For International Day of Rural Women, Thrive contemplates how women farmers are coping with today’s agricultural challenges. Researchers are finding that the right interventions can benefit not only struggling farmers but also women specifically as well.
Using water productively for agriculture is key, especially in the arid parts of our world. A new study shows that combining water and land interventions is the best way forward.
On the occasion of World Habitat Day, UN Habitat is calling for ‘waste-wise cities’ that recycle and reuse waste to help realize international agendas, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. But how is that possible for cities in low-income countries that are still struggling to keep their streets and water ways clean? Accra, the capital city of Ghana, leads the way, with public authorities successfully turning city waste into safe and efficient fertilizer for farmers in and around the city.
How can we connect a growing urban class to the farmers who produce our food? A new online platform in Lao PDR aims to bridge this divide and restore the country’s rich natural heritage.
Climate change has a direct impact on Guatemalan small-scale farmers, leading to loss of crops, increased malnutrition and migration flows. Public institutions are critical to improving climate change adaptation strategies, but an agrarian-systems diagnosis carried out by SIC4Change in the Guatemalan dry corridor found some shortcomings with the approach taken by the rural extension services – and suggested some ways these could be corrected.
Severe flooding and drought caused by extreme weather patterns lead to about 10,000 deaths and US$40 billion in damage a year, with the number and extremity of the events is slated to increase in the future. The agricultural sector is particularly vulnerable.
Small-scale irrigation has been lauded as key to building climate resilience by changing Zimbabwean governments, yet it has often failed in the past. Now, new and easy-to-use tools and recently introduced opportunities to experiment and solve problems in collaboration with others allow farmers to become more efficient and their farms more profitable.
Soil is a vital part of the natural environment. It supports the growth of plants, is a habitat for many different organisms and is at the heart of nearly all agricultural production. It also plays an integral role in countless other ecosystem services like water and climate regulation.
Land use planning is seen in many circles as a technical and neutral approach to dividing up land. The reality is quite different, with a great deal of competition and politics coming into play.
