(via Heather Clancy, Smart Planet.com, Sept 22, 2010)
This is an interesting look at several different projects using hand-held cameras to record and share local viewpoints, particularly famers sharing techniques specific to their regions. I was especially intrigued by the small amount of staff time required (editing, compiling, uploading) by the nonprofits. Using social networking technology to advance farming knowledge, novel!
September is Organic Harvest Month! You can recognize the importance of organic and sustainable gardening by supporting IIRR’s Bio-Intensive Gardening Program.
We train rural communities to farm with organic and locally appropriate techniques and materials. Over the past 20 years, IIRR’s work has successfully established more than 630 school gardens, changed government nutrition policy in the Philippines, and trained more than 2,000 parents and teachers in organic and locally appropriate methods and materials. Now IIRR has the ambitious plan of “growing” our Bio-Intensive Gardening Program to reach 5,000 new schools and integrate environmental education, nutrition, health, and climate change adaptation. If you are interested in supporting Bio-Intensive Gardening, please visit our website – http://www.iirr.org/index.php/getinvolved/donate
via DevEx, The Northern and Southern Leyte Provinces in the Philippines are the target communities for a “mega-grant” of about US $6.5 million for a one-year program to combat rural poverty and improve food security. From initial reports, it seems that the plans include cash-for-work programs through funding from the European Commission, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, and the Philippine Department of Agriculture. I hope that these projects include training and sustainability plans so that it is not a temporary cash infusion, but a long-term change in these communities.
link to article – EU, GTZ Boost Food Security in the Philippines by Ma. Rizza Leonzon (DevEX, The Development Newswire, August 24, 2010)
