Food Security & Nutrition
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Food forests could help end hunger for nomads in arid East Africa
The name itself sounds idyllic: pastoralism. That’s the broad term used to describe nomadic communities who raise livestock across open areas of land as water supplies and seasons change. Cattle raised in such a manner is the main source of livelihood for people in northern Kenya; it accounts for about 10 percent of Kenya’s gross […] Continue Reading
The more trees the better
“We are looking at a revolution,” declared Dennis Garrity, UNCCD Drylands Ambassador and Chair of the EverGreen Agriculture Partnership, at the 14th World Forestry Congress in Durban. Opening a World Café on trees and resilience he said, “The agriculture that we see today will be transformed into one where trees are integrated into every agricultural […] Continue Reading
Native shrubs: a simple fix for drought-stricken crops in Sub-Saharan Africa
Variability is the only guarantee when it comes to the rainfall of the Sahel, the transitional zone between the parched Sahara Desert and the wetter savanna in the south. The rains often arrive late, and sometimes they barely come at all. This can lead to devastating crop failures and famine in a region that relies […] Continue Reading
The future of food: growing more with the same land
There are three main reasons why the productivity of existing farmland will need to dramatically increase in the next 40 years. The world’s population is unlikely to stabilise this century and is on course to reach up to 12 billion by 2100. That’s double the existing population and a lot of people to feed. The […] Continue Reading
‘Permaculture the African Way’ in Cameroon’s Only Eco-Village
“the eco-village organically fertilises soil through the planting and pruning of nitrogen-fixing trees planted on farms where mixed cropping is practised. When the trees mature, the middles are cut out and the leaves used as compost. The trees are then left to regenerate and the same procedure is repeated the following season.” Mbom Sixtus describes here how […] 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