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Highlights

Enhancing knowledge sharing through Laikipia Rural VoicesLaikipia Rural Voices (LRV) emerged as the winner of the best blog for East Africa in the institutional category of the Youth in Agriculture Blog Competition (YoBloCo Awards) in 2014. With over 400 articles, the blog has been instrumental in sharing knowledge from the field to the youth, and as a result, many young people have developed an interest in agriculture and are now actively engaged into farming.

The blog “Laikipia Rural Voices” (LRV) was started in 2011 by Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN), an international NGO operating in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. This initiative aimed at promoting citizen journalism among young people by training and equipping them with basic journalism skills such as photojournalism, news writing, creative writing, feature writing, interviewing, media laws and ethics, and blogging.

We are the last generation that can fight climate change. We have a duty to actThis year the UN marks its 70th anniversary. Sadly, there is little time for reflection or celebration. More pressing are the competing demands and challenges fuelled by an upsurge in conflict, disease and human suffering. These compel the international community to step up and provide the leadership needed to tackle them.

Ebola continues to plague west Africa. For some of the affected countries, struggling to overcome the effects of bitter civil war, the outbreak has been a major setback for development. We are beginning to see some improvements. During my visit to the region in December, I was deeply moved by the efforts of local Ebola responders and health workers from across Africa and the world. But rebuilding shattered lives and economies will require significantly more resources and long-term commitment.

The women behind the farmsAs manager of the South Durham Farmers’ Market, I have had the pleasure to meet many passionate women working in the local food community: farmers, volunteers, public health workers, nutritionists and activists. In fact, I have noticed that the majority of the leaders and participants in the local food movement are women (though we are certainly joined by many equally dedicated and hard-working men).

At the SDFM, over half of our vendors (farmers and food producers) are owned or co-owned by women and eight of our 11 board members are women. Many of the farmers’ markets in the area (Carrboro, Chapel Hill, Durham and Western Wake) are managed by young women like me. And in the wider community, we have women at the helm of Farmer Foodshare, Firsthand Foods, LoMo Market, SEEDS and the Durham County Department of Public Health.

Why Nigeria needs more youths in agribusinessProduction, processing, storage and distribution, inputs, financing and livestock, these and more are business opportunities in the agriculture sector, according to Alf Monaghan, the Chief Party for USAID, Nigeria Expanded Trade and Transport  (NEXTT) project in Nigeria, at a recent event held in Lagos.

Earlier, experts in the agric sector have for sometime called for private sector participation in agribusiness and if statistics were anything to go by; the market potential in this industry is mindboggling. According to Cowrie Partners, a firm of commercial lawyers focused on finance and investments, Nigeria is adjudged a country with “immense agricultural potential,” with a population of 170 million providing a “huge market.”

Today's farmers share a few things in common: an abundance of hard work, endless patience and plenty of gray hair. The average age of farmers worldwide is rising at an alarming rate, in both developed and developing countries. Experts say that more young people will have to enter the industry – and soon – to replace the aging workforce.

How can agriculture continue to thrive when it’s not seen as an attractive career by many young people, and more youths than ever haven't even been to a farm?

Finding farmland: New maps offer a clearer view of global agricultureA new global cropland map combines multiple satellite data sources, reconciled using crowdsourced accuracy checks, to provide an improved record of total cropland extent as well as field size around the world.

Knowing where agricultural land is located is crucial for regional and global food security planning, and information on field size offers valuable insight into local economic conditions.  Two new global maps, released today in the journal Global Change Biology, provide a significant step forward in global cropland information on these two topics.