For the first time, crop breeders and agricultural specialists in East Africa will have regionally specific climate data to research and manage crops in an effort to improve food production, according to Michigan State University researchers. Using a $430,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant, researchers will study the impact of climate change on the drought-stricken area,...
Monthly Archives: January 2010
There is good news for coffee lovers and growers worldwide: A predator for the devastating coffee berry borer has just been discovered in Africa. Looking at coffee berries in Western Kenya, Dr. Juliana Jaramillo from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, Dr. Eric Chapman from the University of Kentucky, and colleagues have identified a previously...
Small stipends paid directly to teen girls have had a powerful impact on their school attendance in Malawi. That’s among the findings from a study of a two-year cash transfer program targeting girls aged 13 to 22 that wrapped up in December 2009. Stipends ranging from $1-$5 a month for the adolescent girls, in addition to payments to parents that ranged from $4-$10,...
Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Stanford University study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The two-year study found that solar-powered pumps installed in remote villages in the West African nation of Benin...
