Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Many deserts that appear bone-dry actually have plenty of water flowing just below the ground’s surface. In these cases, when the ground level dips below sea level, the water will literally gush to the surface and create an oasis—a fertile, lush space that is perfect for cultivation.

For three thousand years, the farmers of the Siwa Oasis along the western edge of Egypt have been taking advantage of the abundance of water in the desert to grow siwa dates. Despite its isolation by the hundreds of miles of desert, bountiful surplus has fueled trade with Bedouin nomads and Mediterranean urbanity.

Three varieties of dates are planted, including the Ghazaal, the Takdat, and Amnzou. Most people are only familiar with dried dates, a step necessary for preservation if the fruit is exported. Fresh dates however are drastically different with a taste and texture similar to an apple.

According to the economist Torben Larsen, over 250,000 date palms and 30,000 olive trees, are being cultivated in the Siwa Oasis, on over 5,000 hectares of land. To sustain such a large area of cultivation, extensive preparation of the soil is necessary. First the topsoil layer is completely stripped and the subsoil is mixed with sand and manure. The grainy compost is continually flushed with fresh water and planted with medicinal herbs. Once the preliminary vegetation takes root, palm and olive trees are planted.

Today, production is organized under the Siwa Community Development Environmental Conservation (SCDEC). Each of the thirteen villages elects a representative to the SCDEC where they play an administrative role in directing agricultural activity as well as marketing decisions.

The farmers also work together to preserve the surrounding deserts and scarce resources that their livelihoods depend upon. New production technologies have been carefully introduced after much scrutiny to minimize water use from and contamination of natural springs. In addition, soil samples are frequently monitored for warning signs of salination—which can be devastating not only to the date trees but to the other crops, such as alfalfa and a variety of Mediterranean fruits that grow on the oasis.

The result is a lush agricultural landscape in the midst of an otherwise hot and barren environment, and at least one indigenous crop that has been helping to support the diets and livelihoods of desert farmers for thousands of years.

To read more about crops indigenous to Africa see: Finger Millet: A Once and Future Staple, Lablab: The Bountiful, Beautiful Legume, The Green Gold of Africa and Potato, Potahto.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

The Land O’ Lakes company is best known for its butter, but the company also has a nonprofit division—Land O’ Lakes International Development (IDD). Land O’ Lakes IDD is part of the U.S. Overseas Cooperative Development Council, a group of organizations that share the belief that “cooperative techniques, which have helped millions of American families, can be adapted to help poor and low-income people in developing countries achieve a better way of life.” The organization does this through various programs, mainly focused on dairy production, livestock farming, and enhancing local food networks.

As part of its Mozambique Food for Progress program, the organization trains farmers in Mozambique to train other farmers how to use animals for transportation and plowing. In Chapter 14 of State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, experts from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) explain how raising livestock can help improve farmers’ incomes, diets, and crop productivity. For many smallholder farmers, animal-powered farming provides a much-needed source of additional muscle, because machines like tractors are often prohibitively expensive.

Smallholder farmers also tend to benefit from cooperatives, which help pool their resources. In Western Mozambique’s Gondola District, for example, Land O’ Lakes IDD has brought in cattle and helped smallholder farmers learn about raising them, as part of a project to create the Gondola Milk Collection Center.

At the Center, members of a local cooperative can sell their items in bulk and get increased access to markets and better prices. According to Roy Perkins, the director of Maforga Christian Mission, who is working in the Maforga community, “I am sure that other direct beneficiaries [of the Land O’ Lakes dairy initiative] will get out from the extreme poverty that prevents their food security.”

Residents of Mweleki, a village in Kenya’s Eastern Province, also face challenges. Frequent droughts threaten farmers’ livelihoods, and women often bear the burden of traveling long distances to collect water each day. Justine, a farmer who lives in the village of Mweleki, said, “I even threatened to divorce my husband at one point, because I felt I was spending my entire life doing nothing but gathering water. ” But now that the village has a communal water program, which Land O’ Lakes IDD helped establish, Justine is “able to spend my time feeding my two cows, caring for my two kids, and even doing a few things for myself from time to time.”

Land O’ Lakes IDD helped implement a geological survey to determine water distribution points, provided piping to link the points, and helped develop a local committee to manage the project. To cover maintenance costs and incomes for the people who work at the water kiosks, residents pay about two cents for each container they fill with water. The residents’ cattle produce more milk because they no longer walk to far-away watering points. And because they no longer have to help their mothers collect water, local children also spend more time in school.

