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KENYA’S CROP ACT: A HIDDEN AGENDA?

The Crops Act of Kenya, 2013, regulates which crops can be cultivated for commercial purposes and what the regulatory burdens are, for those that want to enter the commercial market. This creates an exclusive commercial market for only the elite…
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USING THARAKA CULTURE TO PROTECT INDIGENOUS LIVESTOCK VARITIES

Back in the day, a hunters could never shoot an animal while it was mating; he had to wait until the animals finished mating in order to try his luck, kill a suckling animal either alone or together with a young one as this was an abomination…
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REVIVING LOST SEEDS AND CROPS

Indigenous crops have provided communities with a nutritious diet for thousands of years. The Institute for Culture and Ecology (ICE) has been working with small holders farmers in reviving indigenous and traditional crops variety in order to…
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THE NEW SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA

The second scramble for Africa is definitely with us. Africa is being shared up once again, a perfect replay of the Berlin Conference held between 1884 and 1885. However, there are salient differences between the two scrambles for Africa, both…
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ACKNOWLEDGING THE CONTRIBUTION OF SMALL SCALE HOLDER FARMING

Agriculture, particularly in a situation where it is dominated by smallholder farming, is the twine that interweaves the fabric of  every day social relations and activities FASSIL GEBEYEHU  explores.The importance of explaining the leading…
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SAVE THE SEED, FEED THE FUTURE

t the heart of the ‘green revolution’ is SEED. The seed diversity of many African countries including Ghana is seriously under threat. They are being replaced by the more preferred ‘certified and hybrid’ seeds and thus many indigenous…
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THE QUEEN OF ARROW ROOTS

In Ngurumo village, Ntakira Location in Meru Eunice Ngoki is known as the queen of arrow-roots. Eunice is a member of Meru Jitegemee group, started to work with the Institute of Culture and Ecology (ICE) in 2008. After trainings on agro-ecological…

KENYA HAS ALREADY HAD A GREEN REVOLUTION

Forget trying to grow hybrid maize – Africa already has all the crops, storage systems and knowledge that it needs to grow itself out of povertyAfter working for many years for Professor Wangari Maathai, and then with the African Biodiversity…

ETHIOPIA DOESN’T NEED OR WANT BILL GATES

Ecological campaigner Million Belay talks about why protecting Ethiopia’s biodiversity is so important and why he opposes the intervention of philanthropists like Bill Gates‘The children are told to appreciate the western media, and…

GM CROPS WON’T HELP AFRICAN FARMERS THE UK’S ENVIRONMENT MINISTER SAYS GM CROPS WILL HELP COMBAT HUNGER IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES. BUT OWEN PATERSON IS WRONG

Last week we heard that Owen Paterson, the UK’s environment minister, is claiming that GM crops are necessary to help address hunger in developing countries, and that it would be immoral for Britain not to help developing countries to take…

GMO CORN SHIPMENT STIRS CONCERN AND ANGER IN KENYA

Kenyan civil society groups and small-scale farmers are outraged at the arrival of 40,000 tonnes of South African genetically modified (GMO) maize into Kenya through the Port of Mombassa earlier this year. The Kenyan Biodiversity…

KENYAN UNDER FIRE FOR ALLOWING IMPORT OF GMOS

Kenya's environmental and food security activists have called on the Government to shun genetically modified (GM) foods, and instead support organic agriculture practiced by most small-scale farmers. In June, the Government gave a…