US foundation works to end African poverty with chickens.

The World Poultry Foundation (WPF) take a $21.4 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and, in four years, wants to improve incomes and nutrition for millions of smallholder chicken farmers in rural Africa. The team leading the World Poultry Foundation is working in rural Nigeria and Tanzania to empower smallholder farmers – especially women – to earn higher incomes and improve the nutrition of their families through poultry-growing enterprises. The foundation says the grant allows them to implement a strategy that gives rural farmers access to improved genetics, provides technical assistance and training, and allows access to new markets, with a goal of impacting 2.5 million households across Tanzania and Nigeria at the end of the four-year initiative. The goals are in alignment with the World Poultry Foundation’s mission, which has shifted from helping a trading partner out of self-interest (keeping the Russian market open to U.S. poultry) to helping people in underdeveloped nations where no gain is expected for the U.S. poultry industry. continue

Eat brown rice and live longer.

Eating brown rice could prevent an early death, research suggested . Experts at Harvard University found just one 16g serving per day of whole grain cuts the risk of dying from any cause, heart disease or cancer. And, they argued, the more whole grains people eat, the bigger the benefits. Their analysis of studies showed that for every single serving (16g) of whole grains, there was a 7 per cent drop in risk of death from any cause. source

Arsenic poisoning and method of rice cooking.

You may not think there's anything wrong with how you cook rice - but there probably is. If you're not using enough water then you're at risk of heart disease and cancer, a scientist has warned. Cooking the grains in excess water helps to flush out arsenic, preventing any possible chemical poisoning. While soaking rice overnight slashes levels of the industrial toxin by around 80 per cent, a contamination expert claims. Arsenic gets into the rice as a result of industrial contaminants and pesticides that were used in the past. It can remain in the flooded paddy fields where the rice is grown for decades, research has suggested. continue

Doctors find live cockroach in woman's skull after she reports experiencing 'crawling sensation'.

The 42-year-old Indian woman was in deep slumber last Tuesday night until she awoke around midnight to a “tingling, crawling sensation” in her right nostril. At first, the woman, a domestic worker named Selvi, brushed the feeling off, assuming she might be catching a cold, the Times of India reported. But she soon felt something move. She spent the rest of the night in discomfort, waiting for the sun to rise so she could go to the hospital. “I could not explain the feeling but I was sure it was some insect,” she told the New Indian Express. “Whenever it moved, it gave me a burning sensation in my eyes.” continue

Farmer makes a fortune in semi-arid Gilgil.

Gilgil sub-county in Nakuru county is mainly a semi-arid area, hence many residents shun agriculture. The area experiences low rainfall, which is not reliable while daytime temperatures are high. Still, one farmer has taken the bull by its horns after visiting Israel and China to learn about dry-land farming. Martin Gathogo, 36, has put over 30 acres under irrigation in Murindat ward. He says the venture is a move towards improving food security in the region while earning a living for his family at the same time. “Rainfall here is low and erratic but that is not a reason for us not to engage in farming. Several rivers criss-cross our land,” Gathogo said. continue

EMPOWERED WOMEN DRIVE ECONOMIES .

Did you know? In the regions of Gao and Segou in Mali, less than 5 percent of land managers are women, but more than 30 percent of these women are head of households, often widows, responsible for food, healthcare, and school fees for their children. The national gender policy in Mali, launched in 2011, indicates that in the region of Segou, 77 percent of female farm workers do not receive any compensation. Of these, only 18 percent work for themselves. In addition, the study shows that just 10 percent of female farm workers own working animals and plows, and only 20 percent can afford small farm equipment. Without their own land heritage as collateral, rural women have fewer opportunities to access funding for their activities through the traditional financial system. To mitigate these inequalities that hinder the country’s competitiveness internationally, the government of Mali calls for “solidarity with the most disadvantaged populations, particularly towards women and rural youth, through the principle of equity and the implementation of specific actions to fight against poverty.” Using this window of opportunity, 2SCALE initiated a series of actions to increase access to land for female vegetable growers involved in a vegetable partnership in Segou. continue

AGRIBUSINESS: How mobile technologies are helping small, rural farmers grow their businesses.

The soil needed salt. And not just a sprinkling, but up to two kilograms, applied in a shallow trench encircling each aging coconut tree where the outer leaves cast their shadow when the sun was overhead. Marcelina Lastimosa learned the technique from an agriculturalist, Joraphel Tingcayao, who shared advice as she collected data on her tablet. Within 30 minutes, Ms. Tingcayao had a complete picture of the farm itself and the farmer’s practices, finances, environmental conditions, and key vulnerabilities. That data will feed in to the FarmerLink program in the Philippines, an ambitious, digitally connected program to help rural coconut farmers overcome the obstacles that keep them poor despite their greatest efforts.continue