I have to admit that I am unusually swamped with work. Busy times indeed.  I’ve neglected my farm blog and need to find better ways to make time to write. In the mean time, while I am attempting to figure out ways to manufacture more time in my day, I thought I would share a press release with you from the other side of the world that I found truly interesting.

Women farmers in America still fight the good fight to be recognized in their male dominated professions.  It’s not fair, and it’s not right. Countless women have run highly productive farm operations, built successful agribusiness operations, and “mothered” strong families in the mean time.  (I bet there were/are a few in your community, maybe even your family) Somehow, when people think of “the old farmer down the road,” the mind still usually leads toward some Norman Rockwell-ish looking fellow standing proudly next to his wife, with his barns and farm behind him. Agrarian women have labored long and hard and deserve more respect. Enough said right?  ....Now imagine trying to be a woman farmer, on a crap farm, with a drought tendency of 40% per year, in an Islamic run area, while your children are starving, with no one caring about you, your kids, or your farm, BECAUSE you are an alone woman. ...Read on to learn about some stong women farmers who are working hard, and getting a little help…..

 
Reclaiming ‘useless’ lands gives new lifeline to West Africa’s sidelined women farmers
 
Niamey, Niger – The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) has developed an innovative technique of reclaiming severely degraded, abandoned farmlands in Western Africa successfully bring them back into profitable agricultural production.

This accomplishment is significant for the semi-arid Sudano-Sahelian region, whose few arable lands are under extreme pressure to produce more food for a growing population in the backdrop of climatic variations that threaten the region’s fragile agricultural production, and food security.

Additionally, the recovered degraded lands, which had been allocated to women in a moribund state, are giving back Niger’s largely marginalised women their socio¬economic rights to making a livelihood through agriculture.

“In dry West Africa, studies have shown that between 13 and 15 percent of children are suffering from acute nutritional deficiency”, says Prof Dov Pasternak, a scientist at ICRISAT. “By working with women to grow indigenous vegetable and fruit trees, we have not only restored the self-worth of women but also enabled them to better care for their children and families as well as make some money on top of it all.”

According to Prof Pasternak, more than half of the Sahelian soils are severely degraded, continuously losing nutrients and organic matter through wind and water erosion resulting in hard-to-plough encrusted lateritic soils that characterize many abandoned farms across Niger. Droughts account for crop failure in two out of every five years.

Extremely adverse weather conditions in the Sahel and growing population pressure are adversely affecting agricultural production in the Sahel. In Niger, population pressure has progressively led to highly fragmented farm holdings whose ownership and farming rights are generally vested in men. This has in turn systematically edged women out of farming leaving them without means of adequately caring for their families, or making an income.

“(Some areas of Niger) are witnessing emergence of a first generation of women who do not work the land. This process begins when a woman’s gamana is cultivated by her husband because it is so small that her labor is only required for certain types of harvest. In Jiratawa, we found a second generation of landless women who have never farmed because they never had the opportunity to help their mother in her gamana as she was landless too. They don’t even know how to sow seeds!” a study undertaken by the International Institute for Environment and Development says.

In an effort to keep women farming and to avert their impoverishment, the Government of Niger, in 2004, enacted a Rural Code to govern access to, and use of, land and other natural resources. Land tenure is governed by a variety of unsynchronized laws ranging from customary, Islamic and civil laws. The Rural Code is envisioned to enable women to directly own and use land as they wish. But initial trends show that more often than not women are being allocated the least productive, often abandoned, lands that men cannot put to any use.

ICRISAT is developing a range of techniques to help Niger’s women transform their erstwhile unproductive, impenetrable crust-lands into productive farmland. The techniques present an integrated system to food production and include rebuilding the fertility of the degraded soils, water management for this semi-arid zone and general land reclamation using drought-tolerant tree species.
ICRISAT scientists have taught women how to create a favorable medium for planting crops that will enable effective rooting, as well as how to manage the soils to prevent water-logging. Farmers have learnt how to harvest rain-water on-farm using micro-catchments or planting pits known as zai holes, which are able to hold water for prolonged periods after the rains. The zai holes also hold soil and compost to support the growth of locally adapted, deep-rooting and highly nutritious fruit and vegetable trees such as the Pomme du Sahel, Ziziphus Mauritania, and the Moringa, Moringa stenopetala.

