SUJAN PIYA'S BLOG

Publication: Making Value Chains Work Better for the Poor A toolbook for practitioners of Value Chain Analysis The toolbook is designed as a concise document aimed to provide value chain practitioners with an easy to follow set of tools for value chain analysis, focused on poverty reduction. Whilst there are a number of handbooks on Value Chain analysis already in existence, the aim of this toolbook is to bridge the gap between value chain analysis and pro-poor development. Hence the tools that are presented here are similar to those presented in other handbooks, but the main special feature of the toolbook is that within each of the tools there is a clear focus on how to apply the tool in order to analyze the impact of the value chain from the point of view of the poor.

The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 Switzerland tops the overall ranking in  The Global Competitiveness Report 2009-2010 . The United States falls one place to second position, with weakening in its financial markets and macroeconomic stability. Singapore ,  Sweden and Denmark round out the top five. European economies continue to prevail in the top 10 with Finland, Germany and the Netherlands following suit. The United Kingdom, while remaining very competitive, has continued its fall from last year, moving down one more place this year to 13th, mainly attributable to continuing weakening of its financial markets. The rankings are calculated from both publicly available data and the Executive Opinion Survey, a comprehensive annual survey conducted by the World Economic Forum together with its network of Partner Institutes (leading research institutes and business organizations) in the countries covered by the Report. DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT  http://www.weforum.org...

Asian Development Outlook 2009: Rebalancing Asia’s Growth ADB News 22 September 2009 Resilient Asia Poised to Lead Recovery from Global Slowdown, Says ADB: HONG KONG, CHINA – Developing Asia is proving to be more resilient to the global downturn than was initially thought, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) says in a new major report. The Update to ADB's flagship annual economic publication,Asian Development Outlook (2009), released today, forecasts economic expansion in developing Asia to come in at 3.9% in 2009, up from the 3.4% expected in March when the ADO 2009 was released. In 2010, the growth projection is likewise upgraded to 6.4% from 6.0%. Stronger growth in East Asia and South Asia underpinned the improved prospects.

Image via Wikipedia ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2009)  — Results of the first study evaluating the use of human urine mixed with wood ash as a fertilizer for food crops has found that the combination can be substituted for costly synthetic fertilizers to produce bumper crops of tomatoes without introducing any risk of disease for consumers. In the study, Surendra Pradhan and colleagues point out that urine, a good source of nitrogen, has been successfully used to fertilize cucumber, corn, cabbage, and other crops. Only a few studies, however, have investigated the use of wood ash, which is rich in minerals and also reduces the acidity of certain soils. Scientists have not reported on the combination of urine and wood ash, they say.

Looking into the current achievements and probable achievement in future, It is quite unlikely that Millennium development goal will be accomplished by 2015.  POPULATION GROWTH PROJECTION

The father of Green Revolution- Norman Borlaug passed away on Saturday, sept 12 2009 at the age of 95.  condolence to the great scientist who indeed worked for the mankind.  Following is the video clip of his 95th Birth day Celebration and his speech. Norman Borlaug speaks about Monsanto

• One billion people are hungry. Temperature rises of 2 to 3 oC will mean an extra 200 million people could face hunger. • If we carry on pumping greenhouse gases (like CO2) into the atmosphere, there’s a 50% chance the global temperatures will rise by 5 oC or more in the coming decades. • One coal power station pumps out the same amount of CO2 in a year as 30 developing countries combined. • The UK is the windiest country in Europe. We could power ourselves several times over using renewable energy. • If we covered just 3% of the Sahara desert with solar panels we could generate all the electricity the world needs. • Kenya has the highest number of solar panels, per person, in the world. • The Philippines already generates 27% of its electricity from geothermal energy. Source- Action Aid

Many of India’s problems are summed up in its mismanagement of water. Now a scanty monsoon has made matters much worse Sep 10th 2009 | VEERALAPALAM, ANDHRA PRADESH, AND LUBANA TEKU, PUNJAB From  The Economist  print edition RAINFALL last month encouraged Haniya, a middle-aged member of the Lambada tribe of southern Andhra Pradesh (AP), to inspect his one-acre (0.4-hectare) field. Some speckles of green, to show the red earth had held enough water for weeds to shoot, would have tempted him to sow cotton. But, towards the end of AP’s monsoon rainy season, the field was parched and bare. If it rains again, Haniya may sow. If not? He gave the reply of peasant farmers in India and poor, dry places everywhere: “Only God knows.” Back in his village of Veeralapalam, light-skinned Lambadi farmers gathered. Most had scattered some cotton or lentil seed after the rain. But it had better rain again: none had access to irrigation from a dozen wells sunk 90 metres into central India’s la...

