Agriculture Is Big Threat to Water Quality. These Farmers Are Doing Something About It.
Farmers are becoming more aware of nutrient pollution and agriculture’s contribution to it. And, a growing number of them are adopting practices known to curb, if not eliminate, nutrient pollution. Such practices include new conservation strategies, like artificial wetlands and underground “bioreactors,” that can capture nutrients in drainage systems.
 
In Cambodia, ‘Lucky’ Iron Fish for the Cooking Pot Could Fight Anemia
Iron deficiency is a widespread problem that causes anemia and presents a huge drain on global GDP. Iron tablets can help, and pregnant women are often prescribed them. But, compliance rates in developing countries aren't very good. However, Canadian student Christopher Charles came up with a simple alternative: Give people a fish-shaped block of iron to drop into their cooking pots. The iron gets released slowly as the water boils and released into the food cooked in it, too.
 
The Skeptical Optimist Helping Poor People Boost Earnings – and Resilience
Groundswell International helps small-scale farmers experiment with agroecological innovations to improve food production and give them a better variety of food to eat. At heart is the idea that farmers will share information and techniques with each other, while local governments will get involved and eventually shape national policies.
 
Drones Set to Give Global Farming a Makeover
The ability of unmanned aerial vehicles to hover low over fields of maize, sweet potato, and rice with sensor devices promises benefits for individual farmers and their communities. For governments and development agencies, drones can provide more accurate, up-to-date information on what is being grown where. For individual farmers, this kind of information could be the difference between a failed crop and a bumper harvest.
 
Gene Drives Offer New Hope against Diseases and Crop Pests
Biologists in the US and Europe are developing a revolutionary genetic technique that promises to provide an unprecedented degree of control over insect-borne diseases and crop pests. The technique involves a mechanism called a gene drive system, which propels a gene of choice throughout a population. Gene drives could potentially prevent the spread of disease, support agriculture by reversing pesticide and herbicide resistance in insects and weeds, and control damaging invasive species.