Agroforestry World
Cathy Watson
Cathy Watson is chief of programme development at the World Agroforestry Centre in Nairobi. Before joining ICRAF in November 2012, she founded and ran two NGOs in Uganda -- Straight Talk Foundation and Mvule Trust. She was made a senior Ashoka fellow for social entrepreneurship in 2006. She has also been a foreign correspondent, working for The Guardian and the BBC, among others. A graduate in biology and Latin American Studies from Princeton, she has over 30 years of work experience in Africa with a focus on trees, youth, HIV, families, and communication for social change. She holds a graduate certificate in agroforestry from the University of Missouri.
Success in rejuvenating land through forest-based enterprises has had dramatic outcomes for farmers. In the late afternoon in the highlands of Malawi, the air is chilly as the sun descends. But the welcome is warm. A group of...
Smallholder farmers increase yields and incomes through improved agricultural practices, often while also sequestering carbon and/or decreasing greenhouse gas emissions.
Among the cattle ranches, mountainous natural forests and smallholdings of Catacamas, Honduras, researcher Yves Zinngrebe encounters farmers with both large and small holdings who are interested in the Trees on Farms for Biodiversity project and its transformative...
Shifting from conventional farms to agroforestry farms brings various benefits to communities as they face the threat of a changing climate. Agroforestry, the practice of planting trees and crops in the same area, may serve as a sustainable...
Healthy soil is critical for productive agriculture in Africa. To address declining health, countries are sharing knowledge and learning about new technologies.
The endorsement of the Guidelines by the region’s ministers of agriculture and forestry paves the way for implementation to restore degraded landscapes, improve food security and livelihoods, enhance farmers’ resilience and meet nationally determined contributions to...
Zero-budget natural farming (ZBNF) is reported to be followed by 8% of farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India, making it probably the world’s most successful natural farming approach. “Adoption rates elsewhere of nature-friendly agriculture rarely exceed 1%,” says...
A new open-source book containing previously undocumented scientific evidence that could help practitioners bring CSA to scale is published.
At a defining conference centred around the forthcoming ASEAN Guidelines for Agroforestry Development, participants heard that integrating more trees into farming systems will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help farmers adapt to climate change. Agroforestry is a...
Farm ponds are quickly emerging as novel hubs for integrated, climate-smart technologies promoted through the Drylands Development programme in the vast semi-arid landscapes of Kitui County in eastern Kenya Water shortage occasioned by prolonged drought has been a...
Sumba in eastern Indonesia has been almost totally deforested, has only patches of thin soil on limestone savannahs and a wet season that has contracted to three months a year. Farmers have been struggling to survive yet nonetheless...
Cameroon needs to adopt an integrated approach to climate change. However, there are still many challenges to overcome. Climate change in Cameroon has had, and will continue to have, adverse effects on agro-ecosystems and communities in multiple ways;...
Growing a food-secure future for Africa is the aim of the University of California at Davis African Plant Breeding Academy. Bunmi Olasanmi is the first in a series of success stories. By Bunmi Olasanmi I...
The adoption of climate-smart agriculture in Việt Nam is underway through knowledge-sharing events. Farmers, agricultural extension officers and local leaders from Quảng Bình Province, Việt Nam came to Mỹ Lợi Village to learn about climate-smart agriculture...