Water is Life

Water is life. This is truly illustrated in the cisterns for the Sahel project through the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Below we have linked a video that explains this program and how it is impacting farmers production, families, and way of life. We encourage you to watch the linked video and utilize the discussion points below to guide your conversations around the globe.

Empowering Women Through Access to Water

Discussion Points

• What piece of information surprised you the most from the video?
• How does water empower people?
• What do you feel could be done to improve this program even farther? How do you accomplish this?
• What can you learn from this video that could impact your local community where you live?

High Tech Pig Farmers

Farmers are utilizing new technology to track and keep records on the pigs they are raising to add value and increase markets. The linked article, from the FAO, below highlights this new technology and practice being implemented in Papua New Guinea. We encourage you to read the linked article and utilize the discussion points to guide your conversations around the globe. 

Pig Farmers in Papua New Guinea Capitalize on Blockchain Technology

Discussion Points

• Explain how blockchain technology is utilized by smallholder farmers in Papua New Guinea.
• What benefits is this technology providing to smallholder farmers?
• What challenges do you see arising with the implementation of this technology on a wide spread basis? How do we overcome these challenges?
• Could similar technology be utilized for other applications around the globe? Why or why not? 

Kosovo Connection

This week we welcome guests from Kosovo to Iowa to exchange ideas in agricultural education. This is a partnership created in collaboration with Iowa Farm Bureau, Iowa FFA Foundation, Iowa Sister States, the Republic of Kosovo Consualte in Des Moines, and the Global Agriculture Learning Center at Hawkeye Community College. We welcome agricultural educators and high school students from Kosovo to Iowa as part of the exchange that took Iowa agricultrual educators and high school students to Kosovo last September.

The idea is to exchange ideas and best practices by each side to improve agricultural education in Kosovo and Iowa. Today was just the first day of exchanging ideas in Iowa. As we exchange ideas over the next week we challenge you to think about the value of exchanging ideas utilizing the discussion points below. Iowa FFA members watch for our Kosovo friends at State FFA Convention on Monday!

Discussion Points

• What are the benefits of exchanging ideas and practices with others?
• What challenges can arise when conducting exchanges like this one? How do we overcome these challenges?
• What is something you learned from another school, organization, or business that has helped you grow? How did you attain this knowledge? 
• How do we foster a culture of exchanging ideas to improve all involved?

Global Food Crises

The 2019 Global Food Crises report is now available. This week we share a story from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) which gives an overview of the report as well as links to the full report from the Food Security Information Network. Along with the article FAO also shares a short video recap of the report. Both are linked below. We encourage you to check out the material shared and utilize the discussion points to guide further conversations.

FAO Article

FAO Video

FSIN Full Report

Discussion Points

• What pieces of information or facts surprised you the most and why?
• There are a couple major factors mentioned contributing to global hunger. Which of these do you feel provides the greatest threat and why?
• Of the factors mentioned, contributing to global hunger, which do you think is the easiest to combat and why?
• What can be done to decrease global hunger around the world? What can we do as individuals to help reduce global hunger?