For millennia, storing water has been a cornerstone of survival for many societies, especially in dry areas or areas with large climatic variability. In periods of plenty such as monsoons, rainy seasons, and springtime snowmelt, water storage has ensured water availability for drinking, irrigation and, more recently, hydropower generation. It has helped communities to manage not only predictable variation in
A recent study from the International Potato Center (CIP) calls attention to downward trends in varietal diversity in major cropping systems in Asia and Africa. As climate change impacts continue to affect agriculture, these trends have significant (potentially worrying) implications for ensuring future yields and food system resilience around the world. Published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, and co-authored with scientists from the International… The post Trends in Varietal
BY CLAUDIA RINGLER AND RUTH MEINZEN-DICK The theme of World Water Day 2021 (March 22) is “Valuing Water”—recognizing that unless resources are valued, they won’t be used sustainably. But what do we really mean when we talk about water’s value? Water has not one, but many values. Life could not exist without it, and it has profound spiritual, religious, and cultural associations. Water also has
Twimanye Makoye is a commercial sweetpotato farmer in Bukombe District in Northwest Tanzania. He produces sweetpotato roots on about 14 hectares of land and sells his produce to customers in Dar es Salaam, the country’s commercial hub. The income from this business has enabled him to enroll his children in school, build a home, and acquire a plot to construct
The glaring inequality between men and women farmers in the African agricultural sector is alarming evidence that calls for fair, inclusive and sustainable development. Gender productivity gaps vary across and even within countries, but recent studies suggest that gender gaps are in the range of 10% to 30%[1]. Gender gap in agricultural productivity means that crop production is lower than
In the semi-arid tropics water is a precious resource that often does not trickle down to small farms. Farmers who can afford borewells, save their crops during dry spells in the cropping season whilst others watch crops and investment dry up. Now, a CSR project led by ICRISAT has shown how watershed interventions contributed to a 2-meter rise in groundwater
Hung Nguyen-Viet, co-leader of the Animal and Human Health program at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), was a member of the high-profile World Health Organization expert mission to China to investigate the origins of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). ILRI’s David Aronson interviewed Hung about his experiences on the mission, which garnered headlines worldwide, and on the broader lessons for ILRI
Due to its mountainous landscape, the Honduran territory has a large water supply system, comprised by 25 basins, 133 sub-basins, and a total of 6,845 micro-basins (Hydrographic Regions in Honduras); which drain into two different slopes, the Pacific and the Atlantic watersheds. For the most part, the Pacific watershed in Honduras is located in the southern area, which is known