USAID Video Podcast: Science to Feed the Future

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  The above video podcast by the U.S. Agency for International Development reviews a renewed pledge by the U.S. to renew its focus on agriculture following a 2009 spike in world food prices that left millions of people facing crises. The presidential initiative Feed the Future became the U.S. Government’s main vehicle to improve people’s access to safe and nutritious foods, chiefly by supporting the smallholder farmers who grow them. New investments in science from vitamin-packed crops, to drought-resistant cereals, are central to this effort – an effort strongly… Read More →

VIDEO – Agricultural Development in the DRC: Training Beyond the Farm

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The Borlaug Institute’s agricultural development project at Camp Base in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo trains soldiers to be sustainable farmers and provide food for the base. DRC often faces food shortages in which even the military can’t feed its own men. With this program, soldiers not only learn to farm, but to take their skills home to teaching their neighbors. View Borlaug Institute Active Projects in a full screen map

Borlaug Institute Senior Fellow Dr. Neville Clarke receives AIARD Special Service Award

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WASHINGTON D.C. June 3, 2013 — Dr. Neville Clarke, Senior Fellow of the Borlaug Institute, has been named 2013 recipient of the Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development’s annual Special Service Award. The award is given to non-AIARD members who have demonstrated “a career-long commitment to the goals of AIARD through active support for international, agricultural and rural development initiatives” over more than 25 years, according to the organization. Clarke was notified he’d been selected for the award in the last week of May and was presented… Read More →

Video: Texas A&M and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network

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In his seminar lecture on April 26, 2013 Dr. Belay E. Begashaw discussed Texas A&M University’s role in the Sustainable Development Solutions Network through the Borlaug Institute. The SDSN is a new initiative that combines scientific and technical expertise from academia, civil society and the private sector around the world. The initiative endeavors to alleviate global poverty and hunger in the face of a world population approaching 9 billion people by 2050. The SDSN is intended to carry on the work still left following the Millennium Development Goals, a UN program ending 2015… Read More →

Producers continue to see progress as sustainable AGTEC program closes in Guatemala

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  By GABRIEL SALDANA | The Borlaug Institute | gabe.saldana@ag.tamu.edu GUATEMALA — As the Borlaug Institute’s AGTEC (Agriculture in Guatemala: Technology, Education, and Commercialization) development program draws to a close, lasting effects of the sustainable initiative remain evident at countryside project sites spanning the region between Chimaltenango and Antigua. Producers of various agricultural products in-country continue to see success spurred by bolstered production facilities and new farming, marketing and sanitation practices – production tools introduced by AGTEC across the region. A roughly 40-minute drive from Guatemala City, flower… Read More →

Africa’s Chief Veterinary Officers Tour Texas with Borlaug Institute, USDA

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By GABRIEL SALDAÑA | The Borlaug Institute Intricate collaboration among state, federal and university entities makes Texas’ and the United States’ veterinary systems a prime example of sophistication in animal disease control. That was the message taken by 12 of east Africa’s highest ranking chief veterinary officers early April as they embarked on a weeklong training session across Texas, visiting some of the state’s premier administrative, educational and practicing veterinary facilities. John Kanisio Lefuk, chief veterinary officer of the 2-year-old country of South Sudan, says that while veterinary… Read More →

Borlaug Institute student staffers prepare for global international development contest

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  By GABRIEL SALDANA | The Borlaug Institute | gabe.saldana@ag.tamu.edu COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS — The local community could serve as host to a new incubator for youth agricultural exploration if a group of four Texas A&M students – three of whom are staff of the Borlaug Institute – sees success in an annual global competition. The students are members of Team Green Eggs & Ham, one of about 70 teams competing in the annual Thought For Food Challenge. The contest is open to university students from across the… Read More →

Inside Kenya’s Sauri Millennium Village: a Beacon of Progress in Integrated Development

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  By GABRIEL SALDAÑA | The Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture NAIROBI, KENYA (Feb. 20, 2013) — Last month, Julie Borlaug, granddaughter of famed agronomist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, rubbed elbows with the world’s foremost global development leaders at the opening ceremony of Columbia University’s Global Center for Africa in Nairobi. Read more about the Columbia Global Centers here Among the world leaders Borlaug met at the Africa Center’s opening were the president of Kenya, the prime minister of Ethiopia and world renowned economist… Read More →

First International Coffee Rust Summit produces plan to address Central American rust epdemic

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Press Release: First International Coffee Rust Summit produces plan to address Central American rust epidemic Coffee experts representing each segment of the industry’s value chain converged in Guatemala City April 18-20 to outline a plan of action addressing the rampant coffee rust epidemic that has devastated Central American harvests in the 2012-2013 season. Greater losses are expected in the coming season if immediate action is not taken. Click above for a press release outlining the summit’s findings. The First International Coffee Rust Summit was organized by World Coffee Research (managed… Read More →

Seminar: Julie Borlaug to lead panel discussion on student involvement in international development

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Please join the Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture on Thursday, April 18 for the next installment of our 2013 Seminar Series. In this presentation, Julie Borlaug, granddaughter of the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, will lead a panel discussion with students and development experts on the role that students play in international development via the World Food Prize Global Youth Institute and the annual Thought for Food Challenge. During the hour-long discussion, Will Rooney, professor in the Texas A&M University Department of Soil &… Read More →