Next month, we will all gather again in Rio de Janeiro to work out what went wrong 20 years ago and consider solutions that we have dismissed.
Children who were 12 years old during the first Rio summit, in 1992, might now be quickly approaching the end of their life expectancy in some countries. But what if smallholder farmers had been at the centre of the debate 20 years ago?
It might be an abuse of artistic license, but 2012 might well be remembered as the first International Year of Cassava – in all but name.
That’s because this year has already witnessed a sea change in the way the world regards this long-neglected crop. And it’s about time really: cassava feeds half-a-billion people in Africa every day, and is also grown by millions of smallholder farmers in Southeast Asia and Latin America. That’s while many in the developed world probably aren’t even sure how to spell cassava.
The United Nations climate meetings in Bonn have now come to an end. On agriculture, there was much fruitful discussion and trust-building among parties. A contact group on agriculture met several times to share views informally. However, no formal decision on what the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) should recommend to the Conference of Parties (COP) on agriculture was made. Delegates chose tocontinue to exchange views on issues relating to agriculture (PDF) during COP18 in Qatar later this year.
A group of young graduates in Kenya have introduced a mobile-phone enabled technology which will help farmers in rural Africa to link up with crop researchers, meteorological departments and veterinary scientists to better their farm yields.
Almost 13% of young people worldwide are out of work, and their situation is unlikely to improve for four years, a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) says.
Many skilled young people are being forced into part-time and unskilled work, the report says.
The UK secretary of state for the environment, food and rural affairs says the challenge for the UN Earth summit must be how to 'green' the world economy
Dr Tom Okurut, the Executive Director, National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), has said the country will front tourism and organic agriculture as their priority areas for sustainable development during this year’s Rio+20 conference in Brazil.
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