To read more about innovations that create sustainable change, see: Cultivating an Interest in Agriculture and Wildlife Conservation, Malawi’s Real Miracle, Emphasizing Malawi’s Indigenous Vegetables as Crops, Finding ‘Abundance’ in What is Local, Honoring the Farmers that Nourish their Communities and the Planet, and Investing in Projects that Protect Both Agriculture and Wildlife.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet .

In Nangabo, a small county in south central Uganda, many families are struggling to put food on the table. But families with children with physical or developmental disabilities have an additional financial burden. The cost of medical care and assistance is often more than most can manage. “It is impossible for these struggling families to get ahead,” says Alex Zizingga, founder and coordinator of The Community Garden Project. “Our organization helps to show them how they can take advantage of local crops to improve their situation.”
The Community Garden Project partners with the Nangabo sub-county Parents’ Association of Children with Disabilities (NAPACD) to identify and build relationships with families who have one or more children with a physical disability. The project provides the family with training and materials to help them include indigenous vegetables in their gardens, diversify their crops in order to create year-round harvests, and grow a surplus in order to have more to sell at local markets.

“The connection between health and agriculture is somehow hard for many people to make,” says Zizingga. The improved diets that these community gardens provide help improve the health of the entire family, while also allowing families to pay the expensive medical bills required to care for the well being of their children.

“One family we worked with had three children who were all affected by disabilities,” says Zizingga. “All three of the children needed a wheelchair.” The father of the family, Ronald Kalungi, approached the project to ask for help and Zizingga learned that, while the father was already a farmer, he was only growing a single commercial crop for sale. “He wasn’t growing any vegetables,” says Zizingga. “He didn’t have any of his own food to eat and he was dependent on a single crop to bring in an entire year’s worth of income.”

Since that first meeting with Alex, Kalungi is now growing vegetables from seeds he buys locally. Every three weeks or so, he is able to harvest part of the garden to eat and to sell. His increased income has meant that he can now send the oldest of his children to school and all of the childrens’ medical bills are now paid in full. And Kalungi has become a mentor to other farmers in his community, educating them about ways to increase their incomes and improve their diets.

“When we started this program we wanted to help families struggling to care of their children with disabilities,” says Zizingga, “but really the whole community can benefit.” The project started with twenty farmers and now works with over 400. “And new families want to join all the time,” says Zizingga.

And even more importantly, families are stepping up to help each other out. More and more the project is taking a life of its own. “The philosophy behind the work is trickling down and farmers are sharing it with each other. Now it belongs to the community.”

To read more about community gardens and the connection between nutrition and health, see: More Than Just a School , Healing Hunger , and Cultivating Health, Community and Solidarity.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

In the drought-prone state of Rajasthan in India, farmers struggle to grow nutritious crops. One vegetable, however, that thrives in the region is the indigenous guar or cluster bean ( Cyamopsis tetragonoloba ), a leguminous crop with a variety of uses.

Like other legumes, guar’s roots have nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which improve the quality of the soil and increase the yield of subsequent crops. In addition to being an organic green manure, the guar seed is a valuable source of vegetable protein for humans and cattle. Unlike the seeds of other legumes, cluster beans have large endosperms that contain galactomannan, a gum that forms a gel in cold water. This gel is used as an ingredient for strengthening paper and as a thickener for ice cream and salad dressing.

Due to its high fiber content, guar also has medicinal uses. It helps in maintaining a healthy digestive tract and can effectively treat various intestinal diseases, such as Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn’s disease.

With such valuable traits, it is no surprise that organizations like Practical Action are encouraging farmers in the semi-arid Zambezi valley of northern Zimbabwe to grow cluster beans. This project has provided small-scale farmers with some of the inputs they needto cultivate the crop, as well as helping them develop a sound market system to reap benefits from the harvest.

There have been additional efforts to introduce guar in other parts of Africa as a way to increase both nutrition and income. The Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC) in Sudan recently conducted a study to evaluate the crops’ adaptability to the semi-arid environment of the Darfur region. In this study, guar was grown along with other crops under the same environmental conditions. When harvested, guar had the highest yield, prompting suggestions that it should be introduced in the region as a new food crop. This could be an important step to reduce hunger in Darfur, a region that is still one of the “world’s worst hunger hotspots” according to Amer Daoudi, representative for the UN’s World Food Program in Sudan.

As the popularity of guar increases, this versatile crop could prove useful in not only combating hunger but also providing an economic outlet for small scale farmers in semi-arid regions of the world.

