Farming To Feed The World – for Apr. 23, 2009

If you had a nickel for every magazine story that detailed the best ideas to pass your farm or ranch on to your children and grandchildren, you’d have one wealthy farm or ranch to pass on. If, however, you had a nickel for every magazine story that detailed what economic, environmental and political actions are

World Bank Lending Arm Extends Into Africa

The International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private sector lending arm, will nearly double its investment in agribusiness in Africa to $200 million during the 2009 fiscal year, a senior official said. IFC director for global agribusiness, Oscar Chemerinsky, said the lender would continue to ramp up its agribusiness investments as part of efforts to


Food Security Still A Problem As Hunger Rises

A fall in grain prices has led to the impression that food security is no longer a concern, but the number of people without enough to eat is still rising in a world facing recession, the United Nations said March 31. “The level of prices is still 19 per cent above the average of 2006

Asia-Pacific Poor Face Triple Crisis

Asian and Pacific countries are particularly vulnerable to the triple threat of food and fuel price volatility, climate change and the global economic crisis, a United Nations agency said March 26. This is because the region has almost two-thirds of the world’s poor and half of its natural disasters, the UN Economic and Social Commission


Scientists Join In Battle To Head Off Ug99

Amutant form of stem rust that wipes out wheat crops could spread to top producers in Asia unless new resistant varieties of wheat are distributed widely, experts say. Stem rust “annihilates, that’s not an exaggeration,” said Rick Ward, a rust expert from Cornell University. “Basically the entire world’s wheat crop is fertile breeding ground,” Ward

FAO Says Grain Prices Could Rebound

Stocks of agricultural commodities remain low and prices could start to rise again if there is an earlier-than-expected economic rebound, Alexander Sarris of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said March 12. “Stocks are not very big now. They still have to be built up… If all of a sudden demand turns out to


Recession Compounds World Food Crisis

The global economic downturn has compounded the food crisis, pushing more people over the brink of hunger and threatening stability around the world, the head of the United Nations’ food relief agency said March 3. Food supplies are tight and expensive, and more people in poor countries are unable to afford what they need because

FAO Sees World Rice Stocks Rising Eight Per Cent In 2009

World stocks of rice, one of the food staples across the globe, are expected this year to hit the highest level since 2002 on the back of strong output in 2008, the United Nations’ food agency said on Feb. 25. World rice stocks carried over to 2009 are forecast to rise eight per cent to


Iraq To Revive Dead Farmland By Sucking Out Salt

Iraq started flushing excess salinity out of millions of acres of land Dec. 1 in a project aimed at cleansing rivers, breathing new life into dying soils and reviving what was once part of “the fertile crescent.” Though Iraq is wetter and more arable than many of its desert-covered neighbours, centuries of irrigation and overuse

UN Sees Food Production Down 25 Per Cent By 2050

Up to a quarter of global food production could be lost by 2050 due to the combined impact of climate change, land degradation and loss, water scarcity and species infestation, the United Nations said Feb. 17. The fall-off will strike just as two billion more people are added to the world’s population, according to the