Agriculture

Nomadic herders tending to their flock. Photo: Thatcher Cook for Mercy Corps

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'Dzud' of a Winter Hurts Mongolia's Herders

All Mongolian winters are bitterly cold, but for the most extreme, the Mongols have a special word: a "dzud," which loosely translates as "crisis."

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Who grows your food?

Roughly one third of the world's population works in the agricultural sector. That's a lot of jobs.

Economist Jeffrey Sachs spearheaded the Millennium Village Project to create sustainable economies in villages in sub-Saharan Africa. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin813/294550822/sizes/s/">kevin813 (flickr)</a>

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Sustainabiliy Continues to Elude MVP Site in Koraro

If you had millions in cash and a team of some of the most brilliant minds in development, could you transform a poor African village's extreme poverty to a viable economy in five years?

Small farms dot an African hillside.Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dapperscoo/120062600/">Scott the Hobo (flickr)</a>

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Land distribution in Africa

Land reform anywhere, let alone in Africa, does not usually find itself dominating the front page headlines of any major newspapers. Perhaps it should.

Cotton farmers in western Africa have been badly affected by a global drop in prices. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/carsten_tb/384806027/">10b travelling (flickr)</a>

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African Cotton Farmers Hurt by Subsidies

Falling cotton prices hurt African farmers far more than their American counterparts.

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African Farmers See Incomes Grow After Switching to Soy

Malawi's economy has deep roots in the small family farms that pepper its landscape. But farmers often can't earn enough from cash crops like tobacco, sugarcane, peanuts and tea.

Rice farming threatened by climate change. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/redneck/3041254338/"> Ricardo.Martin (flickr)</a>

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Climate Change Threatens Food Security

Ahead of the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, world leaders have decided to hold off on reaching an international climate change treaty to be signed in Copenhagen.

A homemade drip-irrigation system. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/careofcreation/2122650793/">Care of Creation (flickr)</a>

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How to Irrigate On A Shoestring

Flood irrigation: that's how poor farmers in developing countries usually water their crops. It's wasteful and too water-intensive to work in the dry season, but until recently there haven't been other viable options — a traditional drip irrigation system could cost thousands of dollars.

Iraq's Marsh Arabs have coexisted with the wetlands' unique ecosystem for 6,000 years. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/httpblogsinacomcnhomeofbeijingpeople/3610424640/">Dr. Michael Izady, Ph.D. (flickr)</a>

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Drought, Dams Threaten Iraq's Marsh Arabs

Southern Iraq is home to one of the largest wetlands in the world, where the tributaries of the Tigris and Euphrates meet.

A cracked and dry river bed. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/brtsergio/113503786/">Sergio Bertolini (flickr)</a>

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Remittances to Guatemala Drying Up

Nick -

There's too much information packed in here. See if you can simplify to just a few key points:

Iraq's most lucrative export after oil - dates - has seen declining production since the American-led invasion began in 2003. Photo: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ikhlasulamal/3542981557/">Ikhlasul Amal (flickr)</a>

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Declining Dates in Iraq

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent violence has left the country struggling to survive. Now, Iraq’s economy is suffering even more due to declining production in one of its most thriving exports after oil: dates.

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Farming Boom Goes Bust

After two boom years, The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. agricultural sector is expecting this year's profits to be below the 10-year average.

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.