The farmers’ equity component is perhaps the most puzzling aspect of last week’s announcement that CWB has been sold. We can see the advantages to the Harper government of getting the company off its books. Moving the western Canadian grain-marketing system to an open market was an election promise that came with baggage; the administration
Editorial: The farmers’ (equity) trust in the CWB
The sale of the CWB to Global Grain Group leaves many new questions for Prairie farmers
Editorial: Why do women in agriculture go largely unrecognized?
Two realities collided in our news release inbox last week. First, we received a release from the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) announcing a research project that will examine and address critical barriers to advancement that women face in the agricultural industry. “The purpose of this initiative is to engage women and stakeholders within
Moving from famine relief to relief from famine
Ethiopia has made solid gains thanks to a co-ordinated attack on the root causes of hunger
Famine relief was a hit in the 1980s — literally — as pop music stars donated the proceeds of their collaboration on the song “Feed the World” to help feed starving people in Ethiopia. It was a sincere effort that raised millions and was part of a global response by governments and aid and development
Making life a little less hard for women
When communities started talking, they discovered all would be better off if harmful traditions were abandoned
If there’s a list of “worst places in the world to be born a woman,” Benishangul-Gumuz would rank near the top. This is a place that remains steeped in cultural taboos and superstitions, many of them targeted at women. The sanitized bureaucratic terminology is “harmful traditional practices (HTPs),” the origins of which no one seems
Irrigation project means year-round food, and more
A Canadian government-supported project has led to impressive gains in yields, and in health of the local population
Vegetables were once a rarity in this community located three hours northeast of Asosa in the remote Benishangul-Gumuz region of Western Ethiopia. If onions, potatoes and tomatoes were available at all, they had travelled a long distance and been on at least three trucks. They were expensive, often prohibitively so, and poor quality. Two of
Editorial: They brought in plows?
When a consortium of Canadian non-government organizations funded by the Canadian government arrived in the Benishangul-Gumuz state in Western Ethiopia five years ago, their primary goal was to help smallholder farmers boost productivity and food security. They came in with “modern” farming methods. In this context, that meant oxen and plows, showing farmers how to
Delivering the water of life
Cash crops often replace food crops in farming
It was almost 30 years ago, but the engineer who brought water to Bila remembers well the people’s plight prior to irrigation. Many were refugees who had been repatriated after the Ethiopia-Somalian war. They were given a piece of canvas for shelter, a shovel, pickaxe, a goat and a cart — and told to start over.
The gift of water 28 years later
Bila farmers are producing wealth thanks to small-scale irrigation, but who is reaping the rewards?
The old man’s eyes grew teary when he was asked to remember what it was like before the water came. “There was a drought,” Ahmed Sahle Ahmed said through an interpreter as he sat on a floor mat in the family’s home. “We were having problems, we had no food.” That was in the early
Project shows link between healthy soils and healthy people
A unique project is improving nutrition and incomes through better farming practices
A little yellow seed is sprouting big changes for farming families here in the Great Rift Valley, within reach of the Hawassa University extension services. Chickpeas grown as a double crop after maize are boosting families’ nutrition, providing extra income and helping improve the soils. Farmers here have traditionally grown one crop of maize, tef
Increasing food security and nutrition
More families are eating better food more often
Who would have thought cooking could be so tasty — oh, and nutritious too? As we sat in the shade of a tree outside the Tiyanjane Co-op Society Ltd., members of the cooking subgroup explained through an interpreter how they once looked upon soybeans as a cash crop, not something they could eat. Now they