LEISA's Farm

Now out: LEISA Magazine - Women and food sovereignty. Sept. 2009

posted by Bertie

Volume 25:3 of LEISA Magazine is out.
Theme of this issue: Women and food sovereignty.

Women and food are inseparably linked. We cannot write about food sovereignty without addressing women’s role in food production. In many situations women take the main responsibility for food production, processing, storage and cooking. Often they play a key role in its marketing as well. But modernisation of agriculture has taken several crucial food-related responsibilities out of their hands. For instance, women are often experts in seed selection – knowing best which seed produces a crop that does not only yield well but also has the best taste, stores better or produces good fodder. With the increasing commercialisation of seed, women lose control over food production. Despite facts demonstrating the important contribution of women to agricultural production, the perception persists that what women do is marginal; real agriculture is about modern technologies, economies of scale, specialisation and mechanisation. So where do women fit into this type of agriculture? What useful knowledge will be lost when the so-called backward “traditional” agriculture has disappeared? Who will control the food, and the resources needed to produce it? In this light, it is no surprise that women are deeply involved in the food sovereignty movement.

Read the magazine online? Click here.
Subscribe? Click here.

LEISA Magazine is published by ILEIA, the centre for learning on sustainable agriculture and the secretariat of the global LEISA Network.

Vacancy for (Netherlands-based) webmaster F/M

ILEIA is looking for a WEBMASTER F/M

ILEIA is working on the development of a new website, to be built by an outside company. The webmaster is to play an active, supportive and advisory role in this. Once the site is built, it will be the webmaster’s responsibility to maintain it. The webmaster is part of a web team, which takes decisions regarding web tools, and informs the management.

Availability: 0,8 to full-time. Starting date: preferably October 1, 2009. Candidates need to be based in The Netherlands.

Click here for more info about this vacancy.

ILEIA is an independent organisation based in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, aiming to enhance knowledge on small-scale, sustainable agriculture, particularly in developing countries. ILEIA coordinates a worldwide network of partner organisations with a similar aim. The network shares a website and jointly publishes seven regional editions of a magazine on sustainable, small-scale farming.

Photo contest: the future of family farming

A lot to win !! LEISA Magazine jubilee photo contest

posted by Bertie

What do you think about the future of small-scale family farming? What changes will happen or have already happened? Are your neighbours moving to the city? Have farming methods and markets changed a lot in your lifetime? Will your children become farmers? How has mobile phone changed your life? Which technologies will you use in the future?

Photograph your ideas about families, farming and change and send them to us. It doesn’t have to be a real situation – you can also envisage your ideas of change and photograph that. Digital photos can be sent to jubilee(at)ileia.nl (mention ‘Contest’ in the subject heading) and should be a minimum size of 1 MB. Printed photographs can be sent by regular mail to: ILEIA Photo Contest, PO Box 2067, 3800 CB Amersfoort, The Netherlands. If you mention your address, we will return photos afterwards. The closing date for this contest is September 1, 2009. Winners will be announced in our December issue.

A lot to win !! The prize for the best picture – which will be chosen by the editors of LEISA Magazine – is a beautiful netbook – a compact laptop with many useful features. The second prize is a lightweight digital camera, and the third prize is a combined radio with nine functions. We will also give away ten USB sticks. The best entries will be published in LEISA Magazine next year, and will feature on our website and weblog.

LEISA Magazine Jubilee

Posted by Bertie

LEISA Magazine is celebrating its 25th birthday this year!
Over the past 25 years, many stories have been published in which small farmers show us that they have a crucial role to play in sustainable development. Our jubilee year is the perfect occasion to spread this message. In the months to come we will renew our magazine, we will put our readers in the spotlight and we will try to convince more people that small farmers' way of life is the future.
So keep an eye on us!

 
LEISA Magazine 1984-2009: Some of our covers through the years.

Now out: E-LEISA 2009 number 2

Yesterday our e-newsletter E-LEISA was e-mailed to all its subscribers.

In this issue:

• Out now: Farmers as entrepreneurs, LEISA Magazine 25.2, June 2009
• A renewed LEISA Magazine: what information do you need?
• What does family farming mean to you?
• Open Forum: How sustainable is organic farming/Value chains
• Meet our editors in...
• On our blog
• News from the Global LEISA Network
• Upcoming issue: food sovereignty

Click here to read the full content of the E-LEISA. Would you like to subscribe to the mailing list? Scroll down the E-LEISA web page and submit your e-mail address.

