Lima, Peru – December 20, 2017 /3BL Media/ – The World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in collaboration with Bioversity International and The Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE) today published an Atlas titled ‘Suitability of key Central American agroforestry species under future climates’.
Agroforestry’s ability to produce multiple benefits can make it a key feature of Peru’s innovative and multi-sectoral approach to NDCs. What is needed to fully harness it?
Climate action is increasingly a country-led and country-driven process. Through their nationally determined contributions (NDCs), each country articulates how they will meet targets set out in the Paris Agreement.
Research and education outreach on soil health practices to benefit 125,000 wheat farmers, environment in Great Plain states
Press Release
MINNEAPOLIS, November 30, 2017 /3BL Media/ - General Mills continues to invest in soil health practices on U.S. agricultural farmland with its latest contribution of $735,000 to the National Wheat Foundation who together with the Soil Health Partnership, will advance widespread adoption and implementation. The funds, equally distributed over the next three years, will be used to conduct soil health research on wheat farms and education outreach to more than 125,000 wheat farmers across the Northern and Southern Plains.
Profound change is sweeping across the grasslands and vast expanses of the East African savanna. Here, amid the verdant valleys and hillsides rippling through this sea of grass, small farmers have struggled for millennia to eke out a living from the sun-baked soils.
2.5 Million Acres Converted to Cropland Between 2015 and 2016
Press Release
WASHINGTON, October 24, 2017/3BL Media/ - The Great Plains lost about 2.5 million acres of previously intact grassland to crop production between 2015 and 2016, according to a new report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Across the US and Canada, the loss of grasslands undermines soil health and degrades water quality for downstream communities, while threatening iconic species, including songbirds and water-associated birds, and is driving the decline in the region’s native pollinators.
Land degradation is at the nexus of a vicious spiral which links low land productivity and biodiversity loss with poverty, hunger, instability and insecurity. Land degradation, for instance, releases carbon, worsening global climate change; it reduces crop yield, creating food insecurity; and it erodes livelihoods, driving migration. Under these conditions, instability can take hold, order can break down, and non-state armed groups can become established, leading in turn to impacts such as increases in wildlife poaching, deforestation and violence.
Land degradation has long been recognized as a major problem which threatens ecological health, social stability and economic prosperity. For several decades, a series of solutions have been devised and attempted with varying degrees of success. However, efforts to combat land degradation have been hampered by a lack of resources and the sheer scale of the problem.
As economies and populations grow, land degradation and growing competition for land threatens to multiply this challenge.
Blog
Opening the IUCN/ICRAF event ‘Integrated approaches for multifunctional landscapes: connecting LDN, biodiversity and climate change’ at the recent UNCCD summit, Ms Barbut laid out in stark terms the challenge of meeting the world’s growing demand for food. The global community has committed itself to meeting environmental targets including achieving land degradation neutrality (LDN), safeguarding biodiversity and mitigating climate change, and developing countries in particular are struggling with the added burdens this requires.
The food and beverage industry is facing change, and brands have to adapt or risk losing out. Climate uncertainties, population growth, evolving consumer expectations, and other social and regulatory considerations make for a landscape where only the most prepared will thrive.
NEW YORK, September 18, 2017/3BL Media/ - The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and Mars Incorporated signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today to work to increase incomes and economic opportunities for thousands of smallholder farmers in developing countries.
