Cow Urine Kills Farm Pests in India's First Fully Organic State
Sikkim, a state with 66,000 farmers, is India’s first to produce organically in entirety. Faced with multiple health and agricultural challenges, Prime Minister Modi is backing Sikkim’s approach as a safer, more sustainable way to produce food, support farm jobs, and reduce the nation’s fertilizer bill. 
 
This Startup Wants You to Have Your Disposable Spoon and Eat it, Too
Bakey's is a startup that sells edible spoons that taste just like crackers, made out of dried millet, rice, and wheat. These spoons have a shelf life of three years and can decompose within days after use—if they're not eaten, that is. And because they're baked at high heat and contain very little moisture, it takes about 10 minutes of soaking before the spoons start to dissolve in yogurt or soup. 
 
Centuries-Old African Soil Technique Could Combat Climate Change-Scientists
A farming technique practiced for centuries in West Africa, which transforms nutrient-poor rainforest soil into fertile farmland, could combat climate change and revolutionize farming across the continent. Adding kitchen waste and charcoal to tropical soil can turn it into fertile, black soil which traps carbon and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. 
 
It's the Pits: Syrian Researchers Use Date Stones to Suck up Toxic Materials
Researchers have developed a way to use the pits of dates to clean up dioxins, a nasty and persistent type of organic pollutant that can lead to reproductive and developmental problems, damage the immune system, and even cause cancer. Special oils and proteins found in the pits can potentially be used to clean up fish farms where dioxin levels tend to be high due to their proximity to coastlines contaminated with toxic runoff. 
 
Three Lessons the WFP Has Learned on Connecting Smallholder Farmers to Markets
Purchase for Progress (P4P) was launched by WFP to help smallholder farmers build resiliency in the face of vulnerability. P4P has demonstrated that smallholder farmers are ready and capable of stepping up to participate in formal markets when given the opportunity. But we still need to find new ways of capturing our impacts and measuring success, stabilizing demand, and increasing our attention in farmers’ organizations.