Dennis Garrity
New land degradation neutrality goal to accelerate global restoration efforts
The global community has set forth a new goal to tackle the scourge of land degradation and desertification. It could be real breakthrough. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) had a ‘breakthrough moment’ after two weeks of discussions and negotiations in Ankara, Turkey in October. The 195 parties to the Convention agreed to […] Continue Reading
Eastern and Southern African countries establish initiative to scale-up fertilizer tree technologies as a component of fertilizer subsidy programs
The Member States of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa have approved a resolution to set up a new initiative to enable their countries to build their capacity to link the upscaling of fertilizer tree technologies with their fertilizer subsidy programs. The initiative will enable COMESA Member States to regenerate their soils and […] Continue Reading
All-Africa goal proposed for scaling-up farmer-managed natural regeneration of trees on farmland
Farmer-Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) is the fastest-growing form of EverGreen Agriculture in Africa. It is especially popular in the drylands where droughts are frequent and intense. Because it requires minimal or no cash investment, it can expand rapidly through farmer-to-farmer and village-to-village diffusion. A dramatic case in point is Niger, where more than 5 million […] Continue Reading
Iowa’s climate-change wisdom
Negotiators en route to the United Nations conference on climate change in Paris, scheduled to begin later this month, should take a detour on rural roads here in Johnson County. A new climate narrative is emerging among farmers in the American heartland that transcends a lot of the old story lines of denial and cynicism, […] Continue Reading
Creating an Evergreen food-energy system for rural electrification
‘All of the planet’s energy originally derives from solar radiation. Trees are one of the most effective ways of harnessing the sun and turning it into usable energy, and trees can do this in a truly renewable way.’ Philip Dobie and Navin Sharma. World Agroforestry Centre Electrical Power with Food Security Benefits Six hundred million […] Continue Reading