At the beginning of May 2012 the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported on cases of foot-and-mouth disease in the Gaza Strip. The first animals affected by the SAT2 strain of the virus had been...[more]

The report Transnational Land Deals for Agriculture in the Global South and the associated website (http://landportal.info/landmatrix) on land acquisition were launched by the Land Matrix partnership (CDE, CIRAD, GIGA, GIZ, and...[more]

In mid April 2012, the aid organisations terre des hommes and Welthungerhilfe presented “The Reality of Aid 2012”, their 20th Report on German development policy. Their impression is that while there are good intentions, measures...[more]

Decision-makers and those interested in development policy can access a new website containing a sound, comparative, yet compact overview of the development policy strategies of key European donors.[more]

The Brazilian forest law was held as a model for all – but it is now to be amended. The lower house has already passed the amendment – just the president has yet to give her agreement.[more]

Via its subsidiary Sustainable Oil Cameroon, the US American group Herakles Capital wants to clear-cut wide areas of rain forest in Cameroon and establish new plantations there, reported the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) mid...[more]

Half a million tonnes of obsolete pesticides are scattered throughout the developing countries and the emerging economies. These toxic chemicals, often stored outdoors in leaking containers, are seeping into the soil and water.[more]

At the Fourth BRICS Summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) discussions also addressed establishing a BRICS Development Bank. A group of experts is to study the issue more closely and report to the next BRICS Summit.[more]

Up to now, it has hardly been possible to detect tropical hardwoods in paper. This is about to change. Four German institutes/universities – Darmstadt Technical University, Hamburg University, the von-Thünen-Institute and the...[more]

Urgent action is required to control a major outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and prevent its spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned in...[more]

The “El Platanillo” farm in Guatemala is the first coffee plantation to have been verified according to the Climate Module of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN). The Climate Module is to help the farmers mitigate the...[more]

Picking spots for cattle to graze could reverse desertification and even do its bit to retard climate change, new experiments in Zimbabwe have shown. It’s what might be called the “Brown Revolution”.[more]

FAO and the European Commission announced a new 5.3 million euro project in mid-January 2012 aimed at helping Malawi, Vietnam and Zambia’s transition to a “climate-smart” approach to agriculture. [more]

Each year, more than 13 million hectares of tropical forest is being destroyed world-wide. One of the chief causes is slash-and-burn land clearance. Scientists at the Thünen Institute for World Forestry in Hamburg/Germany have...[more]

Information provided by the Church Development Service (EED) indicates that more than 50 percent of usable land area in Cambodia is now owned by private companies. For the smallholders, this means the loss of their livelihoods.[more]

Mobile safety laboratory operating in South Africa since May 2011: A special truck for testing and advising patients with AIDS and tuberculosis.[more]

In December 2011, the Nigerian Government announced the release of three new vitamin A-rich ‘yellow’ cassava varieties that could provide more vitamin A in the diets of more than 70 million Nigerians who eat cassava...[more]

A study published in the British Journal of Nutrition indicates that orange sweet potato (OSP) is effective in providing vitamin A to malnourished women and children in Mozambique, where the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency...[more]