agriculture
Dry Harvest
In Jordan's Azraq oasis, farmers are struggling to survive as climate change and decades of groundwater depletion ruin their prospects.
The Honey and the Rubble
Lebanon's bees were already under siege from pesticides, climate change and economic collapse before Israeli bombardments devastated apiaries across the south. With hives destroyed, beekeepers displaced and the next generation fleeing the country, an ecological catastrophe is unfolding — the effects of which will outlast the war.
From Band Aid to Breadbasket: Ethiopia’s Struggle To Rewrite Its Story of Hunger
Forty years after “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” cast Africa as a place “where nothing ever grows,” Ethiopia’s prime minister declared the country self-sufficient in wheat, and even ready to export. But in Oromia, farmers tell another story — of shrinking plots, costly reforms and a risky plan for collective farming.
Replanting Syria’s Lost Heritage
Across the fields and ruins of Idlib, a farmers’ initiative is taking root: to restore Syria’s agricultural autonomy by reviving the ancient practice of saving and replanting traditional “baladi” seeds — a practice nearly erased by war, displacement and industrial seed giants.
Nairobi Gang Members Turn to Greenery to Change Their Lives and City
"Nature has saved a lot of youths who might have been killed.” In impoverished areas of Kenya’s capital, gang members are putting down their guns and instead creating green spaces in the urban jungle.
In the West Bank, Plants Are Political
Picking za’atar, ‘akkoub and miramiyyeh (sage) became a criminal offense punishable by fines and up to three years imprisonment, beginning with za’atar, in 1977, when the Israeli Nature Protection Agency decided it should become a protected species.
From Syria to Lebanon, Saving the Seeds That Could Save Humanity
If a grown sample in a colder region isn’t able to withstand frequent heat waves and gets wiped out, the genetically resilient samples created in ICARDA’s genebank would come to the rescue. So when the accessions made their way to Lebanon in late 2015, it was all hands on deck.