Agricultural Innovation: The United States in a Changing Global Reality

Reblogged from Agriculture for Impact:

On 24th April 2013, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released the report Agricultural Innovation: The United States in a Changing Global Reality authored by University of Minnesota researchers, Philip G. Pardey and Jason M. Beddow and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; DuPont; and The Quaker Oats Company.

The report states that due to the long-term decline in agricultural prices, continued population and food demand growth, and increasing environmental pressures such as climate change, a lack of water and degrading soils, the strain on global agricultural productivity is increasing. 

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New grass hybrid could help reduce the likelihood of flooding

Reblogged from Science on the Land:

What can farmers and growers do when the weather's gone weird? In this time of climate change, nobody can really tell you what kind of weather to expect. This is no joke if you're making your living on the land. Too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet, when you need your crops and your livestock.

You could sow a new…

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Reblogged from Science on the Land:

An incredible way of ensuring #FoodSecurity

Reblogged from LEARN SHARE CHANGE:

The Shade of The Afternoon

Reblogged from Listening For Thunder:

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10 Things I Didn't Know About Nitrogen Fertilizer

Reblogged from Food (Policy) For Thought:

I recently read this brief history of the use of nitrogen fertilizer, and it was so interesting to learn more about this crucial agricultural input! In my agricultural economics classes, we often use nitrogen as an input for our examples, so it was good to beef up my knowledge about it. Maybe you will discover a couple of new-to-you facts as well?

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Sustainable Agricultural Intensification: A Practical Solution for the Global Development Agenda

Reblogged from Agriculture for Impact:

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Gordon Conway writes for the Huffington Post.

Hunger, malnutrition, poverty, climate change, environmental degradation - addressing these injustices is at the forefront of political meetings the world over. Yet these problems persist as global leaders strive to find efficient and synergistic ways of tackling them sustainably. 

In Africa alone over 200 million people are chronically hungry and 40% of children under the age of 5 are stunted.

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Promoting Farm Mechanization among Small and Marginal Farmers

Reblogged from IAS Preparation Online:

The Ministry of Agriculture has various extension services for disseminating the know-how of modern agricultural technologies throughout the country which also includes remote/rural areas by following ways:

• Through establishment of Agriculture Technology Management Agencies (ATMA) for introduction of new technologies to the farmers.

• Through Kisan Call Centres (KCC) for providing the information on modern technologies to the farming community through toll free, country vide common number 1800-180-1551 in local languages.

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Bring back the neglected crops

Reblogged from Science on the Land:

'An adaptive, diversified agriculture will need to make use of many hundreds of crops that have become neglected by modern agriculture; crops that have been used for millennia but which have been increasingly forgotten as a few crops have become commercially dominant in food production.' So says the Cordoba Declaration.

Wise words. You can read the Cordoba Declaration at the link I've just given.

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India's Green Revolution:Successes, Failures and Second Green Revolution

Reblogged from Rashid's Blog:

In the 1960s, there was concern from the Indian government that the country would not be able to grow enough food to support the ever increasing population, so they put into place what was called the 'Green Revolution'. The idea of the 'Green Revolution' was to use technology to increase food output and as a result, over the last 50 years a series of changes have taken place in farming in…

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