May Muthuri
Who gets to choose tree species on farmland?
I was recently asked which indigenous, nitrogen fixing tree species should be promoted in Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR). Nobody really knows the relative contribution different tree species make towards soil fertility and crop yield, simply because extensive research has not been done to address this question. In West Africa, nitrogen fixing species such as Faidherbia albida […] Continue Reading
Rethinking trees in Kansas agriculture
In the history of Kansas agriculture, trees have something of a checkered past. From initial legislative efforts to expand tree cultivation through the payment of generous bounties to today’s wholesale eradication of windbreaks and hedgerows, the importance, and value, of trees has shifted due to economic, ecological and climatological trends. Those same trends are now […] Continue Reading
Regreening Africa could help stem the tide of migration
European Union leaders have been wrestling in recent weeks with the surge of the “boat people,” tens of thousands of refugees from Africa and the Middle East crossing the Mediterranean in overloaded boats in the hopes of finding a better life. Many of these migrants died during the journey. Refugees like the boat people are […] Continue Reading
Can Africa afford to save its soils?
On the fertilizer-starved continent of Africa, the discourses about soil fertility revolve around the availability of inorganic fertilizers, and how policy – subsidies, tariffs, markets – can be made to support their use. Supporters say that poor farmers are not able to make investments in restoring degraded soils because it takes too long to see […] Continue Reading
BLEANSA: The making of an EverGreen Agriculture info hub for Southern Africa
Isaac Nyoka, Coordinator of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) Southern Africa Node, discussed BLEANSA (Building a Large Evergreen Agriculture Network for Southern Africa) at the Beating Famine Conference in Malawi. BLEANSA is a network of organizations and innovation platforms aimed at spreading EverGreen Agriculture across the region. “The network reviews experiences gained from past research, […] Continue Reading
Trees and food security in Africa; what’s the link?
The right trees, coupled with the right varieties of crops, rural advisory services, and a supportive policy environment can have a huge impact on crop yields, nutrition and income in Africa. And because smallholder farmers feed and nourish most of Africa’s 1 billion population, this is where we must start. Agroforestry systems in Africa range […] Continue Reading