Questions de développement ...

The EU has a permissible level of 0.1% GMO material, but Turkey has a zero-tolerance policy. Meeting this requirement is also complicated by a shortage of shippers able to reassure importers that they can meet the zero-tolerance rule.

So Turkey is looking to new suppliers in western Europe where shippers rarely encounter GMO crops.

The dirty secret of the food movement is that the much-celebrated small-scale farmer isn’t making a living. After the tools are put away, we head out to second and third jobs to keep our farms afloat. Ninety-one percent of all farm households rely on multiple sources of income. Health care, paying for our kids’ college, preparing for retirement? Not happening. With the overwhelming majority of American farmers operating at a loss — the median farm income was negative $1,453 in 2012 — farmers can barely keep the chickens fed and the lights on.

Farmers often try new ideas in their fields and develop many local technologies by innovations and adaptations. These innovations are based on deep knowledge of the local environments, ecologically and environmentally sound. This paper documents such an innovative practice of vegetable cultivation developed by marginal farmers in a mid altitude Himalayan village of the Uttarakhand state in India.

After a successful trial, the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations in 2013 began introducing high yielding seeds to Ethiopia’s small-scale farmers. The farmers are now reporting significantly increased crop yields and greater crop resilience to disease and drought because of the new seed varieties. IPS spoke to the farmers about the improved seeds and how it has impacted their household income and food security.