Agriculture Videos - ViewChange.org

Coffee has become a powerful economic driver for Rwanda, but how have the country's farmers managed to transform their crop into a premium product that can command top prices? The answer lies in washing stations and bicycles.

Rising Voices: The Flowing River

David Zamora Munoz attends a UNICEF-sponsored child-friendly school in Nicaragua. While many of its defining characteristics are things kids in developed countries take for granted -- gender equality, running water, a friendly atmosphere -- in Nicaragua the school is being seen as a model for the future of the country's education system.

Good Fortune: Jackson

Massive investment, modern agricultural techniques, regulated irrigation ... the American-owned Dominion Farms development in Kenya sounds like a model example of collaboration between Africa and the West. But local farmers disagree, and are campaigning hard to have their dissenting voices heard.

Chocolate Country

In the backcountry of the Dominican Republic, poor cacao farmers have been fighting a losing battle with the global economy for as long as anyone can remember. But the thriving Loma Guaconejo cooperative has found a way to turn the system on its head.

Mexico: Coping With Soaring Food Prices

Soaring food prices are making life hard for people everywhere. In Mexico, many families are taking the fight against the global food crisis into their own hands.

One in Six

One billion people in the world face hunger and malnourishment on a daily basis. The international community has long sought to tackle this problem. But what if everything we thought we knew about how to erase hunger was wrong? Concern Worldwide and Valid International brought their innovative ideas and faced off against entrenched interests to change people's perceptions of this problem. The result was a sea change in how the world looks at hunger.

TED: Eleni Gabre-Madhin on Ethiopian Economics

Economist Eleni Gabre-Madhin outlines her ambitious vision to found the first commodities market in Ethiopia. Her plan would create wealth, minimize risk for farmers, and turn the world's largest recipient of food aid into a regional food basket.

Why Women Count: Kosovo - Women of Krusha

Nineteen-year-old Ardiana Shehu has worked on her family's farm in the village of Krusha e Vogel, in southwest Kosovo, since she was 12. She, her mother, and her sisters do all the farm jobs that were traditionally men's work. Why? Almost 70 percent of Krusha's male population is still missing after the 1999 Serbian military offensive in Kosovo.

Hope in a Changing Climate

For more than ten years, John Liu and the EEMP have been identifying the best methods for the large-scale restoration of damaged or destroyed ecosystems. One such place, the Loess Plateau, was transformed from a barren, brown landscape into a functioning, green ecosystem where rainfall infiltrates, water is retained and crops are readied for export.

Life on the Edge: Hassan and the Graduates

Hassan has a degree in business, but he doesn't commute to an office every day. His place of work is a farm 200 kilometers from Cairo. And it isn't even land in the fertile Nile Delta. Strangely, it seems, Hassan has chosen to farm in the desert.

Seeds of Hope: Colombia

Many Colombian farmers face a period of hunger from June to September when there are no crops to harvest. The International Center for Tropical Agriculture works with the community and small-scale farmers to research and develop strategies and solutions. Find out how these innovative farmers are combating hunger and climate change through groundbreaking research.

Farming the Waters: Java's Blue Revolution

Hydroelectric projects are popular in developing countries. They are clean, renewable sources of energy. But building dams also means flooding valleys and destroying the homes and livelihoods of local people. In Indonesia, a pioneering program is turning this notion on its head, transforming new lakes into lucrative sources of income, and allowing displaced former farmers to become successful fishermen.

Knowing How to Nurture Ourselves

Stephan Fayon, director of an international seed bank in Auroville, India, explains how preserving the diversity of seeds insures against the breakdown of large-scale industrial agriculture. Today the supermarkets in the developed world are full -- but if unsustainable systems of agriculture collapse, will we know how to nourish ourselves?

A Promise to Sow Seeds for the Future

Farmers in Kenya are reaping better harvests with the help of fertilizer, made available through a loan system. The farmers now believe they will become economically independent and able to properly care for their children.

Seeds of Empowerment

Even while facing their own struggles with poverty and work, a group of female coffee pickers from La Carpio, Costa Rica decide to put on a play. It aims to teach fellow workers about the dangers of cancer - something that effects women in their industry at a much higher rate than average.

A Better Harvest Through Drip Irrigation

Modern agricultural techniques tend to focus on helping farmers with large fields (and more money to spend), but an innovative, inexpensive drip irrigation system, developed with investment from the Acumen Fund, is helping smallholder farmers in India dramatically increase their crop yields.