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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/agrochemicals/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:26:45 +0000</lastBuildDate>
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	<title>News on Agrochemicals</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/agrochemicals/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Land crisis and ‘green revolution’ practices trap millions of Malawi’s farmers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/land-crisis-and-green-revolution-practices-trap-millions-of-malawis-farmers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/land-crisis-and-green-revolution-practices-trap-millions-of-malawis-farmers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2026 07:30:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/17101100/BRIGHT_LastonMchisweWithCabbage2_ThyoloDistrictMalawi_CharlesMpaka-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326364</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Commodity agriculture, Community Development, Development, Economics, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, Food Industry, Food Prices, and Impact Of Climate Change]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[GOLIATI, Malawi — All that’s left to eat in Tapiwa Ligomeka’s one-room home is stored in a small plastic basin in one corner. Two days earlier, her husband came home with 2 kilos of maize meal, about 5 pounds — all he could afford to buy after a day hustling for casual work carrying traders’ [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[GOLIATI, Malawi — All that’s left to eat in Tapiwa Ligomeka’s one-room home is stored in a small plastic basin in one corner. Two days earlier, her husband came home with 2 kilos of maize meal, about 5 pounds — all he could afford to buy after a day hustling for casual work carrying traders’ goods at a nearby market, here in southern Malawi’s Thyolo district. On the day Mongabay visits her home, Ligomeka has just returned to her thatched-roof house in the village of Goliati, clutching a bundle of dry maize and pigeon pea stalks to make a fire later, her 8-month-old baby strapped to her back. It’s coming up to noon on a Sunday; her husband is still out watering his tomato crop near the river. “I’ll wait for him,” says Ligomeka, 18, dropping her bundle by the cold fireplace on the verandah. “This flour cannot make enough nsima for us to eat separately.” Nsima is the Chewa term for Malawi’s staple dish, a stiff porridge made from maize flour and usually eaten with vegetables, legumes, and, for those who can afford it, meat or fish. “It also means there won’t be anything for us to eat this evening,” Ligomeka says, measuring the flour with scoops of her right hand. “Sometimes, that goes on for two days.” She says the couple harvested 178 kg (392 lb) of maize from their small farm in March. They couldn’t afford fertilizer for their plot, which measures less than half an acre,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/land-crisis-and-green-revolution-practices-trap-millions-of-malawis-farmers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326364</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How Sri Lanka’s heirloom rice can preserve Indigenous farming and help manage disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-sri-lankas-heirloom-rice-can-preserve-indigenous-farming-and-help-manage-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-sri-lankas-heirloom-rice-can-preserve-indigenous-farming-and-help-manage-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Aug 2026 09:47:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/08092106/3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325663</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indian Ocean, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Industrial Agriculture, Research, and Subsistence Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[WASGAMUWA, Sri Lanka – Prior to the 1940s and the Green Revolution, Sri Lankan paddy farmers cultivated traditional rice, locally known as purana haal. These rice cultivars were resilient and known to possess various nutritional and medicinal properties yet were soon replaced by new improved rice varieties to obtain better quality and bigger yields. Karu [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[WASGAMUWA, Sri Lanka – Prior to the 1940s and the Green Revolution, Sri Lankan paddy farmers cultivated traditional rice, locally known as purana haal. These rice cultivars were resilient and known to possess various nutritional and medicinal properties yet were soon replaced by new improved rice varieties to obtain better quality and bigger yields. Karu Herath, an heirloom paddy farmer in the village of Dunuwila, bordering the Wasgamuwa National Park located within the Matale and Polonnaruwa districts, has cultivated heirloom paddy varieties for the past 27 years. He told Mongabay that fewer than 30 varieties remain out of the estimated 2,500 varieties of heirloom rice that once existed, a claim supported by rice researchers. According to researchers, many of these rice varieties are long-aged, tall and low-yielding. Therefore, traditional farmers would only cultivate them during one harvesting cycle, known as the Maha season, which runs from September through March. With the introduction of new, improved rice varieties and fertilizers after the 1940s, Sri Lanka lost much of its Indigenous rice varieties and traditional knowledge of Indigenous farming practices. Image courtesy of Pethum Bandara. Herath follows this practice and cultivates only during the monsoon season. “During the Yala season [May to August], when it’s dry, we let the soil recover and grow heirloom cereals and vegetables such as kurakkan [finger millet] and mung [mung bean],” he said. “This draws different nutrients and requires less water than rice. This was the traditional land use system, which was changed by British colonialists who&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-sri-lankas-heirloom-rice-can-preserve-indigenous-farming-and-help-manage-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/how-sri-lankas-heirloom-rice-can-preserve-indigenous-farming-and-help-manage-disease/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325663</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Global hunger levels fall but Africa still lags behind, UN report finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Aug 2026 13:22:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/04112439/HarvestingSorghum_Sudan2011_AfricaRenewalFlickrBYNCSA2.0-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325306</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Commodity agriculture, Economics, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Research, and Subsistence Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In its latest report on food security and nutrition around the world, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the number of people facing hunger globally has declined for the third consecutive year, but Africa still has the highest number of people with insufficient food. The FAO report estimated that 20% of Africans faced hunger [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In its latest report on food security and nutrition around the world, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says the number of people facing hunger globally has declined for the third consecutive year, but Africa still has the highest number of people with insufficient food. The FAO report estimated that 20% of Africans faced hunger in 2025, compared to just 6% in Asia, and nearly 5% in Latin America and the Caribbean. The FAO report says the number of people facing hunger globally fell from 8.6% in 2022 to 7.8% in 2025. It further estimates that in 2025, hunger