'World Bank Group commitments grew in fiscal 2008 by 11 percent to US$38.2 billion as finance was rapidly approved to help the poor in the food crisis and support grew for the job-creating private sector.'

'Confronted with land degradation, chronic water shortages, and a growing population that already numbers 1.3 billion, China is looking to a transgenic green revolution to secure its food supply. Later this month, the government is expected to roll out a $3.5 billion research and development (R&D) initiative on genetically modified (GM) plants. 'The new initiative will spur commercialization of GM varieties,' says Xue Dayuan, chief scientist on biodiversity at the Nanjing Institute of Environmen more...

'Kenya has received a Sh440 million grant from the Japanese government to support poor farmers.

Under the scheme called Grant Assistance for Underprivileged Farmers, the money is aimed to ensure food security as the country recovers from the January violence.'

'The World Bank has approved a grant of US$7.0 million to support Somalia’s urgent need to increase crop and livestock production in rural areas adversely affected by the drought and the current global food crisis.



'The emergency grant for the Somalia Rapid Response Rehabilitation of Rural Livelihoods Project will be funded under the Bank’s recently launched Global Food Crisis Response Program.'

'The rapid rise in food prices has been a burden on the poor in developing countries, who spend roughly half of their household incomes on food. Soaring prices for staples such as rice, maize, and wheat have been compounded by rising prices at the gas pumps—leading to requests for emergency food aid in many countries around the world.'

Sustainable agriculture was far from farmer Peter Desisto’s mind when he went to an organic farming seminar organised by the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM) ten years ago. He and other farmers attended because they heard that PRRM was giving out loans. Borrowing is a way of life for farmers who need to purchase expensive chemical pesticide and fertiliser before they can even plant rice in their fields. Such borrowings, usually from local money lenders who charge high interest, more...

'Environmentalists coined the phrase ‘think global, act local’. In responding to climate change, we need to act both locally and globally. British aid is helping the people of Bangladesh to adapt to changing weather patterns: helping farmers to turn to fishing; raising homes on plinths in flood-prone areas; and creating floating gardens to protect crops.'

'As Mideast investors make plans to pump cash into farm projects in the developing world, the head of the UN’s food agency said he is discouraging them from making direct purchases of farmland to avoid local backlash or other controversy, which could cause the investment trend to dry up.'

'The World Bank has approved a grant of US$7.0 million to support Somalia’s urgent need to increase crop and livestock production in rural areas adversely affected by the drought and the current global food crisis.'

'The only hope for alleviating Africa's ‘dire situation’ of poverty and malnutrition is for aid agencies to forget about supporting traditional farming and make full use of ‘modern agricultural technology’ including genetically modified crops, Sir David King, former government chief scientist, said in a conference ahead of his lecture to the opening of the British Association's Science Festival at Liverpool University.