Children watch as women pump water from a borehole near Malawi's capital Lilongwe. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings

Could These Five Innovations Help Solve the Global Water Crisis?
The global water crisis has many causes, requiring many different solutions. As 1.2 billion people live in areas of water scarcity, these solutions must span policy, technology, and behavior change. According to experts, promising techniques include: sanitation guidelines printed on paper that doubles as a water filter, a turbine that extracts water from the atmosphere, graphene filters that could significantly reduce costs of desalination, mesh nets that capture moisture from atmospheric fog, and an Indian policy that incentivizes farmers to conserve groundwater.

To Save the Planet, Give Cows Better Pasture                            
Cattle are a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions, with global livestock production accounting for about 15% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The more slowly cattle grow, the greater their greenhouse gas emissions per pound. Cattle grow slowly because they're grazing on poor pastures; providing cattle with faster-growing, more nutritious grasses is low-cost way to mitigate this issue.               

US Scientists Develop New Way to Measure Crop Yields from Space
US researchers have come up with a new method of estimating crop yields from small farms in Africa using high-resolution images from the latest generation of satellites—a development which could help cut hunger in poor parts of the world. Improving agricultural productivity is one of the main ways to lift people out of poverty but without accurate data it's difficult to identify the farmers who need help

Young Indian Farmers Spice up Market for Organic Himalayan Crops
Decades after farmers on India's plains flocked to the “Green Revolution,” reliant on chemical fertilizers to drive agricultural growth, the northeast Himalayan state of Sikkim is trying its luck with organic farming—a pull for young, green-minded entrepreneurs who could help get the produce to market. India has the world’s highest number of organic producers at 650,000, or over a quarter of the global total.