Friday, September 18, 2009

still it climbs higher and higher...

Reported in the New York Times

People living below the poverty line will be more than 1.3 billion people, up by more than 100 million in 2009.

222 million workers run the risk of joining the ranks of the working poor, earning less than $1.25 a day, according to an estimate by the International Labor Organization.

Hunger rates are up in every region in the world, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. The most recent increase in hunger is not the consequence of poor global harvests but is caused by the world economic crisis that has resulted in lower incomes and increased unemployment. This has reduced access to food by the poor, the UN agency said.

400 million hectares of Guinea Savannah land that spreads across 25 countries is ripe for farming. At the moment only ten percent of the Guinea Savannah zone, a vast area of around 600 million hectares of land from Senegal to South Africa is actually cropped. Changing the use of land in the Guinea Savannah to agriculture will inevitably bring some environmental costs. Intensification brings with it risks of environmental damage through destruction of vulnerable ecosystems and the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides but agriculture can also benefit the environment by slowing the spread of agriculture into fragile and/or environmentally valuable lands.
“Fortunately, there is a wealth of experience from other countries on which to draw,” said the FAO

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