Homelessness and rural poverty are familiar issues around the world. From struggling farmers in Sicily to Oxford’s homeless community, this week’s stories look at people taking a fresh approach to solving these persistent problems.

In the arid interior of Sicily, Italian wheat farmers face a growing crisis of low prices, land degradation and globalisation. But a recent legal change allowing the growth of cannabis has led to a production boom and offered hope for the future, as Lorenzo Tondo discovered.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sharron Maasz with Alex McCallion, the founder of Greater Change, on a street in Oxford. Photograph: Sam Frost/Guardian

Many simple steps towards solving the UK’s homelessness crisis have been proposed – and ignored – from increasing social housing to reversing years of funding cuts to the social safety net. Meanwhile, a new scheme hopes to tackle twin problems that regularly hamper rough sleepers forced to raise money on the streets: our increasingly cashless society, and public squeamishness about handing over money without knowing how it will be spent. Stephen Moss went to Oxford to learn more about a possible digital solution.

Elsewhere, Saeed Kamali Dehghan spoke to the book-loving Iranian cleric who is travelling around villages in the south of Iran spreading the joy of reading. Since publishing the piece we have been inundated with messages offering to donate books to Esmail Azarinejad.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Esmail Azarinejad reads to children in southern Iran. Photograph: Handout

What we liked

This New Yorker piece on how body cameras are changing policing in the US, and this CityLab look at the New York Public Library’s “insta novels” series.

What we heard

Should the police inform people of how many murders have been committed by white German males towards others, and how many sexual assault cases have been committed in Germany before the influx of refugees [beginning in 2015]? It would make people aware that murders and other tragedies happened well before refugees started to come, and [how many] crimes are committed by white German males.

Noura, a reader, emailed us in response to this story about the far right in Germany.

Where was the upside

In California, which announced plans to become the first US state to completely eliminate cash bail. While some have criticised the proposed replacement, arguing it hands over too much power to judges, the move at least ends the practice of keeping people imprisoned because they are poor.

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If there is a story, innovation or trailblazer you think we should report on, write to us at theupside@theguardian.com