Search Results for: soils
Fundamental shift in drought management needed in Near East and North Africa region
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has called for a fundamental shift in the way drought is perceived and managed in the Near East and North Africa region. The agency said in a new report issued today that a more pro-active approach based on the principles of risk reduction is needed to build greater resilience to […] Continue Reading
The open secret of fertiliser shrubs
Evergreen agriculture, a form of agroforestry, is an affordable solution to agricultural challenges. The approach integrates trees with food crops and livestock to create more sustainable and productive agricultural systems for smallholding farm families. Evergreen agriculture is already positively transforming the lives of farmers in more than 20 African countries. Through restoring exhausted soils with […] Continue Reading
Bring back our trees: the forest communities fighting climate change
“A decade ago this land was dismissed as lost to the desert,” said ecologist Mamadou Diakite. He was smiling beneath the shade of a tree, one of hundreds growing vigorously all around him on land previously abandoned by local millet farmers. The growth of these trees, and hundreds of millions more in a remote region […] Continue Reading
A eureka moment for the planet: we’re finally planting trees again
China plans to plant forests the size of Ireland. Latin American countries have pledged to restore 20m hectares of degraded forest and African countries more than 100m hectares. India is to plant 13m hectares, and on a single day last year 1.5 million people planted 66m trees in Madhya Pradesh alone. Trees make our lives better in unquantifiable […] Continue Reading
EverGreen Agriculture: a solution to degraded landscapes
A visit to Embu County, Kenya, two years ago has birthed a very promising project to address the challenges emanating from land degradation. While visiting Purity Gachanga, an agroforestry champion, Dr. Roberto Ridolfi, Director for Sustainable Growth and Development at the Directorate General for Development and Cooperation, was impressed by the transformation that trees could […] Continue Reading
How Ethiopia Went from Famine Crisis to Green Revolution
What most people probably don’t know is that Ethiopia has made significant progress during the last 20 years in restoring its degraded lands and improving its food and water security. According to Belgian and Ethiopian researchers,” Northern Ethiopia is now greener than it has ever been during the last 145 years,” and “human investments have overridden the impacts of […] Continue Reading