BIJBEHARA, INDIA, Sep 29 (IPS) - Creating resilience is crucial to climate change justice. In Bijbehara, a hamlet south of Kashmir s capital, Srinagar, lavender farming has meant farmers grappling with unseasonal rains, prolonged heat waves, and severe water scarcity have found a new means of survival.
Mohammad Subhan Dar diligently tends to some bright purple plants on a four-acre farm in Bijbehara, a hamlet south of Kashmir’s capital, Srinagar. As you draw nearer, you’ll be mesmerized by the sight of sprawling lavender fields, where about 10 to 15 farmers, including Dar, prepare for a promising harvest.
BULAWAYO, ZIMBABWE, Sep 27 (IPS) - Zimbabwe is riding a wave of food security assurances after what officials said was last year’s bumper grain harvest, but recent El Niño forecasts could test the country’s agriculture production ambitions.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 25 (IPS) - When the UN’s 193 member states reviewed the current status of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including the eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2030, the verdict was mostly failures and with little or no successes.The hunger/poverty nexus was best characterized by Alvaro Lario, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), who warned last week that under current trends, 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty in 2030 and as many people suffering from hunger by 2030 as in 2015 (600 million people).
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 20 (IPS) - Despite the dominance of the “Big Three” cereal crops and a steady rise in meat consumption, an overlooked food sector is projected to become ever more central to Africa’s food security and rural economic growth between now and 2050.
URBANA, Illinois, USA, Sep 08 (IPS) - A few weeks ago, my husband and I drove from Illinois to Iowa to visit a friend. I was excited about my over 5 hours’ drive. Sadly, 60 minutes into the drive, my excitement fiddled out. I was bored. Field after field, as far as my eyes could see, all I saw was either corn or soybean. I also noticed that the field margins were empty-with no sight of wildflowers.