Maize farmers turning to sorghum in Swaziland and to cassava in Kenya. Is it climate change beginning to bite?
Water, water everywhere
A couple of fun stories about the historical dimension of the exploitation of aquatic biodiversity from Britain’s Daily Mail this morning. First, how Google Earth revealed a thousand-year-old fish trap off the coast of Wales. And second, how the reintroduction of the beaver, absent since it was hunted to extinction in the 16th century, could reduce water bills.
Featured: Passion fruit
Our friend Xavier Scheldeman nails the passion flower problem:
While rather similar to Passiflora mollissima (now classified as Passiflora tripartita var. mollissima), the fruit in the picture actually is Passiflora tarminiana, a species that was only described in 2001 (by Geo Coppens d’Eeckenbrugge, who was working in Bioversity’s office for the Americas at that time).
Read the whole comment here.
Ghanaian women not ready for biofuels
“Destruction of economic trees such as shea-nut and dawadawa trees actually deny community members, especially women their source of livelihood. It also restricts the hitherto extensive traditional rearing of animals in the affected communities.”
Bad news alert, from AllAfrica.com.
(Some) Indian women ready for climate change
In Zaheerabad, dalit (broken) women forming the lowest rung of India’s stratified society, now demonstrate adaptatation to climate change by following a system of interspersing crops that do not need extra water, chemical inputs or pesticides for production.
The women grow as many as 19 types of indigenous crops to an acre, on arid, degraded lands that they have been regenerated with help from an organisation called the Deccan Development Society (DDS).
Good news alert, from InterPress Service.