Farming First were on the ground at The Economist’s: Feeding the World conference in Amsterdam where we interviewed leading development experts discussing topics such as fertilizers, partnerships and nutrition.
The first three exclusive videos from The Economist: Feeding the World Amsterdam series look at sustainable methods of increasing food security, empowering smallholder farmers and creating coalitions with stakeholders…
Amit Roy, President and CEO of the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), discusses developments that the IFDC have made in technologies in Bangladesh. Amit Roy explains how new fertilizers have helped to sustainably strengthen food security with farmers using 35% less fertilizer still seing a 20% increase in yield of rice. Not only arte the farmers seeing an increase in production but this technology is also helping them reduce their environmental impact.
Jason Aramburu, founder of Re:Char, explains how his organisation have also enabled farmers to increase yields whilst reducing the environmental impact of agriculture with ‘Bio:char’, a carbon negative fertilizer developed to help empower smallholder farmers. Around 1,000 smallholder farmers are using Bio:char in Kenya, this low-cost method is already helping farmers them to save 20-30% of their income.
In Uganda farmers were struggling to get their produce to market as information, such as a standard selling price, was often inaccurate or unavailable. On top of this regulatory bodies were unorganised, sharing different information to 
farmers and causing confusion across the supply chain. Roel Snelder, programme manager for Agri-hubs, Agri-pro focus, explains how his organisation helped disseminate information, enabling farmers to gain access to markets. Agri-pro focus created a coalition of Ugandan stakeholders and with the government they have established a bureau of standards to ensure that farmers are receiving the information they need to sell their produce.
Keep checking the blog and twitter for more videos from this series over the coming days and weeks.For more videos from Farming First visit: www.farmingfirst.tv