Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture – Page 12

Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture2016-05-242023-07-10

Asia Trade Deal RCEP Will Undercut Farmers’ Control Over Seeds

Viewpoint by GRAIN

BARCELONA (IDN-INPS) – Ever since the ink dried on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), people have become aware of another mega-trade deal being negotiated behind closed doors in the Asia-Pacific region. Like the TPP, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) threatens to increase corporate power in member countries, leaving ordinary people with little recourse to assert their rights to things like land, safe food, life-saving medicines and seeds.

RCEP is being negotiated between the ten countries that form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their six biggest trading partners in the region: Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

According to the latest leaked draft of the RCEP agreement, dated October 15, 2015 and published by Knowledge Ecology International, the negotiating countries fall into two camps when it comes to legal rights over biodiversity and traditional knowledge useful for food production and medicine.

Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture2016-02-252023-07-10

Scientists Deal with a Silent Killer of Productive Lands

BEIRUT (INPS) – Salinity is one of the most severe environmental factors limiting agricultural productivity. According to the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), rising salinity is fast becoming a silent killer of productive lands in areas like the Indo-Gangetic Basin, Euphrates River Basin, Nile Delta, and Aral Sea Basin.

The global cost of salinity-afflicted loss in crop yields is roughly 27.3 billion USD per year, according to a recent study, ‘Economics of Salt-induced Land Degradation and Restoration’, published by the Research Program on Water and Land Ecosystems of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Moreover, the salinized areas are increasing at a rate of 10% annually for various reasons.

Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture2016-01-202023-07-10

Connecting Small Holder Farmers to Global Markets for Food Security

DAVOS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on January 20 an important agreement which is the next step towards unlocking opportunities for smallholder farmers in the developing world.