When consumers buy fair-trade products, it's typically because they are motivated more by ethical considerations than by price—which tends to be higher for such goods. Fair-trade exporter CraftNetwork, however, is focusing on long-term sustainability with an approach that aims to make fair-trade goods more competitive with other alternatives.

CraftNetwork provides export-facilitation and enterprise-development services to Indonesian artisans with the goal of increasing sales, strengthening ethical trading practices, building organizational capacity, generating employment and improving the artisans' standard of living. In Etsy-like fashion, CraftNetwork offers an online marketplace for jewelry, paintings, sculpture, home decor and accessory items crafted by more than a thousand disadvantaged Indonesian artisans. Going beyond just a B2C marketplace, however, CraftNetwork also helps the artisans it represents compete with large-scale factory producers in global wholesale markets, according to an article in BusinessWeek. Specifically, by helping the artisans produce goods to common specifications, it enables them to offer volumes and uniformity that are competitive with those of factory-based counterparts, BW reported. A recent deal with Carnival Cruise Lines, for example, calls for CraftNetwork's artisans to produce 50,000 books woven out of banana leaves, employing an entire Indonesian village and bringing in USD 70,000 per month. CraftNetwork also offers its artisans business training and resources including a pool of money that they can reportedly borrow from to finance their operations while waiting for payments. CraftNetwork is supported by the Grassroots Business Initiative of the World Bank's International Finance Corporation group.

Traditional practices increase yield by 128 per cent in east Africa, says UN

Organic farming offers Africa the best chance of breaking the cycle of poverty and malnutrition it has been locked in for decades, according to a major study from the United Nations to be presented today.

New evidence suggests that organic practices – derided by some as a Western lifestyle fad – are delivering sharp increases in yields, improvements in the soil and a boost in the income of Africa's small farmers who remain among the poorest people on earth. The head of the UN's Environment Programme, Achim Steiner, said the report "indicates that the potential contribution of organic farming to feeding the world maybe far higher than many had supposed".

The "green revolution" in agriculture in the 1960s – when the production of food caught and surpassed the needs of the global population for the first time – largely bypassed Africa. Whereas each person today has 25 per cent more food on average than they did in 1960, in Africa they have 10 per cent less.

A combination of increasing population, decreasing rainfall and soil fertility and a surge in food prices has left Africa uniquely vulnerable to famine. Climate change is expected to make a bad situation worse by increasing the frequency of droughts and floods.

Read more at The Independent ...

Zandile Luthuli (33) runs two bakeries at kwaMasxhasane Wiggins Road and Wiggins Economic Hive, each called Queen of Hearts Bakery. Her bakeries make and sell scones, muffi ns and birthday cakes, and also supply small shops in the city and Overport.

Before starting her bakeries, Zandile sold tripe around the Cato Crest area. She saved some money and later decided to sell her car, which helped kick-start her business venture. Although financial difficulties were a stumbling block when she started the business, she is not the kind of person to let hardships stop her and her bakeries are going stronger than ever.

“I am a go getter. Nothing stands in my way to get what I want. I’m always positive and I have no time to complain or fear anything,” she says.

U-Zandile Luthuli ungumphathi wamabhikawozi amabili kwaMasixhasane Wiggins Road kanye naseWiggins Hive, womabili abizwa
ngokuthi i-Queen of Heart. Amabhikawozi akhe enza aphinde adayise ama-scones, muffi ns kanye namakhekhe ama-birthday, bese aphind adayisele izitolo ezincane edolobheni elikhulu kanye nase Overport.

Small businesses of all types recently participated in a workshop at Umkhumbane Hall. The workshop was about the new street trading bylaws and policies that govern these businesses. The training involved teaching the participants about compliance to these by-laws and policies, which will help them attain trading permits. Participants were also assisted to adhere to Municipality, Health, Signage, Town Planning, Liquor Board and Container Allocation policies.