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Are Industrial Agriculture and Genetic Modification the Answer to Feeding Humanity?
6 August 2017
Industrial agriculture has made it possible to produce large amounts of food fairly efficiently, but it also comes with numerous problems.
http://img.alternet.org/books/are-industrial-agriculture-and-genetic-modification-answer-feeding-humanity
India Set For Record Output of Kharif Crop Harvest: Agriculture Secretary
6 August 2017
Till last week, farmers had sown kharif crops in 878.23 lakh hectare as against 855.85 lakh hectare in the year-ago period, as per the Agriculture Ministry's latest data.
http://www.news18.com/news/india/india-set-for-record-output-of-kharif-crop-harvest-agriculture-secretary-1484125.html
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CLIMATE CHANGE
Precision breeding needed to adapt corn to climate change, ancient samples show
4 August 2017
The US Corn Belt and European maize owe their existence to a historic change: the ability of this plant, originally from the tropics, to flower early enough to avoid winter. Research led by Cornell University in New York and the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Developmental Biology in Tuebingen, Germany reveals that indigenous people in the American southwest started the process of adapting maize to temperate growing seasons 4000 years ago and refined it over the following 2000 years.
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/life-sciences/precision-breeding-needed-to-adapt-corn-to-climate-change-ancient-samples-show.html
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DROUGHTS
Severe drought cripples Sri Lanka
4 August 2017
Lack of rain ravages rice harvest and reduces drinking water for poor villagers
http://www.ucanews.com/news/severe-drought-cripplessri-lanka/79928
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FLOODS
What is the impact of floods on India’s GDP?
Flood Waters Trap Drivers, Damage Homes in South Jersey
3 August 2017
Heavy rain caused major flooding in South Jersey Thursday especially in Burlington City and Burlington Township where the flood threat continues due to Delaware River high tide at 1 a.m.
http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/weather/stories/Rain-Flooding-South-Jersey-Pennsylvania-Delaware-438429093.html
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FOOD SECURITY
Madagascar Sets an Example for Land Reform
2 August 2017
The World Bank is supporting Madagascar’s efforts to accelerate land reform through two projects promoting food security, social protection, agricultural growth, and secure land tenure.
http://reliefweb.int/report/madagascar/madagascar-sets-example-land-reform
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IRRIGATION
Satellites and SMS help Pakistan’s farmers with smart irrigation
7 August 2017
Using data from NASA, Pakistan’s water research agency is sending rain forecasts to 10,000 farmers, helping them to irrigate more efficiently and increase their crop yields.
http://www.eco-business.com/news/satellites-and-sms-help-pakistans-farmers-with-smart-irrigation/
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WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
BMDesign's concave roofs offer a solution to water scarcity in iran
According to BMDesign, more than half of iran has an arid climate and environment, each year expanding more and more. big lakes like lake urmia have shrank to a fraction of their size, gradually disappearing, or zayandehrud – the largest river of the iranian plateau – has parched and left a metropolitan city like isfahan encountering serious consequences. consequences like thousands of farmers losing their jobs or the city itself on the brink of rationing drinking water.
https://www.designboom.com/architecture/bmdesign-concave-roofs-solution-water-scarcity-iran-08-07-2017/
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
68th IEC and 23rd ICID Congress on Irrigation and Drainage, 8-14 October 2017, on the theme: Modernizing Irrigation and Drainage for a new Green Revolution, Mexico City, Mexico, 8-14 October 2017.
Website: http://www.icid2017.org/
Drainage and Flood Control Summit, 26 - 27 November 2017, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Website: https://drainagefloodcontrol.com/
8th Asian Regional Conference, 2-4 May 2018, Kathmandu, Nepal, on the theme of “Irrigation in Support of an Evergreen Revolution”
Website:http://nencid.org.np/
69th IEC & Regional Conference, 12–17 August, 2018, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on the theme: Innovative and Sustainable Agri-water Management: Adapting to a Variable and Changing Climate.
Website: http://www.icid2018.org/
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LATEST PUBLICATION(S)
National Agriculture Policy, Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development, September 2016.
Agriculture remains the mainstay of Malawi’s economy, contributing significantly to employment, economic growth, export earnings, poverty reduction, food security, and nutrition. It also plays a critical role in ensuring sustainable use of natural resources. All of these pose a threat to food security and nutrition in the face of a growing population, increased land pressure, and climate change. In trying to address these challenges in the past, Malawi has over-concentrated on maize self-sufficiency for food and tobacco as a cash crop, at the expense of other agricultural commodities, including livestock and fisheries. Moreover, the sector remains predominantly subsistence-oriented. In response, the NAP seeks to sustainably transform the sector from subsistence to a market orientation in order to increase agricultural production, marketed surpluses of commodities, and real incomes.
http://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/NAP_Final_Signed.pdf
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