Weekend Reading: Jan 21

Below are some excellent links on articles, events and announcements in issues related to agriculture and food security. Also, starting next week, AGDES is moving to Nicaragua. I'll continue blogging about international agriculture with more emphasis on field work and the behind it. Enjoy the reading, 

• A comprehensive calendar of DC events and activities on food security an agriculture. Check it out from time to time and join the group
  
• Presentation and notes from the Driving Innovation: How Enterprise ICT Models are Changing Agricultural Extension event organized by USAID and Agrilinks 
• Another relevant DC event on Food Security organized by MicroLinks: Pathways Out of Poverty: Using Value Chains to Move Vulnerable Households Up the Economic Ladder
• UC Davis Receives $40 M to Lead Major Multistate Ag Research Programs in the development of climate-change-tolerant wheat and barley plants and the other at sequencing the genomes of loblolly pine and two other conifers
• Event Notification: 5th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture
  
• World Watch Institute: State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet
  
• NYT's Dot Earth Blogs "Varied Menus for Sustaining a Well-Fed World" about opposing views on how to feed 9 billion people and the need for an 'all of the above approach.
• BBSRC and DFID, both partners in the UK's Global Food Security program, announce a new initiative to improve food security in the developing worl
  

As always, send comments and suggestions to agdes.blog@gmail.com
Rafael

Wknd Reading Oct 9th.

News, articles, and reports from on food security and agriculture

• The Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) Launches Official Website: GAFSP has launched an official website housing information on the fund, its recipients and the proposal process. The fund is a multilateral mechanism to assist in the implementation of pledges made by the G8++ at L'Aquila in July 2009 and set up in response to a request from the G20 in Pittsburgh in September 2009. The fund is administered by the World Bank and assist the programs resulting from the implementation of CAADP.
• We Can End Hunger: 10 Ways to Feed the World. Excellent article on the Huffington Post byJosette Sheeran, the Executive Director of the UN World Food Programme
• Ecoagriculture Partners announces CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURE, FOOD SECURITY AND CLIMATE CHANGE
• Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa: News Brief: Week of October 4 2010
• Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) e-Newsletters  Issue 06 Tuesday, 5 October 2010. Check oped  by Agnes Kalibata and Joseph Sam Sesay on the need for international support to African's green revolution 
• World Bank: Improving Food Security and Livelihood in Ethiopia through Agricultural Growth
• Montana State University receives grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to fight wheat rust http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=8858
• Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog  A breakthrough in West Africa?
• Cowpea scientists promise to end African hunger
• U.S. Seeks Supporters for $1 Billion Global Food Security Fund, Lago Says
• USAID's Impact Blog: Food Security Month @ USAID: Linking Agriculture, Economic Growth, and Nutrition
• Planting Now, Agricultural Challenges and Opportunities for Haiti's Reconstruction, Oxfam
• NYTimes Raisins Give Hope to Afghan Farmers

Wknd Reading Sept 19: Sunday Edititon

A short list for this wknd reading:

• Sylvia Mathews Burwell,  President of the Global Development Program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, writes about A Green Revolution Growing in West Africa
• For DC area resident, see list of different events on food security and agriculture happening in the next couple weeks.
• Why Stunting Matter? A very good technical brief from Alive and Thrive
• News Brief: Week of September 13 2010 from Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa

Wknd Reading Sept 13th: Monday Edition

Agdes starts this week of with a fresher look. I also fixed some broken links and got rid of some outdated content (Thanks Joe). As always, email me if you have relevant material to share.
Here is your reading list for the week(end):

• The new addition to our list of relevant reports: Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can it Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits? This long report offers an analysis of the rush to secure food supply, triggered by the 2007-08 Food Crisis. 
• Don't starve thy neighbor, The Economist
• Book: Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century. "This book assesses the scientific evidence for the strengths and weaknesses of different production, marketing, and policy approaches for improving and reducing the costs and unintended consequences of agricultural production. It discusses the principles underlying farming systems and practices that could improve the sustainability. serves as a valuable resource for policy makers, farmers, experts in food production and agribusiness, and federal regulatory agencies".
• NYTimes: Food Crisis Worsens in West Africa
• The first issue of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) is now online 
• Christian Science Monitor: Mozambique bread riots may be warning sign on African food security
• Financial Times: Time is ripe for a global food plan

Weekend Reading (WR) Aug 13

For this week's list of a ag and food security weekend reading, don't miss Natures's articles and the paper on international food security. As always, send me an email to agdesblog@gmail.com with any suggestions next Friday. enjoy.

• Can Science Feed the World? Nature, August 2010: Excellent compilation of articles and agriculture research
  
• Gates Foundation inform us about their progress on Ag grants
  
• The Political Economy of Trade and Food Security. A good paper on global food security and what's needed to feed the one billion hungry and the many to come..the picture is quite bleak. One of the authors, M. Ann Tutwiler from USDA, plays a leadership role at Feed the Future Initiative
• Virginia's senator Jim Webb criticizes Millennium Challenge Account for a recent award given to a Chinese state-owned company to build an airport in Mali. Read why Webb's ideas are misguided and expensive
  
• An opinion piece by Gordon Conway on the Financial Time about the importance to honor the L'Aquila commitment and support ag-lead development
  
• Remarks from Jim Miller, USDA's Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the International Food Aid and Development Conference in Kansas City  
• IFPRI asks "Do Health Investments Improve Agricultural Productivity?" The answer, we don't know yet 

Picture of my garden to come soon!

Weekend Reading (WR)

Links to articles, events, reports, and sites. Have any suggestion? Send me an email and I'll add it to next's Friday round of GWR 

• President Obama's announcement at the G8 Summit of "A New Approach to Global Development," outlining a more significant role for global development. See also the administration new initiative Feed the Future
  
• Events and Activities on agriculture and food security taking place in the Washington Area
  
• Two weeks away from the USDA & USAID 2010 International Food Aid & Development Conference in Kansas City MI . This blogger will be there 
• Notes from IYCN's presentation on Maximizing Nutritional Benefits from Agricultural Interventions
• Informative blog on M&E in Development Project: Rick on the Road 
• In grad school and wanting to do ag-related field research? Check A Guide to Effective and Relevant Graduate Research in Africa definitely of one the best resources I've seen 
• Sign up for Global Food for Thought Listserv from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. They send weekly emails with a plethora of reports, events, policy discussion, research and much more on international food security. Highly recommended