ICRAF

Ethiopia is suffering from severe drought. But there is water in Gergera. Twenty years of restoring its hills and valley has brought life back to this area in the state of Tigray. The work has been painstaking, complex and multidimensional, and continues to this day. But its hard-won results offer up two key lessons:  first, landscape […]

By Susan Onyango, originally published on Agroforestry World Approximately 70% of Africa’s population depends on its agriculture-based economy for their livelihoods, underscoring the importance of soil to the sector. Fertile soils across the continent are under threat, however, due in large part to climate change and poor land management which leads to the depletion of nutrients […]

The earth is crispy around here. Crunch, crunch, crunch—my every footstep made a crackling sound like a rustling bag of potato chips. Underneath the crunchy stuff was something almost fluffy. “It is the dried peat,” Nizar told me. He’s been working in this area for decades, acrobatically transitioning between the local community, government and private […]

March 22 is the United Nations’ (UN) World Water Day. Anyone who has walked outside on a sunny day knows that forests and trees matter for temperature, humidity and wind speed. Planting trees speaks to concerns about climate change, but the directly important aspects of the tree-climate relationships have so far been overlooked in climate […]

Written by Susan Onyango for ICRAF’s Agroforestry World blog While tropical forests continued to decline, a remarkable change is happening: tree cover on agricultural land has increased across the globe, capturing nearly 0.75 Gigatonnes carbon dioxide every year. A new study titled Global Tree Cover and Biomass Carbon on Agricultural Land: The contribution of agroforestry […]

Originally written by Amy Cruz for ICRAF’s Agroforestry World blog. Climate-smart agriculture, including agroforestry and other diversified farming practices, has huge potential to improve food security and address climate change at the same time. Researchers, policymakers and farmers discuss what should be done to expand such practices and bring greater benefits to more people. The […]