The New Agriculturist

Haven Ley explains how the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is focussing on support for women farmers, both in upstream research and in downstream interventions. Bolanle Adeyemo, who runs an NGO that empowers women in Nigeria, describes her excitement at being part of a plan to multiply Vitamin A rich cassava varieties, which she believes will have a major impact on child health. We also hear from the grand opening of Aqua Shops in western Kenya and from dryland Laikipia, where Simon Wachira and members of the Tigithi Aloe Group are branching out into cultivation of medicinal trees.

As a tribute to Wangari Maathai, Kenya’s tireless campaigner for environmental protection who died in September this year, Francesca de Gasparis, Europe Director of the Green Belt Movement, reflects on Maathai’s message and the ongoing work to protect the forests of Kenya. We hear also from two scientists at the forefront of the Rinderpest eradication campaign, on how that was achieved, and from Samuel Koputa who has been training farmers to protect their livestock again ticks using extract from the Tephrosia plant.

My perspective writer, Simon Levine, explains how famine can be averted by responding to the right signals, so that interventions are done in time to prevent a crisis. Agnes Luo Laima, who represents small-scale farmers and marketeers in Zambia, describes the biggest challenge her association members face. We also hear from ICRAF researcher Esther Karanja about how fodder shrubs are changing lives in highland Kenya. And we join Thembi Mutch, learning about spices in Zanzibar with farmer Foum Ali Garu.

We hear from Zanzibar's east coast and from the coastal wetlands of The Gambia about two projects that are giving low status women a stronger voice in dealing with buyers and politicians. And a professor from the University of Ontario explains why she thinks the current spate of land deals cannot offer a win-win benefit of poverty reduction.