As climate change intensifies, it is imperative for policymakers to address the escalating loss and damage it inflicts on vulnerable communities in developing countries. In India's Maharashtra state, these impacts are forcing rural families into life-altering decisions and migrations to work in sugarcane fields, where exploitative practices by contractors, including …
The ministry of agriculture and animal resources (MINAGRI) has said the current drought in Rwanda is a global issue and over 50 million people are facing the same disaster in Africa. Severe drought hit Nyagatare, Gatsibo, Kayonza, Kirehe and Ngoma districts in the Eastern Province. Over 23,448 hectares of crops …
If you thought that ‘wasting’ that extra cup of water to wash your face when you could have used one was insignificant, think twice. Water reserves in the country have decreased by 20% and if no major intervention is instituted to contain the problem, it could get out of hand. …
Between the winters of 2013/14 and 2014/15 during the strong North American drought, the northeast Pacific experienced the largest marine heatwave ever recorded. Here we combine observations with an ensemble of climate model simulations to show that teleconnections between the North Pacific and the weak 2014/2015 El Niño linked the …
From a dirt road overlooking the valley the landscape looks more like an abandoned quarry than what it is: the single source of sustenance for a community of thousands. The parched, dusty hills are a patchwork of greys and browns. Farmers steer oxen-drawn ploughs through the small fields, their blades …
Even after the heavy rains that drenched East Africa in April, Makueni County in eastern Kenya remains dry – and it's not clear when increasingly elusive rainfall will come again. But the women of Kikumbulyu village are not worried. Last November, they built a rock catchment system to harvest rainwater. …
The United Nations' food agency said on Thursday it needed $730 million over the next 12 months for relief in seven southern African countries hit hard by a blistering drought and faced a $610 million shortfall. The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement the seven countries were Malawi, …
BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Governments have been too slow to respond to droughts and floods linked to the El Niño weather pattern, and must do better next time if global development goals are to be met, said Mary Robinson, U.N. special envoy for El Niño and climate. Last year, …
A recent drought completely shut down the Amazon Basin's carbon sink, by killing trees and slowing their growth, a ground-breaking study led by researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Leeds has found. Previous research has suggested that the Amazon -the most extensive tropical forest on Earth and one of …
As many as 400 scientists and four scientific societies are expected to sign a declaration on Friday warning that land-clearing rates are again picking up. Eastern Australia has become the only rich nation to feature among the 11 global deforestation hotspots, they will say. "Worldwide the most important issue for …
The 2015-2016 El Niño has ended but its devastating impact on children is worsening, as hunger, malnutrition and disease continue to increase following the severe droughts and floods spawned by the event, one of the strongest on record, UNICEF said. And there is a strong chance La Niña – El …
More than a quarter of the total geographic area (TGA)-96.4 million hectares (mha) or 29.32%-in India is undergoing degradation as per this Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas, released in June by ISRO Space Applications Centre (SAC). Desertification and land degradation are major threats to agricultural productivity in our country. Combating …
Sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural output may rise 2.6 percent annually through 2025, boosted by productivity improvements. “Faster technology adoption associated with the emergence of medium-scale producers and integration of smallholder producers into the value chain” will raise production growth even as area expansion slows, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development …
The Amazon Basin has experienced more variable climate over the last decade, with a severe and widespread drought in 2005 causing large basin-wide losses of biomass. A drought of similar climatological magnitude occurred again in 2010; however, there has been no basin-wide ground-based evaluation of effects on vegetation. We examine …
As the number of poor Rwandans keep moving out of poverty every year, a significant part of the population shockingly descends into it and this is worrying government. At least 10.4% of Rwandan households that were not poor in 2011 dropped into poverty in 2014 while the overall poverty reduced …
Following a successful two-day drought dialogue, the Western Cape government has compiled a list of priority areas that will drive the province's drought mitigation strategies into the future. The drought dialogue was hosted by Alan Winde, Minister of Economic Opportunities and Agriculture, and Anton Bredell, Minister of Local Government, Environmental …
The publication provides an overview of the impacts of the El Niño phenomenon on agriculture and food security. El Niño is the warming of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific, which occurs roughly every two to seven years, lasting from six to 24 months. While the main threat to …
Imrat Namdev and her younger sister Pushpa Namdev were neighbors in Chhatarpur district, in the drought-hit Indian region of Bundelkhand. Both relied on the same well for water and, according to police, frequently quarreled over how much the other was using. In May, during one fight over water, Pushpa, 42, …
In Swaziland, a small land-locked country in southern Africa, the worst El Niño weather phenomenon in decades has left 25 per cent of the population, or more than 320,000 people in desperate need of food assistance. With entire crops failed, the Red Cross is turning to cash transfers to help …
TEHRAN — 72 percent of people in Iran are withstanding prolonged drought, the director for drought and crisis management department of Iran’s Meteorological Organization said. Since the beginning of the current crop year in Iran and based on the indices of the past nine months (September 23, 2015-June 20, 2016) …
Thousands of people in southern Guatemala are suffering from a prolonged drought after years of below-average rainfall. The drought has now resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being left hungry. The situation is particularly bad in the "dry corridor", a region in the south of the country which extends …
