A REGULAR SCOOP OF NEWS RELATING TO THE INVALUABLE CONTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN WOMEN FARMERS TO FOOD SECURITY.
THE NEWS LINKS WITH THE ENVIRONMENT TIMES' LONG TERM PROJECT TO GIVE FINANCIAL HELP TO THE NATIONAL WOMEN 
FARMERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE GAMBIA, WEST AFRICA. (SEE BOTTOM OF THIS ARTICLE TO SEE FURTHER DETAILS AND HOW 
YOU CAN HELP WITH YOUR OLD MOBILE PHONES OR PRINTER CARTRIDGES) 

Gates Foundation Pledges $120 Million for African, Indian Farmers
Published Oct 15, 2009 by Chris Dade in Digital Journal 
Nine institutions and projects in Africa and India concerned with sustainable agriculture will receive grants worth $120 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the philanthropic organization established by Microsoft's co-founder and his wife. FULL STORY CLICK HERE

Bill Gates Wants a Green Agriculture Revolution: Here’s Tech That Can Drive It
By Josie Garthwaite. Posted October 16th, 2009 in Big Green, Startups
The technology behind the first “Green Revolution” in agriculture, during the 1960s and ’70s, focused on boosting crop yields, to help feed growing populations and spur economic growth in Latin America and Asia. But that revolution wasn’t all that green in the 2009 sense of the term, relying heavily on chemical fertilizers and increased irrigation. Now Bill Gates, Microsoft founder and uber philanthropist, wants to help accelerate a second green revolution in agriculture — again boosting yields, but this time paying more mind to the environment and turning to some technologies that could help deliver a truly sustainable movement. FULL STORY CLICK HERE

When women farm, crops and economies grow
Guest Column in the DesMoinesRegister.Co, October 11th 2009 by Geeta Rao Gupta, President of the International Center for Research on Women
The soil knows not if a seed has been planted by a man's or a woman's hand. A hungry stomach cares not, as long as it is fed.

In reality, half of the world's food and, in developing countries, between 60 and 80 percent of food crops, grow from seeds that are planted by a woman's hand.

Imagine what the world's female farmers could produce if they had the same access as men to fertilizer, better seeds, time-saving tools, credit, land and other assets. Experts estimate that agricultural output in sub-Saharan Africa could increase by 20 percent if women had access to the same resources as men. But, they don't.

One of the main obstacles to productivity is that women don't own land.......FULL STORY CLICK HERE

New Initiative Announced for World Food Day Recognizes Policy To Support Smallholder Farmers Having Pivotal Role in Attaining African Food Security
DES MOINES, IOWA, and NAIROBI, KENYA (15 October 2009)
The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has launched an initiative to empower African governments to shape home-grown agricultural policies that provide comprehensive support to smallholder farmers. The initiative is supported by a US$15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

With an initial focus on five countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania), the initiative will strengthen African agricultural policy-making capacity through training agricultural policy analysts; bolstering policy think tanks; establishing data banks to support evidence-based policy development; and coordinating national policy hubs. It will focus on policies that support farmers in the areas of seeds; soil health; markets and trade; land rights; women’s rights; equity; environmental sustainability; and climate change.

“Unlike farmers everywhere else in the world, African farmers, most of whom are women, receive little or no support from their governments,” said Mr. Kofi A. Annan, Chairman of the AGRA Board and former Secretary-General of the United Nations. “We must change this. The new support to AGRA from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is coming at the right time for Africa, where strong national policy action is essential to end poverty and attain African food security.” FULL STORY CLICK HERE

ALSO RECEIVED INTO THE ENVIRONMENT TIMES EDITOR'S IN-BOX

Newsletter of the International Institute for Environment and Development - October 2009
Personal introductory observation by Camilla Toulmin, Director of IIED
Two weeks ago, a family of hippos was cavorting in the River Niger in the heart of Mali’s capital Bamako. So said my friend Jeneba, remarking that it was a rare sight. The river is full to bursting after weeks of heavy rain, with water brimming over into the gardens, fields and homes along its banks. This year follows several seasons in which the Sahelian region has been wetter for than it has been for some decades, which climate scientists say is what they predicted from their climate change models. The deluge of rain has brought down a number of houses in the capital. But once you leave the city, the farmers are smiling. There is a real silver lining to this cloud.

