Smallholder poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is often linked to sandy soils, which hold little water and are low in nutrients. A new technology may be able to enrich fields and farmers without massive investments in irrigation and fertilizer.
Many farmers across sub-Saharan Africa try to coax crops out of sandy soils that are …
In July Ethiopians planted 350 million trees in a single day. This was part of the country’s national green legacy initiative to counter environmental degradation and climate change. The initiative ultimately aims to grow 4 billion trees across the country.
Ethiopia has long struggled with land degradation problems in part caused by unsustainable agricultural practices – like vegetation …
Despite previous efforts by the Government of Uganda to promote irrigation, less than 1 per cent of agricultural households practice irrigation in Uganda (UBOS 2010).
The area equipped for irrigation is less than 3 per cent of the total potential irrigable area in Uganda estimated at 567,000 hectares. Therefore, there is …
The power of irrigation is on full display in this corner of southeastern Kenya, where an 8,000-hectare sugarcane plantation glimmers in an otherwise semi-arid landscape.
Yields at the Kwale sugar plantation are higher than they would be if it relied only on rain, and there is no need to worry about …
The case for investing in renewables to promote food security
Renewable energy, especially solar power, can make a significant contribution to improving people’s general quality of life; their access to water, technology and information; education; food preparation options; and employment.
Opportunities for investment in these technologies are abundant and promising. Investing in …
Despite the contribution of forests to water sustainability, scholars and researchers have rarely studied the linkages involving forests, climate change and water in Africa, a report, Forest and Water on a Changing Planet: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Governance Opportunities, says.
According to the report, about seven billion humans currently occupying the earth …
By Elwyn Grainger-Jones, Executive Director, CGIAR System Organization
Going into debt with nature is a dangerous thing. When our stocks of water, land and clean air are spent – we don’t have a second planet to borrow from. But that’s exactly the way that Earth is heading. 1 August 2018 marks …
Samuel Ojok is a vegetable farmer in Otuke District in northern Uganda. Every tomato season, he grows two or more acres of tomatoes and other vegetables such as cabbage, green pepper, onions and watermelons.
He is never worried about his garden running short of water or getting affected by a change …
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned that lack of modern farming techniques threatens Africa’s food security.
Josef Kienzle, FAO’s Leader of the Mechanisation task team, said that unless the governments adopt new technologies of farming, the continent will continue relying on food aid.
“There is need for a paradigm …
Joshua Okundi’s five-acre farm is his classroom. A longtime schoolteacher who left his job to become a farmer in 2013, Okundi is an instructor to the constant stream of visitors who arrive at his home in Kendu, a small rural village in the western reaches of Kenya.
Visitors come seeking advice, …
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