting material and the main agricultural practices.

This tool supports farmers and agriculture extentionists across the world in taking appropriate decisions on crops and their sowing period, respecting the agro-ecological dimension. It also provides a solid base for emergency planning of the rehabilitation of farming systems after disasters.

The Crop Calendar provides information for more that 130 crops, located in 283 agro-ecological zones of 44 countries.

Farmer squeezes Sh2.4m a year from mango trees

Mangoes on the market
As a proponent of the idea that youths need to be involved in agriculture and take it as a form of employment I go great lengths in looking for ways to justify and convince them. One way of doing this is by sharing success stories on how farmers have made it in different agricultural practices and to this effect, I do a lot of reading and research to bring such stories to my readers.
Today, am going to share with you on how Mr Francis Kiplaga has made it from Mango tree farming - a farming venture that one won't even imagine of when planning for his/her farming. This story was featured in one of the Kenyan dailies and it can be accessed here.
 

Saturday, February 18, 2012

An illustrative 11 minutes from Tanzania to show the multiple benefits of agroforestry

Friday, February 17, 2012

Engaging African youths in agricultural development

 WorldStage Newsonline-- Despite the huge population of unemployed youths within the continent, most African countries are finding it difficult to engage them in agricultural practice which poses a lot of challenge to food production for the citizenry. KAYODE ABOYEJI writes below................
click here to read the whole article

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Agricultural biodiversity can contribute to food security and livelihood security

Environmental conservation is never conservation minus enhancement of Biodiversity. This basically refers to the richness of life and it can be looked at different levels – genetic, species, niche, habitat all the way to the ecosystem level.
As young farmers we can as well contribute to this by enhancing Agricultural diversity in our agro systems. In this case we consider Agricultural biodiversity as a sub-set of general biodiversity and look at all forms of life directly relevant to agriculture: rare seed varieties and animal breeds (farm biodiversity), and also many other organisms such as soil fauna, weeds, pests, predators, and all of the native plants and animals (wild biodiversity) existing on and flowing through the farm.
Together, these varieties represent high levels of genetic diversity and are therefore the focus of most crop genetic resources conservation efforts. Agricultural biodiversity is the basis of our agricultural food chain, developed and safeguarded by farmers, livestock breeders, forest workers, fishermen and indigenous peoples throughout the world. The use of agricultural biodiversity (as opposed to non diverse production methods) can contribute to food security and livelihood security.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Embracing technology can make a difference but.....

As listened to this presidential aspirant and marvel at his mastery of the languages and all the things he's going to do for the Kenyan youth (Who he said the old forks have conspired to lock out of the job market) and the ailing agricultural economy if elected, one thing got my attention.
He categorically reiterated that we are not going to rejuvenate the agricultural economy by clinging onto the traditional farming methods and equipments. We need to embrace the use of technology and mechanization of the same in order move ahead. As a sign of walking the talk, this particular aspirant has a mobile phone as his party's symbol and goes ahead to argue that is by embracing such technologies that we are going to develop our country. 
Drawing the Contrast
I think this one has my vote, kindly let me know what you think by leaving a comment on this post.. 

Friday, February 10, 2012

Attracting Youth to Agriculture

As we talk and talk about getting more youth involved in agriculture, there is need for concerted efforts from the training institutions to come up with attractive training packages to lure the youth. A strong commitment to youth development as a priority area by Colleges of Agriculture would be a significant step toward redirecting needed attention and commitment of resources required to meet significant goals of the colleges and the agricultural industry.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Promoting Local Innovations - Key to success

 
PROLINNOVA South Africa: Sparks on the Rainbow from CTA on Vimeo.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Huge potential in agricultural productivity but ...........

Post-harvest management and food processing key to food security and have in the recent past increasingly gained prominence in the wake of food insecurity prevalent which is largely attributed to their absence. In agriculture, postharvest handling is the stage of crop production immediately following harvest, including cooling, cleaning, sorting and packing. The instant a crop is removed from the ground, or separated from its parent plant, it begins to deteriorate. Post-harvest treatment largely determines final quality, whether a crop is sold for fresh consumption, or used as an ingredient in a processed food product. Effective handling decreases postharvest losses and thus enhancing food security. This link will lead you to a whole lot of opportunities / publications in this regard .

The CTA Catalogue

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Why Agriculture is important and worth pursuing as a career

Agriculture is important for many reasons, the most important of which is that we all need to eat and agriculture is the source of all food. Any country’s leader worth his salt should make feeding his people his priority number one just as it is paramount for any family’s head. Not only does the practice of agriculture allow us to find quicker and faster ways to grow food but also is a source of employment.
Why not pursue a career in agriculture? A glimpse at this will give you an idea on how important agriculture is and why a career in it is worthwhile. Click here.