The Pomme du Sahel fruit is rich in iron, calcium, phosphorus and has ten times as much Vitamin C as the regular apple, while the Moringa leaves, Niger’s most popular vegetable, has seven times as much Vitamin C as oranges, four times as much Vitamin A as carrots, four times as much calcium as milk, thrice as much potassium as is found in bananas and twice as much protein as is found in milk.

These and other crop trees under test for reclamation of Western Africa’s degraded farmlands are typically tolerant to drought, high soil salinity and water-logging. They hold the promise of transforming vast swathes of degraded land in West Africa into Africa’s new horticultural front. ICRISAT estimates the value of fruit and vegetable produced from these indigenous tree crops at about USD1, 200 per hectare.

About ICRISAT:
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is a nonprofit, non-political organization that does innovative agricultural research and capacity building for sustainable development with a wide array of partners across the globe. Its mission is to help empower 600 million poor people to overcome hunger, poverty and a degraded environment in the dry tropics through better agriculture. ICRISAT, is one of 15 centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). visit www.icrisat.org

About the CGIAR:
The CGIAR, established in 1971, is a strategic partnership of countries, international and regional organizations and private foundations supporting the work of 15 international Centers. In collaboration with national agricultural research systems, civil society and the private sector, the CGIAR fosters sustainable agricultural growth through high-quality science aimed at benefiting the poor through stronger food security, better human nutrition and health, higher incomes and improved management of natural resources. For more information, please visit www.cgiar.org

The nice folks behind the got milk? campaign asked me to share some news with you. 

got milk? MILK MUSTACHE MOBILE “REINTRODUCES” NATION TO
NATURE’S WELLNESS DRINK
Endorsed by more than 250 celebrities, the popular campaign urges residents to join the famous faces of wellness

CHICAGO (June 20, 2009) – For years, food scientists have attempted to manufacture new-age, wellness beverages. And though they’ve tried, none are as wholesome, naturally nutritious and delicious as milk. Milk is naturally nutrient-rich like no other beverage. Providing an array of wellness benefits in a single glass, milk has been endorsed by more than 250 celebrities and its benefits are supported by hundreds of scientific studies.
From March to September, the National “got milk?” Milk Mustache Mobile Drink Well. Live Well. Tour is traveling coast-to-coast to reintroduce Americans to this nutrient powerhouse and its array of benefits.
Residents can visit the events to experience free, interactive activities including:
• Health assessments from a registered dietitian
• Ice-cold milk from local dairies
• Homemade smoothie samples
• Five-minute chair massages
• Souvenir Milk Mustache photos
Event attendees can also enter the Healthy Meals Made Simple Sweepstakes for a chance to win a prize from Real Simple magazine, including a healthy meal from a personal chef and a year’s supply of milk.
Milk: Nature’s Wellness Drink
Drinking lowfat or fat free milk each day is one simple step everyone can take toward achieving overall wellness. Milk is a nutrient-laden liquid that supplies many of the vitamins and minerals that Americans fail to get enough of in their daily diets. Each glass of milk is packed with nine essential nutrients: calcium, vitamin D, protein, phosphorus, riboflavin, vitamin B-12, vitamin A, potassium and niacin.  Studies suggest that milk drinkers tend to have healthier diets and are likely to be leaner than people who drink little or no milk. 
New Face of Wellness
The Drink Well. Live Well. Campaign is drawing attention to the wellness benefits of milk and the unique attributes of being a milk drinker. A new report entitled “The New Face of Wellness: A Look at America’s Milk Drinkers” documents the science-based benefits of drinking milk. Milk drinkers may have a health edge, giving Americans more reason to get the recommended three glasses of lowfat or fat free milk each day. Decades of studies show that milk drinkers have stronger, denser bones and drinking milk is one of the easiest and most efficient ways to increase calcium and vitamin D, which has been shown to reduce the chances of bone fractures.
Milk is low in sodium and high in potassium – a valuable combination for healthy blood pressure. Milk is also one of the richest sources of calcium and vitamin D.
Plus, two government health claims recognize fat free milk as linked to reducing the risk of hypertension or high blood pressure, and stroke.   
Wellness Role Models
Perhaps the most powerful testaments for milk are the Milk-Mustached actors, athletes, models and musicians who have been part of the popular campaign. It’s no coincidence that these healthy and fit celebrities bring to life the true meaning of wellness. 
Christie Brinkley and Naomi Campbell helped launch the original campaign, and more recent additions to the roster have included Heidi Klum, Brooke Shields, Marg Helgenberger, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Taylor Swift and Trisha Yearwood. After more than a decade, these famous milk-drinking role models continue to embody the concept of living well. Now, residents have the chance to join the famous faces of wellness and pose for their own souvenir Milk Mustache photo at events hosted in their city.
Share Your Steps Toward Wellness
 Wellness is about the easy things you can do every day to help balance your life. Residents can visit whymilk.com for tips from real Americans on how they pursue wellness and to share the steps they take to achieve wellness. In addition, visitors can download the “New Face of Wellness” report, learn more about the iconic Milk Mustache Campaign, and the health advantages of being a milk-drinker.

