Bernie Reyes's blog Machakos, Kenya This growing season in south-central Kenya has been a good test for the new drought tolerant maize varieties being bred in Africa. This is a semi-arid area, but this year they can drop the semi. Farmers report on ...
Bernie Reyes's blog Kakamega, Kenya For some farmers in western Kenya, the hunger season I wrote about last week is coming to a mercifully early end. A new variety of bean is ready for harvest. “The farmers say this bean meets the hunger,” says Reub ...
Bernie Reyes's blog Lutacho, Kenya The hunger season is especially cruel this year. Farmers in this part of Africa call this time of year the hunger season because household stockpiles of food are dwindling and disappearing before the next harvest ar ...
Bernie Reyes's blog Little brains were on the minds of some pretty big brains in the fight against hunger at the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security this week. Bill Gates, USAID administrator Rajiv Shah and World Food ...
Bernie Reyes's blog Bill Gates came to the Chicago Council’s Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security with a confession. “I’ve never been a farmer,” he said. “Until recently, I rarely set foot on farm.” Farmer Gates, no. But Innovator Gat ...
Bernie Reyes's blog I enjoyed the great privilege of giving my first commencement speech on Sunday, to the graduating class of the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin. I had eagerly anticipated the ceremony, ...
Bernie Reyes's blog With many words in this column, we have discussed what not to cut from the federal budget. Namely, administration requests to fund agriculture development, especially in Africa, under the Feed the Future initiative and the Global ...
Bernie Reyes's blog Is the glass one-quarter full or three-quarters empty? That’s the question after the budget battles for fiscal year 2011 provided $100 million of President Obama’s $408 million request for the Global Agriculture and Food Security ...
Bernie Reyes's blog With the arrival of spring comes an enduring optimism: Hope springs eternal. That is what we say on the north side of Chicago as another baseball season nears. Could this be the year – after 102 years – that the Cubs finally win ...
Bernie Reyes's blog Lutacho, Kenya The women farmers at the foot of the Lugulu Hills paused from the preparation of their fields for the planting season and looked forward to the harvest. What, I asked them, would they do with a bountiful yield of ma ...
