Basket Cases and Breadbaskets: Sacred Rice and Agricultural Development in Postcolonial Africa

Author's final manuscript.Based on ethnographic research among rural Diola in Guinea-Bissau, I provide a broad view of the history and interpenetration of rice in social, political, religious, and ecological domains, while chronicling the current difficulties of residents in this region who are no longer able to grown enough of it. These farmers’ experiences are unfolding at a time of revitalized attention to agricultural development in Africa, particularly under the auspices of the New Green Revolution for Africa. I examine the premises that constitute the resuscitated effort to address the plight of African farmers. I argue that the totalizing quality of rice in Diola and other rice-cultivating societies requires a development approach that takes into account dimensions of agrarian life not encapsulated by the high- modernist and anti-political orientation of the New Green Revolution for Africa

A review of the rural-digital policy agenda from a community resilience perspective

© 2016 The Authors This paper utilises a community resilience framework to critically examine the digital-rural policy agenda. Rural areas are sometimes seen as passive and static, set in contrast to the mobility of urban, technological and globalisation processes (Bell et al., 2010). In response to notions of rural decline (McManus et al., 2012) rural resilience literature posits rural communities as ‘active,’ and ‘proactive’ about their future (Skerratt, 2013), developing processes for building capacity and resources. We bring together rural development and digital policy-related literature, using resilience motifs developed from recent academic literature, including community resilience, digital divides, digital inclusion, and rural information and communication technologies (ICTs). Whilst community broadband initiatives have been linked to resilience (Plunkett-Carnegie, 2012; Heesen et al., 2013) digital inclusion, and engagement with new digital technologies more broadly, have not. We explore this through three resilience motifs: resilience as multi-scalar; as entailing normative assumptions; and as integrated and place-sensitive. We point to normative claims about the capacity of digital technology to aid rural development, to offer solutions to rural service provision and the challenges of implementing localism. Taking the UK as a focus, we explore the various scales at which this is evident, from European to UK country-level

IICA Healthy Lifestyles (1) - Introduction to growing your own food!

Una colaboración del IICA, Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, Ministry of Education Culture Science Technology, Ministry of Health and Wellness y Ministry of Agriculture Food Security & Enterprise.Iniciativa que espera mejorar la calidad de la alimentación de las personas, mediante recursos en línea, como tutoriales de siembra en el jardín, y recetas de comida saludable entre otros

IICA Healthy Lifestyles (2) - Introduction to healthy diets!

Una colaboración del IICA, Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, Ministry of Education Culture Science Technology, Ministry of Health and Wellness y Ministry of Agriculture Food Security & Enterprise.Iniciativa que espera mejorar la calidad de la alimentación de las personas, mediante recursos en línea, como tutoriales de siembra en el jardín, y recetas de comida saludable entre otros

IICA Healthy Lifestyles (6) - Home Remedies for use in Pest Control

Participante: Fay Garnett del Ministerio de Agricultura, Seguridad Alimentaria y EmpresaUna colaboración del IICA, Canada Fund for Local Initiatives, Ministry of Education Culture Science Technology, Ministry of Health and Wellness y Ministry of Agriculture Food Security & Enterprise. En este video se explican algunas ideas sobre cómo hacer aerosoles de control de plagas, utilizando plantas de su jardín e ingredientes de su cocina