agriculture

Thanks to co-ops like COOPCAB, the coffee business is back and brewing in Haiti. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/27632962@N04/3395940600/">Vilseskogen (flickr)</a>

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Social Enterprise

As aid to Haiti slows, a private co-op scores loans and turns heads

This article was republished by The Christian Science Monitor.

Malawian boys are proud of their family's dairy cows. Photo: Jennifer Hyman/Land O'Lakes International Development

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Value Chains

Land O'Lakes finds success with dairy micro co-ops in Malawi

The top US dairy cooperative has brought decades of expertise to Malawi, creating micro co-ops that pool their milk for purchase by one of the country's largest processors.

Koblah Agbeta holds up rice seeds from his farm in Abutia Kpota, Ghana. Quality seeds are critical for a good harvest. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/48639212@N02/4775000120/">Gates Foundation (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

GMO wars should take back seat to other farm issues, says DuPoint Pioneer

A corporate seed manufacturer is suggesting that slowing the spread of genetically modified crops would be acceptable, if that's what it takes to keep industrializing Africa's farms.

Like this farmer in Kenya, the challenge in Tanzania is connecting smallholder farmers to larger markets. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5366702717/sizes/z/">CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture</a>

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Value Chains

How a Tanzania NGO scrapped grants to build markets that last

When it comes to solving poverty, sometimes the best way to get more done is to move out of the driver's seat.

Kenyan smallholder farmers. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/38476503@N08/5367334314/">Photo: CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Four ways to make contract farming work for the very poor

Will contract farming, done right, serve as the missing link between small farmers and markets?

A farmer in Manthralaya, India plows his field. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58925091@N00/136310496/">Ananth BS (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Farmers invest 50 times more in farms than their countries get in aid

Heinz sells 80 percent of British beans. That may be exactly why they passed on a chance to do so in a more innovative way. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/vek/4226781275/sizes/z/in/photostream/">Kevin Spencer (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Why the biggest brand sometimes isn't the best innovation partner

A new case study of the Ethiopian bean industry includes a depressing anecdote reminding us that innovation rarely starts at the top of the market.

By increasing the amount of food harvested per year, Bangladesh has been able to decrease the number of undernourished people<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/8054518284/sizes/z/in/set-72157603951157081/">World Bank (flickr)</a>

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Financial Inclusion

Fighting poverty without rapid growth: Bangladesh shows how it's done

Bangladesh is living proof that empowering and assisting the poor can sharply cut poverty even without rapid growth.

Crops resilient to climate change are especially important to farmers in developing countries. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cimmyt/5210265334/">CIMMYT (Flickr)</a>.

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Value Chains

As climate becomes a moving target, 'virtual crops' aim for the future

Climate change is threatening crop survival. Some researchers believe the solution lies in "virtual crops."

Chinese agriculture is shifting away from some traditional products like gingko to capture Western markets<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/5416212301/lightbox/">World Bank Photo Collection (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

As Chinese farming goes global, some see risks

The reorientation of Chinese agriculture to an export-centric model is creating unprecedented domestic growth, but there may be a hidden cost to developing nations.

Carlos Sere, IFAD's chief development strategist. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ilri/6331979668/sizes/m/in/photostream/">ILRI (Flickr)</a>.

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Mobile Technology

Memo from a small-farm expert: Not all farmers are the same

Different small farmers farm for different reasons.

Africa should be able to grow enough staples to feed itself. Why isn't it? <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/7826351630/sizes/z/in/photostream/">World Bank (Flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

How broken value chains prevent Africans from feeding Africa

Africa has plenty of rich agricultural land but millions of starving residents. The problem is that too much money is going to the wrong places along the way.

Left: Patricia Wolff, founder and executive director of Meds and Food for Kids. (Photo: MFK.) Right: Paul Farmer, founder and executive director of Partners in Health. (Photo: <a href="http://flic.kr/p/csKJu9">Nyaya Health, Flickr</a>.)

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Social Enterprise

Devil take the hindmost? Haiti peanut battle puts NGOs head to head

When antipoverty nonprofits compete, it's not always clear who will lose more: the one whose business is threatened, or the people both nonprofits set out to serve.

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Value Chains

Coffee seller fights hunger among its own growers

A new study shows that once farmers trust that index insurance will pay out as promised, they'll give up money to get it. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5366709673/in/photostream/">CIAT (Flickr)</a>

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Financial Inclusion

Underdeveloped farm? This looks like a case for ... an insurance seller

A new study of farmers in northern Ghana found that given a choice between quick cash or index insurance coverage, they'll often opt for protection from risk.