CIHEAM Press Review

Whether they are winemakers, winery owners, cellar managers or sommeliers, women entrepreneurs are increasingly entering the wine industry, evolving in this traditionally masculine world. This trend is noticeable in both the old world and new world wine-producing countries.
Over the last three years, we conducted several studies and conferences in South Africa and France that provided a range of observations and analysis.

Olive grow­ers are cel­e­brat­ing ​“a sign of hope and rebirth” after har­vest­ing healthy olives from trees recently rein­tro­duced to the Xylella fas­tidiosa-rav­aged region of Puglia.
Farmers from Casarano, a com­mune located close to Lecce at the heel of Italy’s boot, have har­vested olives from their two-year-old trees belong­ing to the Favolosa cul­ti­var (or Fs-17).

This year’s grape harvest was 25% lower than the average crop yield because of the very little rain, with the rain being so abundant the few times it poured that it actually did more harm than good, according to one of Malta’s main wine producers.
Marsovin chief executive Jeremy Cassar sai

Heavy rains, hail­storms and other extreme weather events have wreaked havoc in Italy over the past few weeks, caus­ing severe dam­age to olive trees, grape vines and a num­ber of other crops.
In the north of the coun­try, thou­sands of olive trees have been dam­aged by strong storms. Citing data pro­vided by the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD), the Italian farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion, Coldiretti, said that the coun­try has expe­ri­enced up to nine storms per day, severely impact­ing many farm­ing oper­a­tions across the coun­try.

The Covid-19 pandemic has benefited the Algarve citrus industry with an increase in demand and prices.
José Oliveira, president of AlgarOrange, which brings together nine companies and associations of citrus growers from all over the Algarve, told Lusa that this is one of the sectors that “has suffered least from the pandemic” and that the summer varieties of orange are being sold “at practically twice” the price of the previous year.

The extension, in an area that was mostly spared by the virus outbreak that ran wild in northern Italy, has prompted local institutions to call on the central government to let their region set its own course of economic recovery.

COMMUNICATION OF MR PLÁCIDO PLAZA, SECRETARY GENERAL OF THE CIHEAM.
In addition to the health and financial crisis caused by the new coronavirus (COVID-19), there are the risks related to food, social and economic crises that are likely to worsen the situation in the most fragile regions of the world that are already faced with climatic shocks, the depletion of natural resources and poverty.

As the num­ber of con­firmed coro­n­avirus cases surges to 400 in Italy, the country’s agri­cul­tural indus­try is already feel­ing the impacts of the epi­demic.
Har­vest­ing, pack­ag­ing and trans­porta­tion have all been deeply affected by strict mea­sures intro­duced by the Ital­ian gov­ern­ment to con­tain the spread of the virus.
To make things worse, sev­eral Euro­pean coun­tries have started ask­ing Ital­ian sup­pli­ers for addi­tional and more com­pre­hen­sive cer­ti­fi­ca­tions on imported Ital­ian goods. Oth­ers have enforced reg­u­la­tions that could reduce the avail­abil­ity of for­eign sea­sonal work­ers ahead of the next har­vest.

Agriculture’s global footprint is decreasing — more land globally is now being abandoned by farming than converted to it. This, some researchers contend, presents an opportunity for ecological restoration that could help fight climate change and stem the loss of biodiversity.

In the besieged Gaza Strip, where the water desalination plant has been badly affected by the fuel shortage, this new technique of agriculture also allows the pair to use less water than would be necessary in traditional farming methods.
While the weather conditions in Gaza are now suitable for the growth of lettuce, the siblings are looking to introduce systems in which they can cultivate fruits and leaf crops for the local market, making this the first such project in the Gaza Strip.

Click here to register for the final installment of the Webinar Series. We are excited to enrich the Home Garden for Resilience and Recovery  (HG4RR)  network with a three-part series of virtual talks about the challenges and opportunities of home garden interventions in development and emergency settings. Experts and researchers from partnering organizations will speak […]

Visually, Luxor is most famous for its iconic temples. Yet beyond this, while there is the visual tale of ancient Egypt, there is also the current visual tale of Egyptian farmers that are opening up to the world and the future.
Today, investing in resilient agriculture is more important than ever. According to an article on the World Economic Forum, the COVID-19 pandemic “should spur us to redefine how we feed humanity.” Being the most labor-intensive, providing an estimated 28% of all jobs and 55% of rural employment, it is the most critical sector to alleviate poverty, provide job opportunities and transform communities for generations to come.

Strengthening Africa’s agriculture systems will not only make the continent more self-reliant and resilient to future shocks, but will also boost global health, prosperity, and security. The international community therefore has both moral and self-interested reasons to support this process.

The Covid-19 pandemic has devastated many countries and their economies in ways that no-one could have imagined. While the pandemic is primarily a health crisis, it has come to encompass all aspects of life thus requiring comprehensive national and international collective action.

The agriculture sector in Egypt, which has suffered neglect over many decades, has found a silver lining in the coronavirus pandemic. The disease outbreak has disrupted the supply chain around the world, with major producers finding it either difficult to send their crops to foreign markets or unable to satisfy demand in local markets. This has opened up a window of opportunity for Egyptian agricultural products in foreign markets, including those that were difficult to enter in the past because of fierce competition with products from other countries.

Launching the Digital Agriculture Market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry said that it will enable stakeholders dealing with agricultural supply and demand to meet in the digital marketplace and ensure that farmers will earn more income. It will also help consumers access cheaper agricultural products.

COVID-19 raises fears about food security

''By managing the pandemic era well, we need to prepare the Turkish agriculture sector for the post-coronavirus period,'' the minister said.

As the world battles the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social and economic disruption it is generating, concern about the impact it will have on food systems is growing. While it is still too early to know the extent of the effects the pandemic will have on food insecurity or poverty, we can be sure that the poor and vulnerable people are likely to suffer the most.

Malgré l’épidémie, « les agriculteurs sont au boulot, dans leurs exploitations », assure Christiane Lambert, présidente de la FNSEA. Il n’empêche, l’épidémie n’est pas sans poser plusieurs questions sur le bon fonctionnement de notre chaîne alimentaire. Tour d’horizon.

« Pas de pénurie alimentaire », « 90 à 95 % des références présentes en rayon », « aucun rationnement prévu »… Dimanche midi, Bruno Le Maire avait tenu un discours rassurant sur la sécurité de l’approvisionnement de la France en produits alimentaires, en dépit de l’épidémie de coronavirus. Elle sera « garantie dans les jours et les semaines à venir », du moins « si chacun adopte des comportements responsables », lançait le ministre de l’Economie.