Changing lives and landscapes
By Wambui Kamiru In Ethiopia and Malawi farmers are creating canopies of trees from natural regeneration that provide cover for crops growing beneath them, nutrients for the crops, fodder for animals, firewood and other indirect benefits like carbon sequestration. Over 100 million nitrogen-fixing ‘fertilizer trees’ will be planted on Ethiopian farms, according to an announcement [...]
I first visited the Talensi-Nabdam district in Ghana in July 2009. I was there to run a workshop with community leaders on Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR), the reforestation method that I had stumbled upon while living in Niger back in 1983.
A recent article by environmental writer David Njagi addresses a welcome trend happening in parts of rural Kenya, especially around the Mt Kenya area. The female farmers who in many cases are part of women farmer groups are “increasingly adopting of agroforestry” claims David. Studies carried out at the World Agroforestry Centre show that adopting [...]
Agriculture has not been getting a fair hearing at major climate talks. So it is refreshing to see that a Policy Forum article has been released in the 20 January edition of the Science Magazine. The article, “What next for agriculture after Durban?,” explores the obstacles and outcomes for agriculture at COP-17 and outlines strategies [...]
A learning event at the Agriculture and Rural Development Day held in association with United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa discussed how to raise awareness of the potential for Evergreen Agriculture as an approach to improve livelihoods, adaptation and mitigation in the tropics, and its successful expansion in Africa.
Leading experts and representatives of major agricultural organizations worldwide – including Tony Simons, Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre -were asked to identify the most important questions facing the future of global agriculture.
“If you choose the right species of trees and manage them in the right way, they can be compatible with agriculture and provide many benefits,” said Dennis Garrity in addressing the World Congress of Conservation Agriculture during his last week as Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre.
Experts from varying fields of agricultural research came together in Nairobi, Kenya on 1 September 2011 to discuss the underlying causes and potential solutions to the devastating famine in the Horn of Africa. A useful web page has been created to pull together information on this CGIAR Consortium event Famine in the Horn of Africa: [...]
[Reproduced from Reuters alertnet] A couple of decades ago, when my colleagues began urging African farmers to plant trees in the middle of their maize fields, many agricultural development specialists thought we were a bit deranged. People can’t eat trees. So what good would planting one do for the food security of rural families and [...]
With the continuing horrific situation in the Horn of Africa, media, NGOs and other have been coming to us saying things like “surely there’s a huge role for agroforestry there to transform these landscapes and ensure the viability of farming in dryland areas”. It seems agroforestry is increasingly being viewed as a solution to agricultural [...]
