Blog for People, Food and Nature

The international consortium of agricultural research facilities - the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) - recently launched their newest research program on Water, Land and Ecosystems. CRP5, as it is known, is devoting an initial US$75 million to research on how agricultural intensifica…

[caption id="attachment_802" align="aligncenter" width="1202" caption="Palm Oil Expansion in Aceh Province, Sumatra, Indonesia"][/caption] By Lee Gross, Project Manager for Markets and Biodiversity EcoAgriculture Partners, Washington DC, USA How do we know we are having an impact? This is a critical question posed by r…

It's all about the soil. And a recent Nature news article postures soil fertility as vital to food security and poverty alleviation in Africa. Soil in many parts of Africa is deficient in organic matter, as well as key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous. Crop yields are the lowest in the world, and synthetic input…

Protecting the Pigs By Srdjan Stojanovic & Milan Ivankovic, Advisors Ministry of Agriculture, Trade, Forestry and Water Management, Department for Rural Development, Republic of Serbia If you were to fly over Serbia, you would see two types of animal production systems: a highly specialized, high-input production…

In support of a recent book published on Integrated Natural Resource Management in the Highlands of Eastern African, Ethiopian scientist Tilahun Amede discusses lessons from the working on natural resources management in the region. Dr. Amede, who has a joint appointment with the International Livestock Research Instit…

One of the challenges inherent in something as multi-faceted as the Landscapes for People, Food and Nature Initiative, is developing a common language for communicating the various messages and ideas around integrated landscape approaches. We began the discussion on this topic looking at the terminology surrounding "la…