food security

A crowded market in Dhaka, Bangaldesh. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifpri/4860343116/"> IFPRI</a>

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How to make population growth work for Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa is getting bigger. But despite warnings from neo-Malthusian alarmists, population growth—if managed correctly—could be the key to unlocking Africa’s economic potential.

Thanks to the One Acre Fund, microfinance is finally reaching Africa's small farmers. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/lukas/4291386306/">Lukas Bergstrom (Flickr)</a>

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Why the future of rural microfinance looks a lot like the One Acre Fund

Two weeks after our coverage, the One Acre Fund was also featured in a 10-minute segment on the PBS Newshour.

While corn is not native to Malawi, it has become the country's staple crop. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nglklm/5081662199/">Nathan Laurell (flickr)</a>

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The Successes (and Failures) of Seed Subsidies in Malawi

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for life; if you give a family seeds, do you feed them forever?

More than 70 percent of the population in the Congo is impoverished, making the country extremely vulnerable to price shocks. Photo: Jenny Vaughan/Mercy Corps

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Food for Thought

Wildfires in Russia. Revolution in the Middle East. Rising oil prices — these seemingly unconnected events have cumulated in a weak global harvest that will place additional burden on families whose budgets are already stretched thin.

Youth finish work on an embankment to hold back floodwaters in Borini Sharifow, a small farming village in Jamame district, Somalia. Photo: Mohamed Jama/ Mercy Corps

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A second scramble for Africa?

"The African continent is going to be the golden continent of the period," raves a business leader at the 2011 World Economic Forum in Davos.

Canned vegetables distributed by USAID on grocery store shelves in Ethiopia. Re-selling aid is a problem for countries sending food instead of buying it locally. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/se-a-vida-e/3203087587/">Manogamo (flickr)</a>

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Thoughts on Obama's food security initiative

The old saying goes that if you give a man a fish he eats for a day but if you teach him to fish he eats for life. If such a program were run by the current U.S.

Many African countries, like Madagascar pictured here, are increasingly leasing land to foreign firms, but critics argue the deals are exploitative. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/goukely/1372969345/">goukley (flickr)</a>

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Who will profit from 'land grabbing'?

A million hectares in Uganda. Some 690,000 hectares in Sudan. And 500,000 hectares in Tanzania. These are just a few of the numbers that have appeared on the bargaining table in the past year as foreign firms scramble for land leases in Africa.

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A Billion for a Billion

Keeping with a UN target of committing 0.7 percent of national income to alleviating poverty and hunger, Jose Luis Rodriquez Zapatero the prime minister of Spain has pledged 1 billion euros to strengthen food security around the world.

The information from the soil map could help this Tanzanian woman farm with better fertilzers and increase her harvest. Photo: vredeseilanden (flickr)

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Mapping for Change

We have elevation maps, weather maps, and population maps. So why not soil maps? It may be the key to the food security of an entire continent.

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Can Crops be Climate-Proofed?

Climate change threatens food crops across the world. Now scientists are re-focusing their efforts on crop resilience, rather than yields.

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Book Reveals What the World Eats

What's on the World's Dinner Table?

food consumption

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Book and Film Reviews

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The Humanitarian Impact of Urbanisation

Population growth in cities has resulted in increased concentrations of people in slums, which has escalated the effects of server poverty.

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Culture and Society

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Food Security Resources

Learn more about food security issues with our comprehensive resource page.

international aid

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Food Security Firsthand

Chelsea Catto, food security Program Officer at Mercy Corps, discusses the goals and obstacles of Mercy Corps' food security programs while offering insight from the field.

World Food Programme

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Biofuel Surge Could Have Severe Downside, Warn Experts

As the United States looks to biofuels to solve dependency on foreign oil, it must be careful not to create a more serious problem.

forest destruction

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