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Agriculture as practiced in most parts of the world today will simply not feed a human population of 9 billion by 2050. Innovation in food production is needed, and it needs to be adopted on a wide scale.

Indeed, the purpose of the ongoing Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) 2015 has been to bring together global leaders, policy makers, researchers, manufacturers and community leaders to showcase and discuss the best agricultural innovations.The high-profile event was opened with keynote speeches by HH Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al-Nayan of the United Arab Emirates, HRH King George Rukidi IV of Toro, Uganda, HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales,  and US Vice President John Kerry.

The agricultural innovations needed will necessarily raise productivity and water-use efficiency of crops, while protecting the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farming.

At a GFIA Innovators Session on agroforestry, organized by Dr Dennis Garrity, Senior Fellow at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), several such innovations were presented. These low-cost and highly effective innovations promise higher crop yields, healthier soils and higher incomes for farmers, particularly the poorest smallholders in the developing world. The innovations also contribute to climate resilience for people and the planet.

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For Roberto Pineda, a smallholder farmer in the Somotillo municipality of Nicaragua, his traditional practice after each harvest was to cut down and burn all crop residues on his land, a practice known as “slash-and-burn” agriculture.

A widespread practice on these sub-humid hillsides of Central America, it was nonetheless causing many negative environmental implications, including poor soil quality, erosion, nutrient leaching, and the loss of ecosystem diversity. Slash-and-burn allows farmers to use land for only one to three years before the plots become too degraded and must be abandoned.

“We used to work in our traditional way, pruning everything down to the ground, and if there was anything left we would burn it,” he said. “The land would be destroyed and things weren’t getting better.”

But about three years ago, Pineda and a group of farmers became involved in an agroforestry programme overseen by a group of partners including the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) as well as Nicaraguan, American, Austrian and Colombian institutions.

The programme works with farmers to enhance the eco-efficiency of their rural landscapes, helping them to introduce stress-adapted crop and forage options and improve crop and livestock productivity and profitability. This helps smallholders not only to improve local ecosystems but also to adapt to extreme climate conditions and safeguard soil fertility and food production over the long term.

“Now we have seen a change,” Pineda said. “We used to yield 10 quintals per manzana, and now we produce between 30 and 40 quintals per manzana. We have improved our natural resources, and trees have grown. Before, we had no trees and there was no rain.”

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Foto: Roy BeuskerThe National Postcode Lottery in the Netherlands, a lottery program that donates 50 percent of its proceeds to charities, announced yesterday a nearly €1.3 million three-year grant to The Hunger Project, to scale up its successful Moringa nutrition program in Benin to Uganda, Ethiopia and Malawi.

Moringa is a tropical tree whose leaves are packed with more vitamins and minerals than most foods we know. The tree is extremely rich in protein, vitamins A, B and C and other minerals that are key to combatting malnutrition.

“The Hunger Project developed a strategy, together with farmers and local volunteers, of knowing, planting and eating,” Pascal Djohossou, Country Director of The Hunger Project in Benin explained. Through the program, communities are mobilized to create nurseries to grow Moringa and factories to produce Moringa powder. The Hunger Project and its volunteer leaders also educate communities about the benefits of this power food and train them how to cook with it. These trainings are part of a larger program to educate people about proper health and nutrition for pregnant and nursing mothers and young children. By breaking the cycle of malnutrition at the start, healthy mothers deliver healthy babies who can grow into healthy, productive adults

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Burundi may be the smallest among the five countries in the East African Community (EAC), but stands out as the giant in environmental conservation and management.
Farmers have been mobilised and taught about soil erosion control measures. Particularly, growing trees on hills and slopes. Large tracts of land in this largely hilly country have been cultivated. There are thousands of hectares of eucalyptus trees, bananas, coffee, maize and cassava.

Environmental experts from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were impressed by Burundi’s success story. During a five-day visit under the auspices of the Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project (LVEMP-II), the officials noted the environment conservation efforts, via mobilisation of communities, designing programmes and effectively implementing them.
Agnes Tobterik, a director in Kenya’s State Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said she was impressed by the greening of the mountain and hill tops with eucalyptus trees, grass-banding, construction of ridges/contours and terracing to control soil erosion.
“We have learnt a lot of lessons here, especially how the government and the people are addressing environmental challenges…… partly through good agricultural practices.” Tobterik said at a press briefing in Gitega, central Burundi. She added that the regional exchange visit was an opportunity to learn about Burundi’s implementation of environment and agricultural policies.

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Indian agriculture witnessed high growth since mid-1960s due to introduction of dwarf high-yielding varieties of wheat and paddy complimented by higher use of fertilisers and other inputs, favourable policy regime in agriculture prices and marketing and quick adoption of such technologies by the farmers. However, growth slowed down for about a decade after mid-1990s but picked up after that. 

India registered the highest annual agricultural growth of 3.75 per cent during 2004 to 2012. The growth rate was 1.4 per cent in 2012-13 and 4.6 per cent in 2013-14. The average production of foodgrains increased from 198.4 million tonnes in 2004-05 to 264.4 million tonnes in 2013-14 at the rate of 2.91per cent per annum. Soybean, gram and maize production grew at the rate of 6.57 per cent, 6.14 per cent and 5.5per cent per annum during this period. 

Agricultural growth was made possible by development and adoption of new technologies, higher public investments in agriculture and other policies. Agriculture NSDP of some states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh grew by more than 5per cent per annum. The rate of growth was 1.49 per cent in Punjab, 1.95 per cent in Uttarakhand, 2.33 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 0.1per cent in Himachal Pradesh

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By implementing Green Growth Initiative in the forestry sector, “Billion Trees Tsunami Afforestation Project” has been kicked off by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government in entire province, including 14 Forest divisions of Northern Forest Region of Hazara Division.

According to the project document, out of Rs.14334.72 million programme outlay for a period of four years, Rs.886.364 million has been allocated for Phase-1.Rs.486 million has been allocated in current Annual Development Plan 2014-15 and the rest of funds will be arranged through re-appropriations.

The project aims at rehabilitating depleted forests, raise nurseries for 665 million seedlings, capacity building of 1900 communities, establishment of 83 central model nurseries, planting of 3.4 million seedlings under farm forestry and agro-forestry, improvement of sites of rangelands and pastures, rehabilitation of three degraded watersheds and planting of multi-purpose fast growing trees species on 6000 ha communal and private lands.

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