CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Better farm productivity is not enough - We need to “talk more about losing less”

If humanity is to continue to avert disaster and the Malthusian nightmare as growing populations exert ever increasing pressures on scarce earth resources, then we need some new solutions to old problems in agriculture, and we need to use some of the old solutions a lot better. In particular we need to recognise that we can’t just go on indefinitely hoping to produce more food, we also need to look after what we’ve produced and reduce losses and waste.
 
The CABI Global Summit, being held in London today brought together some of the world’s experts on the issue of Food Security. In the first open session they directed their discussion to thoughts on how we might hope to achieve the first and potentially the most intractable Millennium Development Goal, to ‘Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger’.
 
The problem is stark: the current world population is approaching 7 billion, and is set to top 9 billion by 2050. Of these about 1 billion of the poorest people go hungry most days. “Those in poverty want the same as the rest of us, good education for their children, security and hope for the future, but most of all they want to know where their next meal is coming from”, said Dennis Rangi, CABI Executive Director for International Development. In the past year, prices in global food commodities have soared, in part as a result of the global economic crisis, and those that have felt the impacts most have been the global poor. Many producers of food in are often themselves acute sufferers of food shortages; smallholder farmers.
 

Food Security - helping to achieve MDG1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Representatives from more than 40 countries have gathered today to attend a day of presentations and debate. In a highly stimulating first session, a number of global thought leaders gave their views on food security into the future: can this be achieved and if so how?

 
CABI's Executive Director for International Development, Dr Dennis Rangi, indicated that in many countries close to 50% of crop production is lost to pests and diseases in the fields, or to post-harvest damages. He also described the issue of a retiring agricultural sector - both agricultural scientists and farmers are not followed-up by young recruits or descendents as the younger population associates farming with a non-rewarding livelihood. He closed his presentation with this message: people who live in poverty want a good life for their children, just as rich people, but above all, they want a good next meal. He closed by saying that CABI is committed to contribute to Millenium Development Goal 1 by helping farmers grow more and lose less.

The World’s Happiest City is even happier now – Rio will host the 2016 Olympic Games

Photo credit: oglobo.com

A week ago, Brazilians were celebrating, after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced, in Copenhagen, that Rio de Janeiro was chosen as the city to host the 2016 Olympic Games, beating Chicago, Tokyo and Madrid. The Brazilian President Lula cried with emotion, as he heard the news, and so did many Brazilians in Copenhagen and in Rio. However, there was a lot more laughing, singing and dancing than crying for the rest of the day. It will be the first time the Olympic Games will be held in South America, which was one of the major factors in Rio’s favour. Christ the Redeemer really seems to be watching over Rio lately, since only a month ago, Rio came top as the happiest city in the world, in a survey by the economic magazine Forbes (an online survey of 10,000 people in 20 countries). Some have questioned Rio’s infrastructure as an Olympic city. I must admit I always saw Rio as a place with the most uniquely beautiful landscape, where you’d go to relax in lovely wide and white sand beaches; where you play beach volleyball for fun, but not a place for strenuous sports. However, at the same time, I can’t see a better place to relax after playing some strenuous sport. Now that we, Brazilians, have digested the news and calmed down, I have browsed through some Brazilian websites to see what is in place already and any further plans to get Rio ready for the Olympics. Read on to see a summary of my findings.

PlanetCall.org - Copenhagen Climate Council campaign to gather 1 million signatures from youths around the globe

Credit: PlanetCall.org

A website endorsed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, PlanetCall.org, aims to collect 1 million signatures from youth in the final 100 days to COP15. Read on to find out how.

Food Price Hikes – Crisis and Opportunity?

The drastic rises in prices of food during 2007-2008 had severe consequences, but could such rises present an opportunity? Antonio Martuscelli believes “High food prices in the short-run are very damaging for low-income groups of the population in developing countries. At the same time, high prices are an incentive for producers and extremely important for generating an aggregate supply response and to re-establish a long-run equilibrium.” His work is published in CAB Reviews in the run-up to CABI’s Global Summit on “Food Security in a Climate of Change” in London, 19-21 October.

