Where Would You Like to See More Agricultural Funding Directed?

1. Mark Wells, Gaia Cooperative , South Africa says:
“I believe that agricultural funds should be directed towards providing real agro-ecological support to rural households, which includes integrated pest management, rainwater harvesting and other best practices and technologies to make the most of their local resources, whilst at the same time developing equitable distribution systems such as local processing and distribution cooperatives linked to consumer cooperatives.”

2. Pashupati Chaudhary, Dept. of Biology, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA says:
“I believe more investment should go to smallholders as well (Asia has 87% and Africa has 8% of them). However, more focus should be given on participatory research to develop drought-tolerant varieties as Africa and a part of Asia are already water-stressed, and we expect more drought in future. In addition, IRRI and ICARDA should increase their investment for Africa and Asia, the two major hunger hotspots. ICARDA spends only about 10% of its total budget for SSA and Asia (excluding central and west Asia) and IRRI spends about the same for Africa.”

3. Megan Putnam, Engineers Without Borders, Ghana says:
“I’d like to see more funding directed to an “innovation fund” that supports young agricultural entrepreneurs to invest in starting agricultural businesses.”

What is your answer? Email me at [email protected] or tweet your response to @WorldWatchAg

Danielle Nierenberg

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.