World Food Day

Women and famers from Pogro village (collaborators on the ACIAR project) in a workshop on on-farm research

Two UN agencies say the global economic crisis has hit poor nations hardest, revealing a fragile world food system which is in urgent need of reform.

Today is World Food Day, and the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation have warned in a joint report that food and economic crises have resulted in one sixth of the world's population going hungry and being under-nourished.

Many of ACIAR's projects focus on food security. One of these projects is the Water harvesting and better cropping systems for the benefit of small farmers in watersheds of the East India Plateau project, being undertaken by ACIAR in collaboration with the University of Western Sydney, the Indian NGO PRADAN, Australian National University, and the ICAR Research Complex for Eastern Region, India.

Listen to an ABC Radio Australia interview with the project leader of the East India Plateau project, Dr Peter Cornish (UWS): http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/connectasia/stories/200910/s2716103.htm