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has launched a venture aiming to invest in food production worldwide. The Qatari initiative claims to be distinct from similar moves by other Gulf Arab states in that it is focused on the acquisition and development of existing agribusiness companies rather than involving the lease of large tracts of farmland. These large-scale land-lease deals have attracted criticism on the grounds that they could impair the rights of existing smallholders and damage the host country's own food security. Hassad Food, established by the QIA last year, has recently announced plans to invest US$500m in buying stakes in agricultural companies around the world as part of the government's strategy to secure adequate supply of food at reasonable prices. Qatar, like most of its Gulf Arab peers, depends heavily on imported food, buying some 95% of its requirements from abroad. Hassad's chairman, Nasser Mohamed al-Hajri, said that the company was in talks wit...

Do you agree with Milten Friedman?

With the global economy still in recession, two important questions arise for Asia: how soon will the recession end, and how vigorous will the region's recovery be? The purpose of this paper is to look at past recessions and recoveries in Asia in order to shed light on these issues. Several important stylized facts emerge from this study: (i) recessions accompanied by financial stress—notably, stress in domestic banking sectors—have been substantially longer and deeper than the norm, suggesting that the current recession could have been even costlier and more drawn out had Asia's banks not entered the downturn in such strong shape; (ii) recoveries in Asia have been weak because they were typically driven by a single engine: exports.

What is the rate of income convergence? what factors affect income convergence. These are some of the important research issues. It is obvious that per capita income in urban area is higher than that of rural area. The investment in Urban areas has higher rate of return. This is the main point of difference in rural and urban areas. To reduce relative poverty, there must be income convergence over time. If it diverges, it will increase income inequality and relative poverty. we can measure income convergence using beta and sigma convergence techniques. If we regress, rate of income growth against the base year per capita income, the negative coefficient gives beta convergence. Sigma convergence holds if cross sectional standard deviations of log of per capita income decreases over time. another way to measure the per capita income convergence is to estimate long term conintegrating relation. if urban and rural income series conitegrate with each other, then in the long run it will conv...

Climate change and future agriculture. ... Effect of climate change in apple growing area of Himanchal pradesh, India.

Rural Agriculture- Small poor farmers from Banke, Nepal-Installation of Treadle pump- micro irrigation technology

Professor C K Prahalad from Michigan University- A corporate strategist Author of the book " The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits"

Scientists have warned Asian countries that they face chronic food shortages and likely social unrest if they do not improve water management. The water experts are meeting at a UN-sponsored conference in Sweden.They say countries in south and east Asia must spend billions of dollars to improve antiquated crop irrigation to cope with rapid population increases.That estimate does not yet take into account the possible impact of global warming on water supplies, they said.Asia's population is forecast to increase by 1.5bn people over the next 40 years.

Even the Himalayan have stopped smiling By Joanna Jolly BBC News, Kathmandu Streams have dried to a trickle in Nepal's villages International aid agency Oxfam has warned that millions of rural poor in Nepal could face hunger as a result of climate change. A report says that poor harvests, water shortages and extreme temperatures will put pressure on millions of Nepalis already living below the poverty line.Nepal is only just emerging from a decade-long civil conflict.The report comes ahead of a summit in the capital, Kathmandu, on the threat of climate change to the Himalayas.Millions of people are dependent on the water which flows from the mountains.It is also just 100 days until world leaders come together to discuss a new global climate change treaty in Copenhagen in December.Nepal has experienced its driest winter in 40 years, followed by late and unpredictable monsoon rains, and this has meant the land is more susceptible to erosion. But the prolonged drought has had a...

सुनिल पोखरेल अन्य प्राकृतिक साधनस्रोतको अनुपातमा नेपालको कृषि क्षेत्रको तुलनात्मक लाभ न्यून छ। हाम्रो कृषिले युरोप-अमेरिकाको कृषिसँग प्रतिस्पर्धा नै गर्न सक्दैन। त्यसैले नेपालको कृषि लगानी मूलतः देशको खाद्य आवश्यकता पूर्ति गर्न र ग्रामीण क्षेत्रमा रोजगारी उपलब्ध गराउनका लागि हुनुपर्छ। हामीले सानैदेखि सुन्दै आइरहेका हौं, नेपाल कृषिप्रधान देश हो; त्यसैले नेपालको विकास कृषिको विकासबाट मात्र सम्भव छ। कतिपय अर्थमा यो कथन ठीकै पनि हो। यसअनुरुप हरेक वर्ष कृषिलाई प्राथमिकता दिएर बजेट विनियोजन गरिएको पनि पाइन्छ। तर, यो क्षेत्रबाट सोचेजति प्रतिफल भने प्राप्त भएको छैन। त्यसैले सधैँ प्रश्न उठ्ने गरेको छः कतै कृषि क्षेत्रको लगानीले अरू क्षेत्रको लगानीलाई कमजोर त तुल्याइरहेको छैन? विकासको मेरुदण्ड मानिएको कृषि विकास बारे यसरी प्रश्नचिन्ह लगाउँदा केही कृषि विशेषज्ञ र राजनीतिक व्यक्तिहरूको चित्त दुख्न पनि सक्छ। तर पनि यथार्थ के हो भने लगानी र प्राथमिकता दिइएअनुसार कृषि क्षेत्रले देशलाई लाभ दिनसकेको छैन।