Growing and gardening global news

2011 Urban horticulture in the Congo reaps $400 million for small growers, FAO, 10 June

2009
 * Worldwatch Institute launch two-year project to point the world toward innovations in agriculture, supported by a $1.3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, July 8 The project will focus specifically on sub-Saharan Africa. Among the many innovations and approaches that Worldwatch plans to examine are
 * Adding nitrogen-fixing plants into crop rotations as a low-cost solution for enriching soils and breaking weed and pest cycles;
 * Overcoming freshwater shortages with rain harvesting, efficient irrigation, micro dams, and cover cropping;
 * Strengthening local breeding capacity, including the use of farmer-run seed banks and genetic markers of important crop traits;
 * Tapping international carbon-credit markets to reward farmers for enriching their soils and planting carbon-sequestering tree crops;
 * Involving women farmers in decision-making at all levels.

References