Agriculture

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.

Filipino farmers plant rice. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/20119750@N00/2680751025/">Schubert Ciencia (Flickr)</a>

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Social Enterprise

On World Food Day, praise for a humble business structure: The co-op

For agriculture cooperatives, this year’s World Food Day has been a day in the sun.

The "Conservation Note" should protect large parcels of land from commercialization <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkercleaveland/1190467586/">Flickr, Adam Walker Cleaveland</a>

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Buy this forest! The Nature Conservancy puts idle capital to work for the planet

With its new "Conservation Note" initiative, the Nature Conservancy is giving back to those who give—with a guaranteed return on investment.

Deep in the foothills of Darjeeling. Photo: Mercy Corps

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Teatime chat with Tazo and Starbucks

Kenyan flower farmers are making more money thanks to a new middleman. <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/worldbank/2629345354/">Photo: World Bank (flickr)</a>

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Value Chains

Your Walmart bouquet may have been grown by these Kenyan farmers

Flower growers in Kenya have plenty to sell, but no buyers. Meanwhile big-box retailers in the U.S. and UK want more flowers. New research reveals that a middleman connecting them could be profitable for both.

A young women working the fields in Egypt Photo: <a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfamnovib/6257022866/sizes/m/in/photostream/”> oxfamnovib (Flickr)</a>.

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Financial Inclusion

A small step for science, a giant leap for unemployed youth

As the youth unemployment rate closes in on 25 percent in the Middle East, young people are looking for jobs, and governments are looking for innovative ways to create them.

Satellites orbiting the Earth may turn out to be much cheaper than either insurance adjusters or local weather stations. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/nasaearthobservatory/7420745884/in/photostream/">NASA Earth Observatory</a>

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Financial Inclusion

Satellite maps of African weather promise a microinsurance breakthrough

High above Africa, a fleet of satellites are now staring like hawks at the continent's weather patterns. Their goal: cheap farm insurance.

A Malawian farmer in her groundnut plot. Photo: <ahref:http://www.flickr.com/photos/44760652@N05/7337617292/">CIMMYT (Flickr)</a>.

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Value Chains

Farm growth fights poverty twice as fast as other growth

The most equitable way a country can stimulate a post-conflict economy is to invest in agriculture, an African nonprofit says.

Rainforest advocates in Indonesia. One thinker claims the modern environmental movement has played little role in staving off the catastrophes it predicted in the 1970s. Photo <a href="http://flic.kr/p/aaj1bD">Rainforest Action Network (Flickr)</a>

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Sustainable Energy

Don't panic, environmentalists: A richer world can be a better one

Forty years ago, a shocking report tagged economic growth as the catalyst for environmental collapse. Now, a new article claims the world's responses to that forecast failed to make things better.

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Cardiogram by tablet, Cows by phone: 3 new innovations for Africa

From tablets that diagnose cardiovascular disease to potatoes that reduce childhood blindness, The Guardian’s list of 15 innovations that are helping transform Africa has a little something for everybody.

Hauling a load of jute to market may lose some luster if Bangladesh fails to cope with global trade fluctuations <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelfoleyphotography/392624379/sizes/o/in/photostream/">Flickr, Michael Foley Photography</a>

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Globalization at work: Sanctions on Iran threaten Bangladesh's cash crop

Hanging from the world trade network by a thread: developing economies are easily rocked by regional events that profoundly alter the marketplace.

<a href="http://awesome.good.is/transparency/web/1105/african-farmers/flash.html">Infographic by GOOD in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. </a>

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INFOGRAPHIC: Better info, seeds, tools and storage - What any farmer needs to thrive

Falling into the "easier-said-than-done" infographic category, The Gates Foundation and GOOD do have a point: straightforward solutions can often yield high returns.