To read more about indigenous crops see: Finger Millet: A Once and Future Staple , Lablab: The Bountiful, Beautiful Legume , The Green Gold of Africa and Potato, Potahto.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

Shakti worked as a seasonal agricultural laborer in her village in Chitoor district, located in India’s southern Andhra Pradesh state. Her day-to-day survival was often tenuous –she walked for long hours to surrounding fields looking for work. But today, she is a proud landowner.

Some 15 million people living in India’s rural areas lack land ownership. And millions more do not have secure rights to the land they currently occupy. This precarious existence means they have no food, income, and livelihood security. But Landesa, a Seattle-based non-profit formerly known as the Rural Development Institute, is combating hunger and poverty by working to secure land rights.

In rural areas around the world, land is the most fundamental asset. It is often difficult for landless farmers to earn enough income to feed their own children. But owning a plot of land for farming allows them to produce fruits and vegetables to nourish their families and helps them earn enough money to put their children through school or pay for medical costs.

For over 40 years, Landesa has been working in 45 countries to help secure land rights for 400 million landless people living in some of the world’s poorest regions. In India, Landesa works in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Odhisa, and West Bengal. It collaborates with government agencies to craft new land policies that benefit the rural poor. The organization places special emphasis on women’s rights. In India, women represent 72 percent of the country’s agriculture sector, but a majority of them lack access to land. And when their husbands die or abandon them, they lose their home and source of food and income.

Landesa’s work begins at the village level, where they speak with farmers, especially women, to learn about the hardships they are facing. Landesa can act as a bridge between these farmers and the policy-makers who are able to reform policies to provide better opportunities. Land tenure experts work with policy-makers at the local and national level to create new laws and programs that help farmers gain access to—and control—of land. The organization also conducts workshops to educate farmers about their legal rights.

In partnership with state governments across India, Landesa has developed a homestead allocation program, which grants poor landless families ownership to house-and-garden plots of about a tenth of an acre. This program brings government representatives into the village, where they ultimately grant land titles to families who have inhabited the land for generations. And last year, India’s central government committed over $200 million to help some 2 million families secure rights to these micro-plots.

When families receive a patta – the piece of paper guaranteeing their right to the land – they gain much-needed security.

Padma, for example, used to earn Rs. 8 a day (less than $.20 USD). But since receiving her patta, she is generating extra income to support her family. She also began raising jasmine flowers, which she sells to visitors at the nearby temple. Today, Padma’s two daughters attend school and eat healthy meals every day. And now Padma is respected by both men and women in her community.

In India and around the world, secure land rights provide a source of food and income, empowering families and communities with stability, dignity, and hope. Innovations that help people secure rights to the land they till can strengthen food security and lift millions out of poverty.

To learn more about innovations to secure land rights and empower women, see: Empowering Women to Take Back the Land, Empowering the Women of India’s Poorest Region, Innovation of the Week: Banking on the Harvest, Innovation of the Week: Feeding Communities by Focusing on Women, Strengthening Rural Women’s Leadership in Farming and Producer Organization, and Rural Women’s Leadership in Agriculture and NRM Scoping Studies.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

The term “nightshade” refers collectively to a wide-ranging group of plants, including poisonous, medicinal, and edible species (from the genus Solanum). This includes three major crops of global importance: tomato, potato, and eggplant. The broad-leafed African nightshade (Solanum scabrum)—often confused with its poisonous North African/ Eurasian cousins, Atropa belladonna and Solanum nigrum—is widely cultivated in sub-Saharan Africa on smallholder plots and in home gardens. The African native crop is also gaining popularity near cities, for city dwellers who crave a taste of home.

African nightshade is sometimes referred to as black nightshade or garden huckleberry. There are numerous African words for the plant, including: mnavu (Swahili), managu (Kikuyu), namaska (Luhya), and osuga (Luo). The species name Solanum nigrum is often incorrectly used for all of the Solanum species occurring in Africa, including the broad-leafed African nightshade.

Unlike some other nightshades, the fruit of the African nightshade is not eaten. The bud, flowers, and fruits are removed, and the leaves and fresh shoots eaten as a cooked vegetable. The vegetable can be very bitter, and milk or salt is often added to reduce bitterness. It is sometimes served with fufu, which is made from cassava, plantains, yams, or maize.

The vegetable is an excellent source of protein, iron, vitamin A, iodine, zinc. The high nutritional value makes African nightshade especially important for poor people, as well as helping people suffering from HIV/AIDS get better nutrition.

