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

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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.

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Embracing irrigation for enhanced food security in Turkana

An irrigation system for food production

Irrigation is the application of water to farmland by means other than rainfall. It is usually required for growing crops in regions that receive less than 10 inches of precipitation per year and highly advisable in regions that receive only slightly more precipitation or have long dry seasons or droughts during the growing season. More than half of all the farmers in the world practice some form of irrigation.
Through this technology, it is possible for the people of Turkana to be self-reliant by producing their own food if the state as well as non-state actors changed tact and embraced it.
 The food situation in Turkana is ‘grave’ - people are dying of hunger and as much as humanitarian aid is important in saving them, let us think of allocating a portion of the millions we perennially sink into emergency relief to irrigate Turkana for enhanced food security. This could be advanced through the young people who have energy for cattle rustling. The youth can be engaged in meaningful agricultural projects to feed their communities as well as the country.
 The Turkana have been dependent on relief food for the last five decades and “nothing seems to change”. The situation even seems to be worsening every year as the drought cycles become more recurrent and severe owing to climate change.
It is regrettable that irrigation has not been fully exploited and that some schemes that started were allowed to collapse. It is also unfortunate that during the rainy season, volumes of surface water are not harvested for irrigation but left to flow to waste. Israel, which is drier than Turkana, is food sufficient and feeds the world because food security is central to its development agenda. We can do better given our natural resource base endowment.

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Seeds of suicide: lest you've forgotten or don’t know.

I have always tried to underscore the importance of agriculture and I fully concur with whoever said that is in the agricultural sector that the battle for long-term economic development will be won or lost. Agriculture plays a paramount role in the developing countries' economies.

A battle of supremacy is being wedged in the sector over control of seeds between the corporates and the peasant farmers resulting in fatal consequences for the defenseless farmers. Going by the happenings in India where lives were lost due to the effects of giving seed companies a free hand through privatization and deregulation that lead to increasing cost of seeds and agrichemicals for farmers, increasing farm debts and crop failure, the magnitude of this statement is evident.

One such victim is the 68 year Karnail Singh in 1998. His inability to repay his loan demeaned his being driving him – proud, stoic, and immersed in traditional values of trust and honesty to desperately consume poison.

These companies that drove people to their graves are there with us and we need to be careful as we deal with them lest we become on other statistic on the many farmers who’ve committed suicide as a consequence of their dealings. More can be found here

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CTA - Brussels Office Weblog - Promoting sustainable farming practices

CTA - Brussels Office Weblog - Promoting sustainable farming practices

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FAO Media Centre: FAO-EU project to promote climate-smart farming

FAO Media Centre: FAO-EU project to promote climate-smart farming

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Mushrooms, the lesser known forest treasure.

Where I come from- the western parts of Kenya, mushrooms are a resource whose importance has been under-estimated. Mushroom harvesting has been regarded as a children playing activity and I vividly remember those days on Saturdays or during the April/August holidays (Mushroom season) when this used to be my favorite game. (Partly because it earned me a chance to walk with Sharon – the girl in the neighborhood) I could spend the whole day harvesting mushroom as long as I was with her even when we were not talking to each other.

Of all the lot we harvested, only a portion could end up into our kitchen and the rest went bad and was thrown as nobody took it seriously.

With my biology in school, I have known mushroom species such as boletus,cantharellus and morchella grow naturally in symbiosis with the local woodland. And with my interactions, I have known these mushrooms are highly demanded in developed countries and in big hotels within the country. Their careful and well-managed exploitation could not only lead to the forest preservation but also the local economy. As the youth full of energy for running up and down, we can tap into this invaluable resource - obwoba and emmancipate ourselves from the shackles of poverty and unemployment.

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For my French brothers and sisters today; Aidons-les à s'aider

Bonne année à tous mes lecteurs! Aujourd'hui, je vais écrire en français et c'est sur ​​le rôle de La Fondation Biovision dans nos luttes. Elle combat la pauvreté et la famine à la racine et promeut des méthodes écologiques qui permettent une amélioration durable des conditions de vie en Afrique. L'accent est mis sur une aide à l'auto-developpement. BioVision encourage la réflexion et l'action écologique, au Nord comme au Sud. Suivez ce lien pour plus d'infos sur leur projects et comment vous pouvez être aidé.


Bonne année, bonne chance en 2012 et vous remercie beaucoup pour voter pour mon blog.
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Doing GMOs or not shouldn't be the big question; let's look at the pros and cons

Plants are genetically engineered to enhance certain characteristics.

“State under fire for allowing import of GMOs” read one of the headlines in the local dailies sometime back. Whatever that meant, I strongly believe the state shouldn’t have been put under fire for importing genetically modified foods to feed its starving people. If I was to choose between feeding on GM food and starving to death my choice would be certainly the former.

And not that there is nothing good with GM foods as they are being portrayed; most antagonists of GM foods are social scientists who dwell their arguments on no scientific proof but hearsay. The fact which is not being said here is that science and technology can be used for the benefit of the human race and in this context - Biotechnology.

Biotechnology is a suit of tools that allow plant breeders to introduce a greater array of novelty into their plant varieties, and select which work, much faster than they could using conventional plant breeding techniques. There is therefore nothing inherently evil or Frankenstein-like about genetically modified plants.

Dismissing GM foods just like that will be unthoughtful of us. What people should demand for is the enforcement of the bioethics act to the latter and the right to be informed. All GM foods should be labeled with all the ingredients for people to make informed choices and avoid consumption of materials they are allergic to unknowingly.  
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This is a non-commercial attempt to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless 'consumers' are combining to destroy life on earth. It is dedicated to all who died fighting for the planet and those whose lives are on the line today. The cut was put together by Vivek Chauhan, a young film maker, together with naturalists working with the Sanctuary Asia network (www.sanctuaryasia.com).

Content credit: The principal source for the footage was Yann Arthus-Bertrand's incredible film HOME http://www.homethemovie.org/. The music was by Armand Amar. Thank you too Greenpeace and http://timescapes.org/