Teaching the next generation how to farm is the first step to solving the food crisis in Africa. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)
1. Tom Philpott, Maverick Farms and Grist, USA
“I’d like to see more funding for research into how smallholders can efficiently build soil fertility without recourse to synthetic and mined fertilizers.”
2. Grace Mwaura, Kenya, says:
“I would like to see the Funding directed in the following areas (especially in the African setting): (1) More investment in agricultural developments working with small scale farmers and providing packages that can enhance their food production. (2) More investment in the infrasctructure to enhance transport, and marketing of the small scale farmers produce even in the most remote places in Africa (where food production is high). (3) More investment on educating school going children (from primary to higher education levels) on sustainable agriculture and supporting a lifeskills based agricultural learning in the institutions. Teaching the next generation how to farm is the first step to solving the food crisis in Africa.”
3. Thangavelu Vasantha Kumaran, India, says:
“I would very much like future funding to be directed to small and marginal farmers and in improving their productivity with a view to securing food for the future. I would also like connecting them with efforts towards complete, progressive organic farming to reduce the chemical pollution loads in land and water. Sustainable small scale, private sector agriculture should be the focus of this support.”
See PART I to hear from Dave Andrews (USA), Dave Johnstone (Cameroon), and Pierre Castagnoli (Italy).
See Part II to hear from Paul Sinandja (Togo), Dov Pasternak (Niger), and Pascal Pulvery (France).
See Part III to hear from Christine McCulloch (UK), Hans R Herren (VA), and Amadou Niang (Mali).
See Part IV to hear from Michel Koos (Netherlands), Don Seville (USA), and Ron Gretlarson
See Part V to hear from Shahul Salim, Roger Leakey (Kenya), and Monty P Jones (Ghana)
See Part VI to hear from Calestous Juma (USA), Ray Anderson (USA), and Rob Munro (Zambia)
What is your answer? Email 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.