E-mail from Zambia

Posted by Bertie

Happy readers make our day! We received the following e-mail from Zambia on May 31, 2009:

Dear LEISA Magazine,

I am a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer working with farmers in the Luapula region of Zambia. Our program promotes conservation farming and agro-forestry which goes hand-in-hand with your magazine's message.
Each time we receive a new addition of the magazine, it quickly makes its way around the small village of Kapweshi where I live. In your December 2008 edition you included an article titled "Old methods for tackling new threats". An emergent farmer in our village, Steven Bunda, was inspired by the picture of villagers applying mulch to their banana fields. He has followed suit and done the same inside his new banana field. Not only is he putting to use grass that would have been burned, but he is suppressing weeds and keeping moisture that will be needed throughout the upcoming dry season. We thank you for your magazine and inspiration!

Joseph Stangl
Steven Bunda
Kapweshi, Zambia

This is the picture that has inspired Steven Bunda:

On the basis of their own observations, farmers in Hoima District cover their banana plantations with dry grass to conserve soil and water.
Photo: Ritah Lumala.

To read the LEISA Magazine article "Old methods for tackling new threats", click here.

LEISA India - special editions in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil

posted by Bertie

    

Three special editions of the LEISA India magazine were recently brought out, aimed to reach out to the non-English literate people and to grass root and community based organisations in India. The special editions - in Kannada, Tamil and Hindi - were produced in partnership with LEISA India consortium partners GEAG and LEISA Network and with LEISA enthusiast Mr. Poornaprajna.
The magazines were released during a videoconference that could be followed in three different locations.

For more information contact LEISA India via amebang@giasbg01.vsnl.net.in

Agroinnovations podcast Episode 51 (part 1)

posted by Bertie

Agricultural Innovations' Frank Aragona interviewed ILEIA's Frank van Schoubroeck. After a somewhat hesitant start an interesting conversation unfolded about exchanging good farming practices, the possibilities of smallholder farmers to contribute to innovations in agriculture, the role of big development institutions like the World Bank, the need for good governance, and lots of other things concerning small-scale farming. Also, Frank & Frank ask and explain some questions you might have about LEISA (LEISA? Who or what's LEISA?).
Click here to listen to the Agroinnovations Podcast Episode 51 (part 1).

Where do you get your inspiration from?

posted by Karen

Paul ter Weel, one of our readers in Indonesia, sent us these photos of the mango tree in his garden. He has planted beans around its base. He told us he was inspired by the article in LEISA Magazine 24.2 "Cover crops do it all" about the experiences of farmers in Ecuador, who are producing mangoes with help of cover crops to rehabilitate the soil. He hopes the leguminous crop will help add nitrogen to the soil, and is now waiting for the beautiful mangoes of don Ramón to appear on his tree as well.

Have you ever tried out any of the ideas from LEISA Magazine? or contacted an author? Then we'd love to know what happened next. Send us an email: leisasfarm (at) gmail.com and we'll put the best stories on here or in the magazine, as we did in the latest issue. Click here to read the first such article we have published - it tells the story of how Rajendra Uprety, an extension officer in Nepal, read a short article about rice, which inspired him to begin experimenting locally with the system of rice intensification (SRI). In the next issue of LEISA Magazine, due out 15th June, we will highlight the story of Awudu Ngutte in Cameroon. He was inspired to start a programme of community seed banks after reading about a similar initiative in India. 

Impressions from (editors and) readers in Cuba

posted by Jorge

A couple of weeks ago I spent a few days in Cuba, greatly enjoying this country's friendship and hospitality. My trip was part of the impact study of LEISA Revista de Agroecología, our partner magazine in Latin America. (This study is currently taking place in different parts of the region, so we will have more news about it soon.) Although I was there for a very short time, I was able to see some amazing successes in terms of agricultural production, especially in what is known as Urban Agriculture: the production of horticultural crops in and around the cities. The work of many people and organisations has shown what small scale agriculture can achieve - official statistics are now reporting that more than 60% of the food produced and marketed in Cuba is grown by small scale farmers. Due to these impressive results, the island’s authorities are now interested in promoting a similar approach in the rural areas, helping production change from large monocrop co-operatives to small scale and diverse enterprises. LEISA Revista de Agroecología reaches almost 1000 Cuban subscribers, including farmers, researchers, extension agents and project leaders. As part of our study I was able to talk to several readers of LEISA Revista de Agroecologia, and also to some of those who have contributed articles to our magazines. As seen in this video, they expressed their satisfaction with the magazine, and also pointed at some potential improvements, leading to further impact in Cuba and elsewhere. Gracias, amigos!