Tillage agriculture has led to widespread soil and ecosystem degradation. This book reviews research and development initiatives in Africa aimed at building resilient farming systems. It summarises the status of conservation agriculture today, discusses prospects for future development and provides case studies showing its performance in Africa.

Innovation Platforms (IPs) form the core of many Agricultural Research for Development programmes, stimulating multi-stakeholder collaboration and action towards the realization of agricultural development outcomes. This book enhances the body of knowledge of IPs by focusing on mature IPs in agricultural systems research, including the crop and livestock sectors, and innovations in farmer cooperatives and agricultural extension services.Resulting from an international IP case study...

An "exciting" new approach to lifting people out of poverty that rejects the ineffective top-down mindset (Steve Wozniak, confounder of Apple Computer).Based on his twenty-five years of experience, Paul Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that we can donate people out of poverty; that national economic growth will end poverty; and that big business, operating as it does now, will end poverty.Polak shows that programs ba...

Wayne Roberts puts under the microscope a global food system that is under strain from climate change and from economic disaster.He shows how a world food system based on supermarkets and agribusiness corporations is unsustainable and looks at new models of producing healthy food from all over the world.

A host of books and films in recent years have documented the dangers of our current food system, from chemical runoff to soaring rates of diet-related illness to inhumane treatment of workers and animals. But advice on what to do about it largely begins and ends with the admonition to "eat local or "eat organic."Fair Food is an enlightening and inspiring guide to changing not only what we eat, but how food is grown, packaged, delivered, marketed, and sold. Oran B. Hesterm...

An award-winning environmental activist and social entrepreneur exposes the link between our financial and environmental crisesFor decades, politicians and business leaders alike told the American public that today's challenge was growing the economy, and that environmental protection could be left to future generations. Now in the wake of billions of dollars in costs associated with coastal devastation from Hurricane Sandy, rampant wildfires across the West, and groundwater contami...

In this ambitious, challenging, yet superbly readable book, Jean-Francois Rischard first tells us what constitutes a "global" problem and then offers a brief overview of the twenty most important. He finds they all have two things in common: They're getting worse, not better, and the standard strategies for dealing with them, such as international treaties, are woefully inadequate to the task. The chief problem is that in our high-population, fast-moving, globalized and interconnected worl...

This book makes the case that many climate related scientists have provided data that confirm that burning fossil fuels has increased greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere, which has had a major impact on climate change. Each of the six chapters provides many references and questions for review.The first chapter emphasizes worldwide awareness of the relationship between climate change and disasters in the Asia Pacific region. The following chapters cover such topics as climate change...

African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa faces three major opportunities that can transform its agriculture into a force for economic growth: advances in science and technology; the creation of regional markets; and the emergence of a new crop of entrepreneurial leaders dedicated to the continent's economic improvement. Filled with case studies from within Africa and ...

The role of the Food Industry in helping consumers eat healthily and sustainably received considerable attention in recent years. While the food companies continue to produce enough affordable, quality food for the fast-growing and increasingly prosperous global population, they face a very challenging and volatile environment. Despite being a multi-trillion dollar industry, the worldwide food business' annual growth is limited to the world's population base. Competition is intense within ...

If you want to make a significant and sustainable impact on the health of our planet, this powerful and practical guide can help. Author and activist Sharon J. Smith shares proven strategies and lessons learned from the winners of Earth Island Institute’s Brower Youth Awards—America’s top honor for young green leaders. Here are all the tools you need—from planning a campaign and recruiting supporters to raising money and attracting media attention—to turn your ideas into actions and make c...

How can we help poor people earn more from their knowledge-rather than from their sweat and muscle alone? This book is about increasing the earnings of poor people in poor countries from their innovation, knowledge, and creative skills. Case studies look at the African music industry; traditional crafts and ways to prevent counterfeit crafts designs; the activities of fair trade organizations; biopiracy and the commercialization of ethnobotanical knowledge; the use of intellectual property...