Welcome to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Indiagovernance.gov.in/files/gkc_oneworld_sustainable_development_north_east_india.pdf. Www.necorps.org/pub/a case of nercormp.pdf. From Slash and Burn to Sustainable Development from the Grassroots in Northeast India. 0inShare Share By Matt Styslinger “I know all about food security,” says Mitharam Maslai, a farmer from India’s Northeast highlands.
“We ate only pumpkin and bamboo shoots every year for two to three weeks because we had run out of rice.” IFAD is helping farmers in isolated Northeast India sustainably manage the rich local environment. Using a traditional ‘slash and burn’ method of farming known as jhum, indigenous villagers in this remote region were not producing enough rice to feed their families for the entire year. Environmental degradation was deepening the problem—people, not surprisingly, depend on the exploitation of natural resources to get them through the lean periods. Northeast India is considered a biodiversity hotspot and contains some of the subcontinent’s last remaining rainforest. The IFAD-supported project promoted sustainable environmental management practices in over 1,000 villages, including reforestation and the inclusion of dispersed trees in crop fields.
Restoring Biodiversity to Improve Food Security. 0inShare Share By Matt Styslinger The new report, Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century, published by The National Research Council’s (NRC) Committee on Twenty-first Century Systems Agriculture evaluates “alternative” agricultural approaches that could improve the sustainability of small-scale agricultural systems in less developed countries.
Biodiversity in farming systems is increasingly recognized as essential for sustainable agriculture and food security. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack) Biodiversity in farming systems is increasingly recognized as essential for sustainable agriculture and food security. The inclusion of non-crop vegetation on farmland provides valuable ecosystem services. Restored or constructed wetlands can be used to remove a variety of water quality contaminants, like erosion sediments and nitrogen and phosphorous from fertilizer and manure runoff.
Matt Styslinger is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet project. Valuing What They Already Have. 0inShare Share Danielle Nierenberg (left) with Richard Haigh of Enaleni Farm in Durban.
(Photo: Bernard Pollack) 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 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. 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. Similar posts:
Survey continues to find Innovations for Sustainable Ways to Alleviate Hunger. 0inShare Share By Alex Tung It has been almost one year since we started surveying readers about agricultural innovations being used all over the world.
We continue to receive interesting information, ideas, and recommendations from farmers, NGOs, research groups, and policymakers from all over the world. Here are some exciting responses fresh off our survey in English and French that we would like to share with you: We continue to receive interesting information, ideas, and recommendations from farmers, NGOs, research groups, and policymakers from all over the world.
From The Auria Project, in Australia: “Certain eucalyptus species that have evolved in arid regions physically harvest water from deep below the surface and literally irrigate the ground around them.” The “collaboration and support between the farmers and local agricultural professionals” has yielded great results. To learn more about the ISD, read Meet the Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group: Sue Edwards Similar posts: Innovation of the Week: Homegrown Solutions to Alleviating Hunger and Poverty. 0inShare Share Danielle (right) with Mary Naku, a 19 year-old student at the Sirapollo Kaggwass Secondary School in Uganda who is learning farming skills from DISC.
(Photo: Bernard Pollack) “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. “We are not saying stop growing maize, we grow maize as well,” continued Kristof. Greater variety can lead to a better tasting diet, too, according to Dr.