About the National Milk Mustache "got milk?"® Campaign
The Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), Washington, D.C., is funded by the nation's milk processors, who are committed to increasing fluid milk consumption.  The MilkPEP Board runs the national Milk Mustache "got milk?"® Campaign, a multi-faceted campaign designed to educate consumers about the health benefits of milk.  For more information, go to www.whymilk.com. Lowe New York is the creative agency for the national Milk Mustache "got milk?" Campaign.

About Real Simple
Real Simple is a trademark of Time Inc. used under license.

I apologize for not keeping up with my usual pace of blog posts.  I have been working on my book and distracted by the photovoltaic’s (solar energy) project that I discussed in a previous post below.  Here are a few more paragraphs from the future farmer book I am working on.  This part is from a section that discusses future farm technologies that you might encounter, implement, or take advantage of on your farm. 
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Times have greatly changed in farming since the days when our earliest ancestors wielded sickles made of flint and bone to harvest their tiny plots of primitive wheat – and yet, it is likely that there are changes yet to come in farming far greater than anything that has transpired in the last ten thousand years. To date, most technological changes in farming have been qualitative changes – we do things more intensively, more efficiently, with better tools and techniques. Despite those innovations, the basic elements of farming are still identifiable despite millennia of achievement and development. Our friend the Neolithic farmer wouldn’t understand the chemistry of advanced fertilizers – but he knew that fertilization improved the yield. He would run in terror from a combine, but the diversity and flexibility of his primitive toolset indicate that he understood the use of different tools for different stages in growing and harvesting a crop.

In the short term, we are likely to see a continuation of existing trends – farmers in 2015 will still use tractors, will still plant seeds in soil, will still take samples of their soil and worry about soil conservation and quality. The details will change – it may be a robot taking the soil sample, rather than a farmer with an augur – but in many ways future farming is going to look a lot like farming today.

In other areas, however, farming is likely to undergo a radical revision of the underlying assumptions that agronomists have held for decades and even centuries. Our Neolithic farmer might have had an inkling of the idea that a plant can get stronger or yield a better crop, but would have little idea of the mechanism and would rely on trial and error; the idea of genetic engineering would be completely incomprehensible to him. Our grandfathers certainly understood the idea of hybridizing crops and breeding new stock for desired characteristics like frost resistance or drought tolerance –they were pretty smart guys - but the idea of genetically engineering crops to add desired traits at the molecular level, directly editing the building blocks of plant life, would have blown their minds – and the notion that one day we’d be genetically tailoring crops to match the exact climactic and soil profile of a particular area, even a particular farm, would have seemed shear madness.

Farmers have long had to put up with the popular stereotype of the farmer as a semi-skilled tiller of the soil, inarticulate and uneducated. There was never much truth to the stereotype – even our Neolithic farmer knew an awful lot about the world – but in recent decades, farming has required both practical and theoretical understanding of chemistry, meteorology, ecology, mechanics, plant biology, and at least a half-dozen other disciplines. The stereotype is in for a few more body blows in coming decades, as farming becomes a job that combines computer programming, ecological management, genetics, nanotech engineering, and many other technical fields. Let’s take a look at some of the scientific advances likely to (further) revolutionize farming in your professional lifetime. ……………..lots more forth coming in the next generation farmer book.

An interesting report on how hard it is for our farmers, ranchers, and rural entrepreneurs to get affordable health care insurance.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105299368