Pumpkin processing made easy

Concerned with colony collapse syndrome in honey bees worldwide, scientists, farmers and tech companies teamed up in Australia to create a micro-sensor that collects data on the bee's environment.

By supporting small-scale female farmers, Groundswell International, an NGO, is diversifying diets and combating food insecurity in countries in West Africa.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture assists farms which follow the sustainable farming style, Silvopasture, but few farmers take advantage of the program. ForeverView Farms in Vermont is advising policy groups about ways they can boost this type of farming.

With a global food crisis, farmers look for how to get long-term high yields out of difficult farmland. In Oaxaca, Mexico, farmers farm like a forest, eat low on the food chain, restore damaged land, and have reverence for the planet.

In this episode of New Mexico in Focus, we examine the economic impact of medical cannabis in rural communities in our latest report for Small Towns, Big Change. Producer Sarah Gustavus also looks at the potential impact of legalizing recreational marijuana in New Mexico.

A group of agriculture producers think new, low-cost growing techniques, high-value crops and an increased interest in local produce offer solutions to New Mexico’s food struggles.

Elephants in Africa often eat a farmer’s entire crop, physical barriers don’t work, and fighting the elephants has left both people and elephants dead. After learning from Africans that Elephants don’t like bees, a researcher devised a hanging bee-hive/fence that effectively scares the elephants. The Elephants and Bees Project is helping farmers in Africa and Asia implement this solution.

The effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and hotter global temperatures, are already having drastic impact on many communities, especially the rural, agricultural regions of countries such as Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Mozambique. Earthrise explores how people in these communities are learning new skills, implementing new techniques, and are striving in every way possible to adapt to these environmental changes while creating hope for sustainable growth in the future.

Threatened wildlife co-exists with poverty stricken communities who inhabit the Arizona-Mexico border region. Borderlands Restoration's conservation scientists are hoping to alleviate poverty while repairing the local environment by providing jobs that help preserve and renew the environment.

Soil in Bangladesh is becoming increasingly saline and infertile due to climate change. Bangladeshi farmers have begun using a saline-tolerant rice seed in order to produce an abundant crop despite salty soil.