Martuscelli, of the University of Sussex says that it is vital that short- and long-term issues are balanced. “The problem of high prices of basic food commodities exposes governments and societies to a great challenge that can only be addressed by means of a comprehensive food policy for the coming years. The challenge is to address the adverse impact of high food prices in the short run without compromising the long-run equilibrium of agricultural markets.”

Martuscelli’s views are published in one of a series of papers in CAB Reviews (listed below) on the food crises published over the last few months. These reviews look at issues such as the extent to which diversion of resources to biofuel production could be a factor.

Brazilian soap operas and birth control - a strong link

A bit of CNN news on how Brazil's soap opera are linked to a dramatic drop in birth rates in Brazil, was brought to my attention by fellow ‘handpicked’ blogger Mark Palmer, as I’m the Brazilian blogger at CABI. Although the CNN news is reporting a new study result on the subject, this is actually quite old news. I remember attending a seminar in the late 1980s, delivered by a Brazilian sociologist, on how the population census had greatly over-estimated the population increase in various South American countries, especially Brazil, because the census hadn’t allowed for the effect soap operas would have on influencing people’s behaviour with regard to birth control. Read on to find out the results of recent research on the subject.

Current science on Arctic warming and its global effects

Over the past few decades, the Arctic has warmed at about twice the rate of the rest of the globe. This has resulted in destabilisation of important Arctic systems, including sea ice, the Greenland Ice Sheet, mountain glaciers and aspects of the Arctic carbon cycle. A peer-reviewed report dealing with the subject was produced by WWF and brings together top climate scientists who assessed the current science on Arctic warming and its global effects. Read on to find out more.

Matt Damon and Water.org - working toward global access to safe water

 

Matt Damon (actor and H2O Africa co-founder) and Gary White (WaterPartners executive director and co-founder) have announced the launch of a new organisation – Water.org – which is focused on improving access to safe water and sanitation in the developing world. Water.org will help the nearly 890 million people without safe water and the more than 2.5 billion people without safe sanitation, said the press release.

Forest destruction threatens Kenya's economy

Photo from Landcoalition.org 

East Africa's wildebeest migration, which crosses the River Mara and brings vast herds of animals into the Maasai Mara game reserve, is one of the great wildlife spectacles of the world. But the migration, and other iconic wildlife attractions including the millions of flamingos that Lake Nakuru in Kenya is famous for, are under threat from the drying up of many of Kenya's rivers. Destruction of the Mau Forest Complex is being blamed, and moves to protect the forest have been hitting the headlines in East Africa over recent weeks.

The Mau Forest Complex, a 400,000 ha montane forest, is the largest forest in Kenya. It also forms the upper catchments of all except one of the main rivers in Kenya east of the Rift Valley, including the Mara River and the three rivers (Njoro, Makalia and Nderit) which feed Lake Nakuru. River Molo, which also has its source in the Mau, no longer finds its way to Lake Baringo, another tourist destination. Lake Natron, fed by River Ewaso Ng'iro, is the breeding ground for flamingoes that are the main attraction at Lake Nakuru.

Low water levels in the River Mara meant that the wildebeest migration was less dramatic this year, while the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) is having to spend Sh250,000 a month to provide water for wildlife in the Lake Nakuru National Park. This is the second most visited destination in Kenya, and brings Sh5 billion revenue from tourism according to 2007 estimates.

Kenya Wildlife Service assistant director in charge of Central Rift conservation area, Ms Anne Kahihia, said recently that Lake Nakuru might be extinct in five years. She warned of a looming disaster if destruction of the Mau Forest Complex and other catchment areas was not stopped.

If you go to Brazil tonight…

You will surely have the time of your life – as it is Carnival time! The Brazilian Carnival is usually associated with Rio de Janeiro and the Samba Schools parading along the Sambadrome, and is said to be the biggest street party in the world. However, it happens throughout Brazil in the streets and in night clubs. It is a tradition and almost all Brazilians of all ages, social class and religious belief take part and party together for the four days before Ash Wednesday. The question however is this: is the financial crisis going to affect this year’s celebrations?