By Andrew Mambondiyani28 July 2016 (mongabay.com) – Lyben Minyizeya’s homestead in Chisumbanje in eastern Zimbabwe resembles a dumpsite for disused tractors and other agricultural equipment. The broken and rusty machinery reminds him of the good old farming days. In this farming community near the border with Mozambique, it is sizzling hot in summer. Baobab, acacia, […]
By Rebecca Lindsey2 August 2016 (NOAA) – A record-smashing hurricane season in the central North Pacific. Water rationing in Puerto Rico. The biggest one-year jump in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on record. Severe drought in Ethiopia. The hottest global surface temperature—by one of the largest margins—on record. Those are just a few of 2015’s major […]
28 July 2016, Rome (FAO) – With only a few weeks before land preparation begins for the next main cropping season, some 23 million people in Southern Africa urgently need support to produce enough food to feed themselves and thus avoid being dependent on humanitarian assistance until mid 2018, FAO said today. A FAO-prepared response […]
By Charles Iceland, Betsy Otto, and Richard Waite25 July 2016 (WRI) – A changing climate means less rain and lower water supplies in regions where many people live and much of the planet’s food is produced: the mid-latitudes of the Northern and Southern hemispheres, including the U.S. Southwest, southern Europe and parts of the Middle […]
SPANISH FORK, Utah, 22 July 2016 (AP) – A huge toxic algae bloom in Utah has closed one of the largest freshwater lakes west of the Mississippi River, sickening more than 100 people and leaving farmers scrambling for clean water during some of the hottest days of the year. The bacteria commonly known as blue-green […]
21 June 2016 (CSIRO) – The research, which is published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that although the chances of invasive species entering Australia were relatively high, the overall threat to agriculture is lessened due to our robust management practices. The research examines the worldwide distribution of nearly 1300 invasive […]
[cf. Rain in Spain is on the decline] 27 June 2016 (Sinc) – In the Mediterranean Basin, droughts are a recurring phenomenon that negatively impacts society, economic activities and natural systems. No one seems to doubt the fact that temperatures all over the world have risen in recent decades. However, this trend does not appear […]
By Katy Daigle1 July 2016 (PhysOrg) – Each year as temperatures rise across India, farmers look to the sky and pray for rain. The all-important monsoon forecast becomes a national priority, with more than 70 percent of India’s 1.25 billion citizens engaged in agriculture and relying on weather predictions to decide when they will sow […]
[Translation by Google.] By Gerardo Sanchez Source25 June 2016 VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (Televisa News) – The herd of Tabasco is undergoing one of its worst crises in recent years, severe drought and heat are killing animals. “If you do not have livestock water is consumed, is spent their energies, their body fat and muscle, there are […]
By Matthew Hill and Mustapha Muhammad9 June 2016 (Bloomberg News) – Yusuf Ibrahim, a tomato farmer in Kano, Nigeria, has lost almost 90 percent of his crop this year to Tuta absoluta. That prices for the fruit are 15 times higher than before the outbreak of the pest is little consolation; he can’t afford to […]