Nightshades are traditionally used worldwide as medicinal plants, especially to treat stomach ailments. Leaf extracts from African nightshade are used to treat diarrhea, eye infections, and jaundice. The raw fruit is sometimes chewed to treat stomach ulcers or stomachache.

Other uses for African nightshade include fodder for cattle and goats. Dye can be made from both the leaves and the fruit.

The African nightshade is naturally common in both lowland and highland areas in West, Central, and East Africa. It can grow in a wide range of soils, but it does better in nutrient-rich soil with high levels of organic material.

There are no solid statistics on how much African nightshade is currently cultivated. But the crop is one of the most important indigenous leafy vegetables in West and Central Africa, and to a lesser extent East Africa, according to Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA). Cameroon produces enough African nightshade to export to neighboring countries. According to Patrick Maundu at Bioversity International, demand for the crop has recently risen significantly since East African supermarkets started stocking it. “When the crop first hit the Uchumi supermarket shelves in Kenya and Uganda, it was just a matter of time before Nakumatt supermarkets and other major chains took it up. In Tanzania, the crop is widely sold in the vegetable markets. As a result, farmers in peri-urban areas have also increased production to keep up with local demand,” says Maundu.

In September of 2010, Kenyan Professor Mary Onyango-Abukutsa—who is quoted in State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet—was awarded a US$147,000 grant by Kenya’s National Council for Science and Technology to lead research on African indigenous vegetables at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Her research will focus on three key vegetables, including African nightshade, spider plant, and amaranth.

To read more about crops indigenous to Africa see: Wild Ethiopian Coffee: Harvesting the Perks of an Indigenous Crop, Black Plum: Fruit, Timber, and Agroforestry, and Monkey Oranges: Mouthwatering Potential.

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Crossposted from the Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet.

In Dhading province in central Nepal, most people are farmers, who depend on rain-fed agriculture for food and income. But erratic rainfall and natural disasters in recent years, including widespread drought and recurring landslides, are threatening the livelihoods of the region’s farming communities.

Resource Identification and Management Society (RIMS)-Nepal, a non-profit organization that promotes sustainable management of natural resources through local capacity-building, has organized a pilot project called the Community Seed and Information Resource Center (CSIRC).

The CSIRC initiative is empowering small-scale farmers with the tools they need to adapt to climate change. Established in November 2010, the CSIRC is organized, managed, and staffed by the village development committee (VDC) of Tasarpu, under the Local Adaptation Plan of Action (LAPA) program.

After conducting a survey to identify the most vulnerable households in the province, the program is providing subsidies for improved seeds to some 160 farmers.

The CSIRC’s decentralized model allows farmers to pool their resources together, ensuring better adaptation to climate change for the entire community. At the center, community members share knowledge about how to put their new inputs to be better use. The CSIRC serves as an important village resource – it allows farmers to collectively discuss the challenges they face and share practices to better manage natural resources.

And the program’s executive committee is also working to integrate the CSIRC within national agriculture networks. One such network is the Telecenters website, an online platform that provides rural farmers with timely information on markets, prices, and weather in English and Nepali.

In remote rural areas, improved access to information about prices for various crops at markets is helping farmers negotiate with buyers or decide which markets to bring their products to. These innovative information sharing networks bridge the gap by enabling farmers to access market information without leaving their farms. And, frequent weather updates are also helping farmers plan ahead and make more informed decisions about planting their crops.

With the help of these resources, farmers in Dhading province are now supplying crops to the nearby Kathmandu Valley, where demand for their products is steadily growing.

Small-scale farmers produce 70 percent of the food consumed in the world today. But according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2080, climate change could leave an additional 600 million people hungry. And a majority of those at risk are the world’s small-scale farmers. Improving the capacity of these farmers and strengthening resilience of local food systems is becoming more important than ever.

The CSIRC is doing just that – it is providing farmers with the valuable tools they need to avoid losses to changing weather, and raise crops that nourish their families and communities.

To learn more about building resilience to climate change and improving farmers’ access to inputs and information, see: Improving Water Access in India, One Drip at a Time, FAO Seed Distribution and the Biopiracy Controversy, Local Seeds to Meet Smallscale Farmers’, Everyone Plays a Role, Improving African Women’s Access to Agriculture Training Programs, Providing Seeds to Improve Food Security in Burkina Faso, Turning the Threat of Climate Change into an Opportunity to Build a More Sustainable Future, and Texting on the Farm: Mobile Technology Provides Farmers with Useful Information in India.

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