1. Tony Gasbarro, University of Alaska, USA says:
“I am not an agricultural expert, but I have had a chance to work with poor farmers as a Peace Corps volunteer in El Salvador and have visited farmers in the Amazonian region of Peru. In my opinion strengthening agricultural extension services would be a good use of any additional agricultural funding.”
2. John Hassall says:
“I would like to see more agriculture funding go to food security projects that build the capacity of farmers to produce crops that are sustainable long-term rather than short term high yield crops.”
3. Kamal Khadka, Local Initiatives for Biodiversity Research and Development (LI-BIRD) , Nepal says:
“I am from an NGO in Nepal known as LI-BIRD. I am a plant breeder by profession. Regarding your question, being a citizen of one of the poorest countries in the world, I would like to see more funds directed towards agricultural research. In Nepal, the investment in agricultural research is extremely low. The donors are usually interested in investing in development-oriented projects. On the other hand the government of Nepal is unable to allocate even minimal resources for agricultural research. Hence, I feel that in a poor country like Nepal investment in agricultural research should be promoted along with investment in the development sector.
4. Farid Waliyar says:
“The only feedback I can give you is we need to invest more in dry land agriculture. Over 40 percent of investments should be in this area.”
5. Paul Barker, Care, Tanzania says:
“I would like to see far more investment in small scale conservation agriculture. It promotes technologies that restore and build soil fertility, do not depend on excessive external inputs, and build more dynamic, and therefore resilient, farming systems that will be required to adapt to changing climate circumstances.”
6. Grace Ndungu, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD), Kenya says:
“I would like to see more funding being directed to support and empower African women scientists. Female farmers play a very key role in African Agriculture, accounting for 80 percent of agricultural workforce. But only one in four agricultural researchers is female. There is an urgent need for a greater representation of women in the field of agricultural science and technology and to empowering them to contribute more effectively to poverty alleviation and food security in sub-Saharan Africa.”
photo credit: Bernard Pollack
7. Tozie Zokufa, Animal Voice, South Africa says:
“Funds need to be directed towards knowledge (skill) and mentoring of emerging farmers. You do not want to end up with white elephant farms, e.g. in Zimbabwe and South Africa where land is given back to people who do not know how to work it. I can also expand by saying that an owner of the farm (experienced owner) can be incentivized for training and mentoring up-and-coming farmers, and he himself can be monitored and evaluated by the funders.”
8. Krystyna Swiderska, IIED, United Kingdom says:
“More funding is needed to support traditional farming systems that nurture a rich genetic diversity. We have lost a third of all genetic diversity in the last 100 years largely due to the global spread of modern agriculture focusing on a very few species and varieties. This has greatly weakened the genetic basis for agriculture and our capacity to adapt to climate change. Yet rather than supporting the remaining pockets of diversity, governments tend to see traditional farming as a hindrance to development. Traditional farmers are continually improving and adapting local varieties to environmental change.”
9. Al-Hassana Idriss Outman, Africare, Senegal says:
“I would like to see more agricultural funding directed for investment in order to really get rid of recurrent food insecurity in Africa and external food aid dependency.”
Part 1: Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), & Pierre Castagnoli (Italy)
Part 2: Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), & Pascal Pulvery (France)
Part 3: Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (USA), & Amadou Niang
Part 4: Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), & Ron Gretlarson
Part 5: Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), & Monty P Jones (Ghana)
Part 6: Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), & Rob Munro (Zambia)
Part 7: Tom Philpott (USA), Grace Mwaura, & Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran
Part 8: Peter Mietzner (Namibia), Madyo Couto (Mozambique), & Norman Thomas Uphoff (USA)
Part 9: Tilahun Amede (Ethiopia), Shree kumar Maharjan (Nepal), & Ashwani Vasishth (USA)
Part 10: Mary Shawa (Malawi), Wayne S. Teel (USA), & Bell Okello (Kenya)
Part 11: Mark Wells (South Africa), Pashupati Chaudhary (USA), & Megan Putnam (Ghana)
Part 12: David Wallinga (USA), Ysabel Vicente, & Esperance Zossou (Benin)
Part 13: Susi Basith (Indonesia), Diana Husic (USA), & Carolina Cardona (Togo)
Part 14: Rachel Friedman, Jennifer Geist (USA), & Lowden Stoole
Part 15: Antonio Requejo, Alexandra Spieldoch (USA), & Daniele Giovannucci (USA)
Part 16: Mary Njenga (Kenya), Mabel Toribio, & Makere Stewart-Harawira (Canada)
Part 17: Dale Lewis (Zambia), Chris Ojiewo (Tanzania), & Molly Mattessich (USA)
Part 18: Gregory Bowman (USA), Lucila Nunes de Vargas, & Caroline Smith
Part 19: Tesfom Solomon (Sweden), Sahr Lebbie (USA), & Jenny Goldie (Australia)
Part 20: Steven Sweet, Vicki Lipski, & Viola Ransel
Part 21: Puspa R. Tiwari, Johan Staal (Netherlands), & Kevin Kamp (USA)
Part 22: Steve Osofsky (USA), John Vickrey (USA), & Michael Levenston (Canada)
Part 23: Vasan (India), Excellent Hachileka (Zambia), Royce Gloria Androa (Uganda)
Part 24: Pam Allee, Dennis Calvan, and Salibo (Burkina Faso)
What is your answer? Email me at Dnierenberg@Worldwatch.org or tweet your response to @WorldWatchAg
Danielle Nierenberg, an expert on livestock and sustainability, currently serves as Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington, DC-based environmental think tank. Her knowledge of factory farming and its global spread and sustainable agriculture has been cited widely in the New York Times Magazine, the International Herald Tribune, the Washington Post, and
other publications.
Danielle worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She is currently traveling across Africa looking at innovations that are working to alleviate hunger and poverty and blogging everyday at Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet. She has a regular column with the Mail & Guardian, the Kansas City Star, and the Huffington Post and her writing was been featured in newspapers across Africa including the Cape Town Argus, the Zambia Daily Mail, Coast Week (Kenya), and other African publications. She holds an M.S. in agriculture, food, and environment from Tufts University and a B.A. in environmental policy from Monmouth College.
