It?s easy to overlook food when thinking about BOP business and strategy. Food and agriculture often lack the ?wow? factor that comes with microfinance, technology, or even innovative health models. We brush by it at our own peril, however ? according to available data, food accounts for over 50 percent of a BOP household?s annual expenditure. By comparison, spending on information technology and communications might be 5 percent, at best.

With that in mind, I recommend NextBillion friend and ally Emeka Okafor?s recent guest post at Worldchanging, Extending the Garden. He suggests small, profitable plots as a sustainable route to full stomachs and healthy ecosystems. If that doesn?t hook you, how about this: read Emeka?s post to learn about the Giant African Land Snail and the Nigerian Dwarf Goat.

Backyard Animal Farming, a practice that goes hand in hand with the small vegetable lot, has been overlooked as a mechanism for solving the shortfalls in protein production. The neglect of indigenous and adaptable flora and fauna had consequences that ranged from unsustainability to warped local economies. A 'rediscovery' and re-validation of these methods and means will go a long way in remedying these mistakes, filling the belly and inspiring the mind.

(Via Worldchanging)