The Green Revolution swept across India
in the 1960s and 1970s, changing it from a nation begging for food aid
to a top cotton and grain producer. But ‘Green’ did not refer to
organic farming. Instead, politicians, scientists and philanthropists
argued that by switching from traditional to Western farming methods -
using pesticides and fertilizers - India could fight hunger.
2011 Global Hunger Index
The challenge of hunger: Taming price spikes and excessive food
price volatility
This year’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that global hunger has
declined since 1990, but not dramatically, and remains at a level
characterized as “serious.” Across regions and countries, GHI scores
vary greatly. The highest GHI scores occur in South Asia and
Sub-Saharan Africa. South Asia reduced its GHI score substantially
between 1990 and 1996, but this fast progress could not be maintained.
Though Sub-Saharan Africa made less progress than South Asia after
1990, it has caught up since the turn of the millennium. From the 1990
GHI to the 2011 GHI, 15 countries were able to reduce their scores by
50 percent or more. Nineteen countries moved out of the bottom two
categories – “extremely alarming” and “alarming.” In terms of absolute
progress, Angola, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger,
and Vietnam saw the largest improvements between the 1990 GHI and the
2011 GHI. Twenty-six countries still have levels of hunger that are
extremely alarming or alarming. The countries with extremely alarming
2011 GHI scores – Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and
Eritrea – are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the countries with
alarming GHI scores are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Among
the six countries in which the hunger situation worsened, the
Democratic Republic of Congo stands out. Its GHI score rose by about
63 percent owing to conflict and political instability. (Because of
time lags in the availability of data, the 2011 GHI does not reflect
the impacts of the 2010–11 food price crisis or the 2011 famine in the
Horn of Africa.). In recent years world food markets have been
characterized by rising and more volatile prices. This situation has
serious implications for poor and hungry people, who have little
capacity to adjust to price spikes and rapid shifts. Price increases
and volatility have arisen for three main reasons: increasing use of
food crops for biofuels, extreme weather events and climate change,
and increased volume of trading in commodity futures markets. These
factors are exacerbated by highly concentrated export markets that
leave the world’s staple food importers dependent on just a few
countries, a historically low level of grain reserves, and a lack of
timely information about the world food system that could help prevent
overreaction to moderate shifts in supply and demand. Price increases
and price volatility have been shown to cut into poor households’
spending on a range of essential goods and services and to reduce the
calories they consume. It can also affect poor people’s nutrition by
causing them to shift to cheaper, lower-quality, and less
micronutrient-dense foods. Addressing the problem of food price spikes
and excessive volatility requires action to both reduce volatility and
buffer the most vulnerable people from the worst effects of higher and
more variable prices. It is important to address the drivers of food
price volatility and price increases by revising biofuel policies,
regulating financial activity on food markets, and adapting to and
mitigating climate change. It is also essential to build up food
reserves and share information on food markets. To build resilience to
changing food prices, it is crucial to strengthen social protection
systems, improve emergency preparedness, invest in sustainable
small-scale agriculture, improve livelihood opportunities for both the
rural and urban poor, and strengthen the provision of basic services
such as education, healthcare, and sanitation.
Note the GHI is calculated on data collected before the establishment
of South Sudan.
Author: von Grebmer, Klaus, Torero, Maximo, Olofinbiyi,
Tolulope, Fritschel, Heidi, Wiesmann, Doris, Yohannes, Yisehac,
Schofield, Lilly, von Oppeln, Constanze
Traditional Paddy Farmer in Odisha, India - Mr. Natabar Sarangi
Natabar continues to find, save and share his indigenous rice seed
with local farmers. To date he has managed to re-introduce over 350
varieties. But it's not just about the indigenous rice seed of India
or about the survival of a sustainable agriculture system with the
knowledge of over ten thousand years. It's about a global phenomenon
taking place where a non-sustainable system systematically destroys a
sustainable one, where short term profit has the power to overwhelm
common sense and the consciousness of many millions, where progress is
not progress but the wanton destruction of an eco-system and
environment we will never be able to replace.
Natabar Sarangi is just one of a growing number of farmers throughout
the world who realise that if we do not begin to repair the damage
taking place to our agricultural systems and our environment, we will
lose not just our cultural identity but our fundamental right to a
truly sustainable system of food security.
Solar bottle lighten up Lives in the Philippines
Watch the video of the simple but life changing idea.
The electricity problem in developing and underdeveloped countries is
eminent. Governments cant afford to offer cheap electricity to the
people. The people who can even afford to have a connection of
electricity are often hit by severe power breakdowns. This problem
severely hit the poorest of the poor and there life style touches the
drains. They usually don't have the luxury to lighten their homes even
in the broad day light.
These problems are in the capital of Philippines, Manila too where 3
million households were powerless in 2009, but with the difference.
And the difference is social entrepreneur Mr Illac Diaz. He provided
them a simple solution developed by the students of MIT to brighten up
the lives of thousands of households.
“Light is an important part of our daily life, and access to light is
a right of everyone here in the country. Through this project, we aim
to provide the whole country with sustainable light energy and bridge
the gap between social classes,” says Diaz, founder of My Shelter
Foundation, a socio-civic organization that aims to form partnerships
with communities and groups locally and globally to create affordable
housing.
The solution is simple a plastic bottle of clear water and some
chlorine, seal the bottle and fix it in the corrugated roof. TADA the
whole house is lighten up with approximately 55 watts of solar light.
