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FAO, World Food Programme to assist farmers in Congo and Nigeria
5 Jan, 2018
The Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) have stepped up efforts to assist farmers and alleviate hunger in Congo and Nigeria. FAO will supply food-growing kits, including cultivation tools and fruit and vegetable seeds to allow families to eat for two months and sell any food that is uneaten.
http://www.africanreview.com/finance/economy/fao-and-world-food-programme-to-assist-farmers-in-congo-and-nigeria
Telangana village banishes poverty, farmer suicides through organic farming: India
26 Dec,
2017
Switching to organic farming Enabavi, a Telangana village has turned its arid lands into lush green farms, overcoming the scourge of farmer suicides and health problems in the process, and increasing household earnings.
http://www.huffingtonpost.in/village-square/how-this-telangana-village-banished-poverty-and-farmer-suicides-through-organic-farming_a_23316501/
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CLIMATE CHANGE
Earth will become a desert by 2050 if global warming isn't stopped: Study
4 Jan, 2018
The globe is set to start drying out dramatically if global warming isn't stopped. That's the message from a new environmental study published by the journal Nature Climate Change. Over 25% of Earth will start experiencing the effects of "aridificaiton" by the year 2050 if humans don't meet the changes proposed by the Paris climate agreement.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/earth-become-desert-2050-global-11795575
Caribbean looks to become world’s first climate-resilient region
1 Jan, 2018
As the Caribbean Community enters the new year, incoming CARICOM chairman and Haiti President Jovenel Moïse is moving to create the first climate resilient region in the world. He highlighted the rebuilding process after the hurricanes of last September, as well as Hurricane Matthew, which pounded the region on October 3-4, 2016.
https://www.caribjournal.com/2018/01/04/caribbean-looks-become-worlds-first-climate-resilient-region/#
Oceans, coral bleaching getting worse because of global warming
4 Jan, 2018
Corals are bleaching more and more often around the world because of warming ocean waters, a new study shows. Researchers analyzed data about bleaching events at 100 reef locations around the world from 1980 to 2016. They found that the rate of bleaching has increased more than fourfold in the past four decades — from once every 25 to 30 years back in the 1980s, to once every six years by 2016.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/4/16849336/global-warming-coral-reefs-bleaching-rate-climate-change
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DROUGHTS
Crisis as East Cape drought deepens
4 Jan, 2018
Fears over the Eastern Cape’s crippling drought predicament have escalated alarmingly as two towns near Nelson Mandela Bay run out of water fast. This comes as the metro’s major storage dam supply has slumped to its lowest level yet – 26.94% – eclipsing 2010, when it dropped to 31%.
http://www.heraldlive.co.za/news/2018/01/04/crisis-east-cape-drought-deepens/
Dryness in Argentine farm belt threatens to reduce soy planting
4 Jan, 2018
Buenos Aires: Drought in Argentina's bread basket province of Buenos Aires has raised the risk that some of the 18.1 million hectares expected to be sown with soy this season will go unplanted, the Buenos Aires Grains Exchange and other analysts warned on Thursday.
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/dryness-in-argentine-farm-belt-threatens-to-reduce-soy-planting-20180104-00901
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FLOODS
Snowstorm brings record flooding to Boston: UK
4 Jan,
2018
Ocean water carried ice floes and dumpsters through the streets of Boston and trapped hundreds of people in homes and offices on Thursday afternoon, as the nor’easter sweeping up the Eastern Seaboard brought record flooding to Boston Harbor and the Massachusetts coast.
https://slate.com/business/2018/01/bomb-cyclone-brings-record-flooding-to-boston.html
Heavy rain, strong wind batters NZ
4 Jan, 2018
Upper parts of the North and South Island are set to bear the brunt of a storm which will bring driving rain and gale-force winds to our shores over the next day. The severe weather, which is anticipated to cause coastal floods, strikes today - and it'll continue to rip across New Zealand through Friday before petering out completely by Saturday, MetService says.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/01/weather-live-updates-heavy-rain-strong-wind-batters-nz.html
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FOOD SECURITY
FAO to do everything to uproot global hunger in 2018: Official
1 Jan, 2018
Nabil Gangi, FAO Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East and North Africa, said the agency would make all-out efforts to eradicate hunger across the globe in 2018. "Eradicating hunger in our lifetime is not a dream as solutions emerge through innovative agricultural techniques and improving food consumption habits,” Gangi said.