Last week, I went back to the small village in central Mali where I had done my two years’ fieldwork nearly 30 years ago. The transformations in daily life are remarkable. The most visible of these are the solar panels that now dot the skyline, perched on the edge of mud roofs – bringing light and energy for music, TVs, and of course mobile phones. While the rains started late this year, they have been regular and heavy and are still continuing, bringing the likelihood of an exceptional harvest of millet, groundnuts and sesame. Cattle are fat and glossy from several months of good pasture, and the bush is dotted with ponds fringed with waterlilies, wild rice and clouds of yellow butterflies. The farmers are pleased to hear the chirrup and catch a flash of blue from the kingfishers known as sanchorrolo, which settle on the millet heads and dig out worms and beetles before these pests destroy the swelling grains. The early crop of maize has ripened and you see children everywhere holding grilled cobs to munch. The fields are dotted with Acacia albida, which are putting out new leaves and flowers – a sign that the rainy season is drawing to a close. But the clouds still gather and thunder rumbles across the heavens so, with luck, it will be a bumper crop this year for many farmers in the Sahel.

ENVIRONMENT TIMES WOULD LIKE TO LET YOU KNOW ABOUT OUR LONG TERM CAMPAIGN OF RECYCLING MOBILE PHONES TO HELP WOMEN FARMERS IN THE GAMBIA, WEST AFRICA - ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT IN THESE TIMES OF RISING FOOD PRICES. IF YOU THINK THE CREDIT CRUNCH IS HITTING YOUR FAMILY BUDGET HARD - SPARE A THOUGHT FOR THOSE FARMING IN THE TOUGH SAHELIAN ENVIRONMENT, JUST SOUTH OF THE SAHARA, WHERE STAPLE FOOD HAS RECENTLY MORE THAN DOUBLED IN PRICE.

The Gambian-run National Women Farmers' Association has successfully supported 48,000 women working in 73 co-operative village groups since the 1990's, increasing their wealth and food security to cope with and overcome a lack of national infrastructure, food dumping from countries with subsidised agriculture and adverse global financial and climate changes.

Environment Times has been helping support NAWFA since 2005 via a partnership with Regenersis, Europe’s largest mobile phone recycling and reuse provider to generate cash for NAWFA, and lately also with printer cartridge recyclers KMP. 

OLD MOBILES
Regenersis set up a freepost account for us that is simple for you to use. You simply pop in your old mobiles into a padded envelope and write or label it up to:
FREEPOST
GREEN GAMBIA
It’s as simple as that! It would be great if company or organisations could collect their old mobiles en-masse after they have been upgraded. We do get a report from Regenersis of the phones received but it would also be great if you could remember to email the Environment Times Editor, Duncan Ashcroft, if you have popped a bag in the post, or would like a padded envelope from us. Email: duncan@environmenttimes.co.uk  It's no problem if you don't email though!

This recycling can be carried out in confidence because Regenersis is a responsible company that is calling for improved industry standards to its own particular level. They are demanding that every mobile phone reuse and recycling company clear the data from every handset received to protect consumers from the danger of identity theft, ban the export of non-working handsets which could end up as e-waste in developing countries, and to operate a zero landfill policy for all products which are not suitable for reuse.

In our high-tech throwaway society there's an estimated 18 million mobile phone handsets replaced each year and some 90 million sitting in desk drawers and toy boxes across the country. Regenersis currently process over 250,000 phones a month.

Our partnership with the National Women Farmers’ Association (NAWFA) goes towards supporting their existing work of :

• Provision of low cost seeds, tools and equipment
• Co-operatives and farm marketing, producing good prices
• Assistance with training and literacy
• Setting up of added-value food processing in small factories
• Efficient crop production in times of rising food prices
• Allowing the women farmers to re-invest back into their families

So the more companies, organisations, schools and individuals that join our charitable initiative, the more difference can be made to the NAWFA organisation's women farmers, their livelihoods and families. Women hold the key to ending hunger in The Gambia. They assume responsibility for household food security, and NGOs like NAWFA are working to give them the required resources to grow sufficient food and to re-invest money back into their families and co-operatives for education, health and further trade.

YOU CAN START STRAIGHT AWAY BY SENDING UNWANTED MOBILES TO THE FREEPOST ADDRESS IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE, OR EMAIL: duncan@environmenttimes.co.uk for further information or to be included in the printer cartridge recycling initiative. 

CARTRIDGES
The recyclers we use, KMP Crusader Manufacturing with a UK branch in King’s Lynn, offer a free drop box delivery and full sack collection collection, nevertheless if the sacks have too many cartridges they can’t recycle it becomes a cost to them for licensed disposal and becomes unviable, plus the women farmer project receives hardly any money. Therefore although it is free it would be great if the majority in the sacks are what they can use.

These are the makes of toners they can recycle for use with laser printers – Brother, Canon, Dell, Lexmark, Hewlett Packard, and Samsung.

On the inkjet printer side they can handle some of the cartridges from Cannon, Dell, Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Olivetti and Samsung.