When the pioneer of Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), Tony Rinaudo held a workshop in Kijabe, Kenya, the invited participants from the Beating Famine conference were baffled by the simplicity of what they heard and saw. During the FMNR tour, the message was clear and simple. That the best thing to do when confronted with a barren land crying out for regreening is to simply leave it alone and just wait for trees to regenerate from remnant tree root systems.
An opinion piece by Jose Rene C.Gayo, vice-chairman of the Management Association of the Philippines agribusiness and countryside development committee, and dean of the MFI Farm Business School.
Zimbabwe’s lack of preparedness for the impact of climate change is coming under increasing scrutiny, as the nation faces another year of drought and the government admits it has done little to mitigate the crisis.
There is a new report of mixed results about the viability of adopting ‘conservation agriculture’ to enhance soil health and sustain long-term crop productivity in the developing world, an approach advocated by many. The authors of the report work at five centres of the CGIAR and conducted this research under the CGIAR Systemwide Livestock Programme (SLP).
With the same aim of improving local agricultural practices, the World Agroforestry Centre has teamed up with international aid agency World Vision to gather diverse experts in Nairobi this month to explore innovative ways to tackle Africa’s unending cycle of drought and food insecurity.
According to “Agricultural success from Africa: the case of fertilizer tree systems in southern Africa (Malawi, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe),” a report from the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, simple Fertilizer Tree Systems (FTS) can double maize production in soil that is low in nitrogen, an essential plant nutrient.
