| Focus on: Climate sustainable agriculture |
Carbon trading uplifts livelihoods in Uganda
 Farming communities in seven districts of rural Uganda are countering the effects of climate change by planting trees to absorb carbon dioxide and restore the deforested environment. The scheme has nearly 2,000 farmers planting indigenous trees and getting paid for the amount of carbon their trees sequester from the atmosphere. read article |
Water harvesting in Nicaragua - a blue revolution
 In Nicaragua, construction of earth dams has allowed farmers to extend their cultivation into the dry season, creating ideal conditions to grow cash crops such as rice, beans, maize and water melons. read article |
Consulting the real experts on climate change adaptation
 Policymakers are looking for alternatives to broad national estimates of the costs of adapting to climate change. A new approach starts at the most local level, asking farmers to calculate the costs and benefits of possible strategies. read article |
Making money from soil carbon in Western Kenya
 Since 2007, Vi Agroforestry have been working to enable smallholder farmers in Western Kenya to adopt improved farming techniques, boost productivity, increase their resilience to climate change and earn carbon credits, through the use of sustainable land management practices. read article |
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| GFAR: Research innovations |
Finding solutions for climate change mitigation that benefit small farmers
 Researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute are working in Ghana, Mozambique, Morocco and Vietnam to assess the contribution that small farmers can make to carbon markets and ways to link them to these markets. read article |
Enhancing natural resources in Ecuador's highlands
 Ecuador's highlands are characterised by environmental degradation. Farmers are also concerned that rainfall is becoming increasingly irregular and water sources are not being recharged quickly enough. In response, a research partnership is helping to identify and introduce environmentally friendly farming practices to the area. read article |
How to achieve a sustainable global food system
 Early in 2011, the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change began devising specific policy responses to the challenge of feeding a world confronted by climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems.The Commissioners released their final report in March 2012. read article |
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| Developments |
Profiting from prawn in Bangladesh
 In southeast Bangladesh, rice production becomes impossible as rising levels of floodwater engulf the land swamping the rice fields in some areas. But a group of NGOs has enabled farmers to take up prawn cultivation during the wet season, improving food security and incomes. read article |
Rural youth shatter the myth of farming as a poor man's profession
 Among Kenyan youths, who comprise over 75 percent of the country's population, farming is seldom considered an attractive option. However, the tide is beginning to turn. The lure of profitable farming is prompting even urbanites to ditch white collar jobs and trade their designer suits and shoes for overalls and gumboots. read article |
Ghanaian women gain from roots and tubers
 With a special emphasis on women, IFAD's Root and Tuber Improvement and Marketing Programme is working to improve the food security and incomes of poor rural households in Ghana by enhancing production of roots and tubers through improved technologies and by developing skills in processing and marketing. read article |
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| Points of view |
Young people and the agri-food sector in Africa
 Agriculture is too often seen as an 'employment of last resort'. Yet millions of youth remain unemployed and governments appear incapable or unwilling to formulate policies that could provide young people with employment in the fast-changing agrifood sector. But what could make agriculture attractive to young job-seekers? read article |
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| In pictures |
Coping with crisis in the Sahel
 Low rainfall, poor harvests, high food prices and a lack of pasture mean that 13 million people are at risk of serious food shortages across the Sahel region. To help those worst affected by the crisis, Oxfam is running a number of programmes to provide income, water and animal healthcare. read article |
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| My perspective |
Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu
 Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, the Executive Director of The Smallholders Foundation in Nigeria, promotes the 'Climate Change on Air' project: a farmer-produced radio broadcast that provides relevant information about climate change to smallholders. read article |
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| Country profile |
Zambia
 Once at the forefront of the 'Green Revolution', Zambia has vast agricultural potential. Yet despite a favourable climate, fertile land and 40 per cent of the water resources in the entire southern African region, that potential is yet to be fully tapped. read article |
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| GFAR updates |
 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 |
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| News brief |
 Recent news, including a campaign to break secrecy behind global land deals, foot and mouth outbreak in Egypt, climate extremes threaten Asia's rice bowl and Ghana's cocoa sector taps youth ambassadors. read article |
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| Book reviews |
 Reviews of some of the latest agriculture and rural development publications. The lead review for this edition is Virtual water by Tony Allen. read article |
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