Article by Laina Schneider and Wangui Gichane

Increasing food prices, climate change, water scarcity, and ecosystem degradation have significantly affected agricultural sustainability around the world. These impacts have hit especially hard in Cambodia, where agricultural production constitutes 90 percent of GDP. In a search for solutions to these challenges, development experts have suggested conservation agriculture as a viable option for producing desirable yields sustainably, while benefitting the environment. Continue reading >

Article by Edin Simms

When the average American is asked what they think are the causes of food insecurity around the globe, they might cite drought, pests, war, or poor government. What they may not realize is that the lack of an adequately trained agricultural workforce is one of the biggest constraints to achieving food security in developing countries. A Virginia Tech-led program working to improve education and training for agricultural professionals addressed this problem at an international symposium at the George Mason Inn in Fairfax, Virginia September 18-20. Continue reading >

Article by Wangui Gichane

According to the Center on Conflict, Security and Development, 1 in every 4 people worldwide today—more than 1.5 billion people—live in fragile and conflict affected situations, and only 20 percent of conflict affected countries are expected to achieve the goal of reducing hunger and poverty by half by 2015. On August 20-22, two Virginia Tech-funded programs hosted a regional workshop in Kampala, Uganda on agricultural capacity building in post-conflict countries. Workshop participants shared their experiences in agricultural education and training development work in South Sudan and Sub-Saharan Africa. Continue reading >

Article by Foster Whitaker and Edin Simms

“Agricultural competitiveness is a necessary catalyst for agricultural innovation. For Africans to feed Africans, their agricultural value chains have to be competitive locally and globally,” said Keith Moore after returning from speaking at Africa Agricultural Science Week. Earlier this summer African nations and their international partners came together in Accra, Ghana to discuss “Africa Feeding Africa through Agricultural Science and Innovation”, in a triennial conference on African agricultural development convened by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). Virginia Tech was represented by Keith Moore, Director of Performance Assessment at the Office of International Research, Education, and Development. Moore was invited by the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry, and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) to speak on post-secondary education for agribusiness curriculum development. Continue reading >