Monday, 27 July 2009 No Till Farming and Climate Change
In Kenya, it has taken dry city taps, reduced water levels in hydro power stations and drought for the media to focus on the link between human activities and climate change. In the context of crop farming, I did a little search...
Monday, 13 July 2009 Food Security Deserves Global Attention
My recent visit to a farming village in Zambia triggered questions in my mind about the elusive goal of development in Africa. The village resembled my childhood one of 1977 in western Kenya. Land was plenty and all one needed to...
Saturday, 20 June 2009 GM: Why Stewardship is Important
The article GM Should Not Just be Dismissed, Nor Just Accepted (16 June, IPS) reports of hybrid white maize failure in South Africa that affected an estimated 82,000 hectares due to under-fertilization in the laboratory,...
Friday, 05 June 2009 Farmers cannot give what they don’t have!
Reggae fans must be familiar with Lucky Dube’s song that goes in part: “Blessed is the hand that giveth… Than the one that taketh.” Ever since the global economy hit a slow down, the quest for a new world order has dominated...
Tuesday, 19 May 2009 Technology and Land grabs: Redefining peasantry
I came across the word "peasant" as a small boy in 1979. That was my second year of being introduced to the English language when Kenya government Census officials came knocking on our door. And with them, they had two big...
Tuesday, 05 May 2009 Economic Recession: Farmers have Answers
As experts grapple with strategies to save their economies from the wrath of economic slow down; I propose they visit farmers for answers. The ongoing economic recession is driven by both toxic debts and credit crunch. It is...
Tuesday, 21 April 2009 A Stimulus Package for third world farmers
Third World farmers are awe-struck by the stimulus packages that are being offered to collapsing companies in wealthy nations. President Barack Obama of U.S.A and his G20 counterparts have billions of dollars and Euros at their...
Friday, 27 March 2009 Famine Used to Hold Bottom Billion at Ransom
"Is it obscene to get European farmers to move to poor countries and feed the hungry?" a delegate in a recent European Landowners' forum asked. To send mercenary farmers to poor countries in the guise of fighting hunger is...
Friday, 20 March 2009 E.U. farmers driving to former U.S.S.R.
I was honoured to participate in a forum of European Landowners Organization. If you are from Africa, you might be mistaken – no – these are not small holder farmers. These are wealthy landowners whose farming activities are...
