Issue 70 – 15th October 2014
This bumper harvest edition of GCP News celebrates a cluster of exciting days falling this week, with a feast of delights to stimulate any palate. We love challenges here at the Generation Challenge Programme, so dust off your thinking cap for our special crop quiz in celebration of World Food Day. For the International Day of Rural Women, we offer a tribute to queenly cassava, while for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, we reflect on poverty, crop breeding, and our impact. If all this still leaves you hungry for more, you’re in luck: enjoy a selection of extra titbits from our friends and partners, and a pair of bonus quizzes too!
Celebrations from GCP
1. The International Day of Rural Women (October 15th)Here at GCP we’re celebrating the International Day of Rural Women in regal style, with a special look at cassava. Find out why cassava is a 'women’s crop', what happens when the underdog comes out on top, and why we’re shouting “Long live Queen Cassava!” More
2. World Food Day (October 16th)We know you love a (Generation) Challenge, so challenge yourself – and your friends and family – with our crop identification quiz in honour of World Food Day. Some surprises about the foods we eat every day are in store. More
3. The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty (October 17th)We reflect on child malnutrition as an indicator of poverty, how crop breeding can contribute to poverty eradication, and how to maximise and measure our impact. Plus, we accept an invitation in photo form to go out to play with the children we are working for. More
International Day of Rural Women celebrations from our friends
4. MAIZE on gender transformative approaches in NepalThe MAIZE CGIAR Research Program marks International Day of Rural Women with a look into the power of gender transformative approaches in engaging women and other disadvantaged groups in the Hill Maize Research Project in Nepal. More
5. A net of multimedia delight woven by WorldFishWatch their stunning video on gender equality, agriculture, and women’s empowerment, and – in case you still believed in that old divide between Art and Science – find out how theatre workshops are helping women fish retailers in Egypt. More
World Food Day celebrations from our friends
6. 2014 World Food Prize goes to Sanjaya RajaramOur hosts and friends at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have much to be proud about as wheat breeder Sanjaya Rajaram is awarded this year’s World Food Prize in recognition of his work in developing an astounding 480 wheat varieties, released in 51 countries to the benefit of both small- and large-scale farmers around the world. More here and here
7. Bram Govaerts receives the 2014 Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and ApplicationIn an impressive double whammy for CIMMYT, Bram Govaerts, conservation agriculture leader and actor upon Borlaug’s exhortation to “take it to the farmer”, now takes home this year’s Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. More here, here and here
8. A healthy helping of facts and figures from WHEATFor a crash course in wheat, you couldn't do better than this packed infographic from the busy folks at CIMMYT and the WHEAT CGIAR Research Program. More
9. More multimedia marvels from WorldfishAre you ready for your second fish course? Let Worldfish take you on a tour of a Climate Smart Farm in Bangladesh, and enjoy some brain food in the form of fish-filled infographics. More
10. Happy 40th birthday, ILRI!Our friends at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) are celebrating their 40th birthday this year. They are marking this happy anniversary with a roundtable event and other participation in the Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium – watch their news blog for details. More
11. A new page on palm oil from CIFORNow for a return to the trees… the folks at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) are unafraid to court controversy, and are celebrating World Food Day by releasing a newly translated book on palm oil, arguing that it does have the potential to be a sustainable crop. More
12. Interactive info on Africa’s agricultural potential from Farming FirstThis beautiful interactive graphic will knock your socks off. Explore the challenges to and potential of African agriculture – a lovely tool to share with non-experts, and eye candy for the experts too. More
13. Putting numbers on hunger with the 2014 Global Hunger IndexA little ahead of World Food Day but still highly pertinent, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe recently published the 2014 Global Hunger Index, a multidimensional measure of national, regional, and global hunger that this year focuses on hidden hunger, or micronutrient deficiency. Download the report here and interact with the data here
…And a bonus
14. A quiz for the wheat whizzes...If you’re still feeling quizzical, test your wheat knowledge with this peck of puzzlers passed along to us by CIMMYT. More
15. …and one for the Borlaug buffsFinally, for the real quiz addicts, some tricky questions on the life and times of Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate and father of the World Food Prize. A fitting footer to this special edition! More
