GFAR announcements: The latest edition of New Agriculturist (01/2013) is now online
Newsletter date: 22/01/2013
The latest edition of New Agriculturist (2013-1) is now online at www.new-ag.info. This special edition of New Agriculturist, which has been supported by the Global Forum, shares some of the achievements of the second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2) held in Punte del Este in Uruguay in 2012 and looks at how the Conference outcomes will be taken forward, through the plans and commitments of those involved in each of these areas.
Over the year ahead, GFAR is continuing to sponsor a series of articles in New Agriculturist, highlighting your actions and sharing stories of how you have taken forward the key programmes and partnership initiatives discussed in GCARD2. Through this, we aim to help to scale out knowledge of your work and your development impacts among thousands of readers.
If you would like to subscribe directly to New Agriculturist online, it is free of charge, simply sign up at http://www.new-ag.info/en/subscribe.php
We look forward to your further contributions to each themed edition and to bringing wider attention to how you are all now “Delivering the change together”.
| New Agriculturist | |
| The latest edition of New Agriculturist (2013-1) is now online at www.new-ag.info. In this special edition of New Agriculturist, we share some of the achievements of the second Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD2) held in Punte del Este in Uruguay in October 2012 and look at how the Conference outcomes will be taken forward, through the plans and commitments of those involved in each area. |
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A new global assessment of agricultural R&D has provided data to inform debates at GCARD2 about global R&D spending, contradicting conventional wisdom that investments in the developing world have been slowing down. read article
The Global Foresight Hub is calling on forward thinkers to come together and share their diverse approaches to foresight, orienting research towards plausible futures for agriculture. read article
Agriculture has rarely been explicitly deployed to address health and nutrition challenges. Examples of meeting nutritional needs through a diversity of agricultural approaches were presented at GCARD2. read article
To raise the voice of smallholders to help re-balance policies and interventions, the Empowering Smallholder Farmers in Markets programme is working to strengthen collaborative, farmer-led research for advocacy. read article
AWARD builds the scientific and leadership skills of African women agricultural scientists, helping to inspire change and ensure that research is meeting the needs of smallholders. read article
The development of ICTs is helping extension become more efficient and farmer-friendly. But the challenge is how to scale up pilot projects to reach millions of smallholders. GCARD2 highlighted examples of knowledge access as a way to unlock the potential of smallholder agriculture. read article
Many of the challenges facing agriculture and natural resources management can be addressed through innovation. The Tropical Agriculture Platform has been developed to facilitate more effective capacity development interventions in innovation systems in tropical agriculture. read article
To promote effective communication from GCARD2, a team of young agri-professionals from around the world was trained to provide social media coverage of the event. read article
Research, development and academic institutions in South America and West and Central Africa are testing various yam bean types for their suitability for African conditions. read article
IFPRI's has investigated how small changes to farm produce supply contracts can make them more attractive to smallholders while also producing benefits for the contracting companies. read article
Speakers at The Economist's Feeding the World summit emphasised the role of African governments and business-oriented agriculture in stimulating greater food production on the continent. read article
What direction should agricultural research be taking to best contribute to poverty and hunger reduction? And how can the impact of that research be maximised? These were some of the issues that were discussed at GCARD2. read article
For the people of Lukolela on the Congo River, reforesting the river banks and planting a green belt around their town have been adopted as a strategy to cope with climate changes. read article
Stakeholder participation is important in any field of work, but what does it mean in practice? Is the involvement of smallholder farmers restricted to obtaining information or for validating results? In a session at GCARD2 on equitable partnership for improved foresight, Oxfam's Gine Zwart shares her thoughts. read article
Most of Madagascar's plants and mammals exist nowhere else on earth. But much of this celebrated biodiversity and Malagasy livelihoods are under threat from habitat loss, climate change, insecurity, corruption and a lack of governance. read article
GFAR present a selection of brief news items based around recent international and regional events and meetings concerned with agricultural innovation and its implications in development. read article
Recent news, including Zambia taking action to control army worm outbreak, Myanmar fisheries to get a boost, 'Big Facts' demonstrate where climate change and agriculture meet, and a new alliance for research uptake. read article
Reviews of some of the latest agriculture and rural development publications, including Full Planet, Empty Plates by Lester R. Brown. read article