The construction process of solar light bottle is simple and very
cheap as well. The solution is green in more than one way. It taps
solar energy which is sustainable and using this means no carbon fuel
electricity use. Secondly it provide some plastics bottles a new
purposeful life which otherwise ended in dumps increasing pollution.
The jobs created for installation are the cherry on the top.
Rising Food Prices: Nearly One Billion Go to Bed Hungry by The
World Bank
Put Food First - Every day nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry.
Rising and volatile food prices are causing pain and suffering for
poor people around the world, driving 44 million people into extreme
poverty in recent months. We need to find solutions to ensure everyone
has enough nutritious food now and in the years to come.
Women Food and Climate Change Training Gorakhpur
Watch this video of the 2011 India Women, Food and Climate Change
Training to see how women farmers are building resilience in the face
of climate change through farmer to farmer exchanges, diversifying
their crop production and ecologically managing their natural
resources. Short film developed on the Training Programme of grass
root women functionaries (Farmers and NGO workers) on `Climate Change
and Farming by Women' . The process involves three phases of training
(initial round held at Gorakhpur, the next one proposed in September
2011 and November 2011 at West Bengal and Bihar respectively). All the
phase will be linked to hands on experiences, organized in a
participatory mode and have same participants (from U.P., Bihar, W.
Bengal, Orissa and Uttaranchal)
Harvesting Hunger from Krishnendu Bose
There are over 300 million
people in India who do not have enough food to meet their basic
nutritional requirements. With more and more intrusion of the market,
it is apprehended that millions more will go hungry in the first
decades of the new millennium. Harvesting Hunger is a journey into
this impending world of hunger and famine, an exploration of the
deepening crisis in food security in the country. The film revolves
around four case studies - Punjab for a study of the yellowing of the
Green Revolution, Kalahandi for an investigation into the structural
reasons of famine and impoverishment, Warangal for an examination of
the debilitating effects of money lending, resulting in suicide
deaths, prompted by multinational pesticides enterprises and Bellary
for an understanding of the role of giant seed and food processing
companies in destroying the very base of Indian agriculture. A farmer
activist, Vijay Jardhari, who is part of a movement to revive
traditional agricultural practices (Beej Bachao Andolan), up in the
Himalayas, is the presenter. He provides a peep into sustainable
agricultural systems, which could be one of the answers to the present
crisis.
Rice advice: managing soil fertility by the Water Channel
In this video we will learn
all about nutrients, soil structure, organic matter and how to
maintain your soil fertile. All this will allow you to keep on
cultivating your land and produce healthy crops.
Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi : The Seedman by Suma Jossan
Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi is a farmer who lives in Tadia Village near
Varanasi. He has three and a half acres of land. He is a plant
breeder, who has revolutionised the propagation of indigenous seeds
through seed selection processes. Since the past 14 years he has
developed more than 100 improved varieties of rice, wheat, pulses, and
some vegetables and fruits. These are high yielding and disease
resistant varieties. Raghuvanshi has distributed his seeds freely to
more than 10 lakh farmers in 14 states. “Once you allow the seed
companies to dictate to you, you not only lose your sovereignty but
also become dependent on them for all times to come. This is the
beginning of the end of farming,” he said.
The Miracle Water Village by Rintu Thomas & Sushmit Ghosh.
As the world reels under the threat of unrelenting climate change,
erratic monsoons and fast depleting groundwater reserves, The Miracle
Water Village narrates the inspirational story of impoverished farming
community in India that reversed its fortunes through its visionary
model of water management. Lying in one of the worst drought-prone
regions of India, the village of Hiware Bazar battled many decades of
sparse rain and failed crops. However, 20 years ago, the entire
village came together to script a silent revolution by designing a
rainwater-harvesting model that saved every drop of the scanty rain
they received. Today, the village is literally an oasis in the middle
of the desert, boasting of bumper harvests, dairy co-operatives,
millionaire families and visionary farmers. Hiware Bazar still
receives the scanty amount of rainfall it used to in the heart of its
most trying years, but what has changed is the way it has managed its
water and created a miracle with this most precious liquid resource!
Smita
Narula on Report: Every 30 minutes: Farmer suicides, Human Rights and
Agrarian Crisis in India
Democracy Now! speaks with Smita Narula, the co-author of the new
report, "Every Thirty Minutes: Farmer Suicides, Human Rights and the
Agrarian Crisis in India." A quarter of a million Indian farmers have
committed suicide in the last 16 years—an average of one suicide every
30 minutes. The crisis has ballooned with economic liberalization that
has removed agricultural subsidies and opened Indian agriculture to
the global market. Small farmers are often trapped in a cycle of
insurmountable debt, leading many to take their lives out of sheer
desperation. Narula is the Faculty Director of the Center for Human
Rights and Global Justice at New York University Law School, which
released the report May 11, 2011.
Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA) in Andhra Pradesh
The community managed sustainable agriculture program in Andhra
Pradesh has led to aggregate annual cost savings of US$69.5 million
and the employment generation program has created 185,748 jobs for the
rural youth.
Visitors:
Designed
and Maintained by: Watershed Support Services and
Activities Network (WASSAN) 12-13-452, Street No. 1, Tarnaka, Secunderabad - 500 017, Andhra
Pradesh, India
Tel. No. +91 (40) 27015295 / 6, Email:
wassanmail@gmail.com, Website:
www.wassan.org