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2018/01/01/1617121/fao-to-do-everything-to-uproot-global-hunger-in-2018-official
Wheat rust breakthrough from DNA research
5 Jan, 2018
In a world first, an international team including Australian researchers has developed a DNA test to check a plant’s resistance to rust. The test only takes several hours, compared to weeks for other methods, greatly improving the chances of saving a crop which could otherwise be severely reduced by rust.
http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/5151901/dna-delivers-a-wheat-rust-breakthrough/?cs=4698
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IRRIGATION
Haryana to implement integrated solar based micro irrigation scheme
3 Jan, 2018
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar directed the irrigation department to implement the integrated solar-based micro irrigation scheme in all districts of the state. He constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) chairman to chalk out a strategy in this regard.
https://www.eletimes.com/solar-based-micro-irrigation-scheme-implemented-districts-haryana
Ancient China: Satellite, Drone imagery of prehistoric Silk Road Corridor reveals long-lost irrigation network
3 Jan, 2018
Archaeologists have discovered an ancient irrigation system in northwestern China that explains how the region’s herding communities were able to grow crops in one of the driest climates anywhere in the world.
http://www.newsweek.com/ancient-china-irrigation-system-traveled-silk-road-corridor-satellite-drone-769482
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WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
New technology that could help avert toxicity crisis at Salton Sea
4 Jan, 2018
California is embarking on a new plan to head off environmental disaster at the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California but it depends, in part, on the results of a promising technique to remove toxic selenium from water. Scientists and environmentalists are trying to find ways to save the sea. Decades of runoff from agricultural farming has polluted the water and as the sea dries, airborne pollutants could scatter throughout the region.
https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2018/01/04/new-technology-that-could-help-avert-toxicity-crisis-at-salton-sea
Hubert H. G. Savenije receives 2017 International Award
5 Jan, 2018
Hubert H. G. Savenije received the 2017 International Award at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting Honors Ceremony, held on 13 December 2017 in New Orleans, La. A professor of hydrology at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, Savenije has had a long and distinguished record of research as a hydrologist and water resources engineer in many parts of the world, including Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Nepal, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Zambia, Botswana, and Guatemala.
https://eos.org/agu-news/hubert-h-g-savenije-receives-2017-international-award
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FORTHCOMING EVENTS
8th Asian Regional Conference, 2-4 May 2018, Kathmandu, Nepal, on the theme “Irrigation in Support of an Evergreen Revolution”
Website:http://nencid.org.np/
69th IEC & Regional Conference, 12–17 August 2018, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on the theme: Innovative and Sustainable Agri-water Management: Adapting to a Variable and Changing Climate.
Website: http://www.icid2018.org/
Global Water Security for Agriculture and Natural Resources (GWSAN): An ASABE Global Initiative Conference, Hyderabad, India, 3-6 October 2018.
Website: http://www.asabewater.org/
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LATEST PUBLICATION(S)
Water Saving in Irrigated Agriculture in Egypt: Case Studies and Lessons Learned, November 2017
The Egyptian National Committee for Irrigation and Drainage (ENCID) has launched a new book titled 'Water Saving in Irrigated Agriculture in Egypt: Case Studies and Lessons Learned.' The publication is a compilation of successful water saving innovation ideas at the farm level and is a rich source of reference work for all the professionals engaged in agricultural water management aspirating for "More and more crop per drop." For more info, kindly write to Encid@link.net
http://www.encid.org.eg/
4 Jan, 2018 |