HYDERABAD, India, Nov 26 (IPS) – As India continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic and a growing number of deaths, farmers here have been fighting a battle of their own against volatile pricing, uncertain demand and lack of access to the market. But in the midst of all this uncertainty, one farming couple in a village near Hyderabad are working to become a food-secure future for themselves using eco-friendly farming techniques.
The couple, Anjaneyalu and Padma Amma, are among a growing community of smallholder farmers who have been trained by the local government in farming without the use of synthetic inputs, including fertilisers and pesticide. The farmers receive free training under a special government programme that aims to increase soil fertility and boost yield through sustainable measures to avoid any possible food crisis caused by the pandemic.
This comes ahead of a Dec. 1 online event by the Barilla Centre for Food and Nutrition, which explores how everyone has a role to play in re-aligning the global food system with human needs and within planetary boundaries. The event will be co-hosted in partnership with the Food Tank and aims to create a multi-stakeholder platform to offer solutions and environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger, obesity, and poverty. It comes ahead of the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit.
In this interview with IPS, the Ammas explain how they turned a previously uncultivable land into a source of their sustenance through applying eco-friendly techniques.
NEW DELHI, India, Jan 18 (IPS) - As a Muslim woman born and brought up in Denmark, Nadia Helmy Ahmed broke many stereotypes when she started boxing at the age of 15. “Back then it was not common for girls to take up elite boxing, let alone common for Muslim girls, I used to be the only girl in my gym, along with ten others boys,” said Nadia to IPS News.
GENEVA, Jan 18 (IPS) - Ilze Brands Kehris is Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights heading the UN Human Rights Office in New York
Addressing an online event organized by the Danish Institute for Human Rights in conjunction with the Human Rights Council’s third inter-sessional meeting on Human Rights and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable DevelopmentA year into the COVID-19 crisis, countries across the globe continue to face alarming levels of pressure on their health and social services. Education and other essential rights, such as water and sanitation, have been severely compromised.
BEIJING, Jan 15 (IPS) - A government-backed coalition of international advisors to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has recommended that China apply more stringent environmental controls over its overseas investments. If adopted, this would be a major departure from China’s usual approach of deferring to host country rules, many of them inadequate, for regulating its overseas investments.
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