affected 14 million people less than in 2024 and 43 million less people than in 2022. In 2030, the report projects between 510 and 520 million people will be food insecure worldwide and more than half of them (56%) will be in Africa. Dry lakebed in Mabalane district, Mozambique: climate shocks are amongst the reasons for food insecurity in Africa. Image by Aurélie Marrier d&#8217;Unienville / IFRC via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). “While the prevalence rate of undernourishment slightly stabilized at 20.0% in 2025, demographic pressure actually pushed the absolute number of hungry people [in Africa] to a record 309 million, surpassing Asia for the first time,” David Laborde, director of the FAO’s Agrifood Economics Division, told Mongabay via email. Laborde said that severe cuts to development aid, armed conflict, and climate shocks have hindered food production on the continent over the past decade. Erratic rains and rising temperature have affected&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/global-hunger-levels-fall-but-africa-still-lags-behind-un-report-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325306</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Land records reveal how Mennonites are reshaping Belize’s forests</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 18:45:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31152733/1-FEATURE--768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324951</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize and Central America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Cattle, Conservation, Crops, Culture, Encroachment, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Food, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Land Rights, Livestock, Monocultures, Plantations, Politics, Primary Forests, Protected Areas, Rainforests, Ranching, Regulations, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SPANISH LOOKOUT, Belize — When the Mennonite community here purchased a property four years ago in the middle of the Maya Forest Corridor, a government-recognized stretch of land designed to connect forests in the region, conservation groups were concerned. Community members began clearing land before completing an environmental impact assessment, resulting in fires and pollution, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SPANISH LOOKOUT, Belize — When the Mennonite community here purchased a property four years ago in the middle of the Maya Forest Corridor, a government-recognized stretch of land designed to connect forests in the region, conservation groups were concerned. Community members began clearing land before completing an environmental impact assessment, resulting in fires and pollution, according to one report. In addition, Mennonites beat a conservation coalition that had also wanted to purchase the land for the corridor. The battle for that piece of real estate is just one example of how Mennonites conduct business in Belize, and how those moves have led to extensive deforestation. The small Central American country, flanked by Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean Sea, is about the size of the U.S. state of New Jersey, but its dense jungle is now much smaller than it once was. The nation lost around 20% of its forest cover between 2001 and 2025 — more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres), similar to the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Much of the deforestation in Belize has been tied to Mennonites, the conservative and largely insular Christian denomination that began migrating to Belize more than six decades ago, cutting down the rainforest to establish new colonies. While reports documenting Mennonites and deforestation are common, far less understood is the corporate machinery they’ve put in place for this expansion. Mongabay conducted extensive interviews and reviewed dozens of land records to better understand the way Mennonites became one of the most prolific land&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/land-records-reveal-how-mennonites-are-reshaping-belizes-forests/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324951</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Sri Lanka prepares for impending El Niño with traditional and new approaches</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/sri-lanka-prepares-for-impending-el-nino-with-traditional-and-new-approaches/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/sri-lanka-prepares-for-impending-el-nino-with-traditional-and-new-approaches/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Jul 2026 13:05:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kamanthi Wickramasinghe]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Dilrukshi Handunnetti]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/31104448/2-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=325032</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, South Asia, and Sri Lanka]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Conservation, Crops, Disasters, Drought, Environment, Extreme Weather, Farming, Food, Industrial Agriculture, Rice, Solutions, Subsistence Agriculture, Traditional Knowledge, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Even though Sri Lankan authorities are preparing to face an impending El Niño phenomenon, Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Suwandarathne feels that the country may not be impacted as forecasted. A second generation farmer from Thalangama in the Colombo District, Suwandarathne knows about weather and has been leading an agricultural revolution by promoting the cultivation of heirloom varieties [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[COLOMBO — Even though Sri Lankan authorities are preparing to face an impending El Niño phenomenon, Rathnayaka Mudiyanselage Suwandarathne feels that the country may not be impacted as forecasted. A second generation farmer from Thalangama in the Colombo District, Suwandarathne knows about weather and has been leading an agricultural revolution by promoting the cultivation of heirloom varieties of rice. According to him, it is normal to experience a dry spell between July and September as forecasted. This period coincides with the Yala season, one of two paddy harvesting seasons in Sri Lanka. “By August, the dry period begins, and we need a dry season to obtain the harvest,” he told Mongabay. “We then conduct culturally significant events praying for rains. This is the cycle during the Yala season. Then again from December to March, there’s a drought season, which coincides with the Maha season. Long dry spells occur every four to seven years. But now, we have changed these harvesting cycles,” he said. The World Meteorological Organization’s (WMO) monthly global seasonal climate update indicates an 80% probability of a rapid development into a strong El Niño event between July and September 2026. WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo said that it would “intensify chances of drought and heavy rainfall and the risk of heatwaves on land and marine heatwaves in many regions of the world.” “When going by initial predictions, the time period for developing a very strong El Niño was between November 2026 and January 2027,” Ajith Wijemannage, head of the Meteorology&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/sri-lanka-prepares-for-impending-el-nino-with-traditional-and-new-approaches/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-325032</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study investigates how to prevent viral spread from bat guano in Southeast Asia</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/study-investigates-how-to-prevent-viral-spread-from-bat-guano-in-southeast-asia/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/study-investigates-how-to-prevent-viral-spread-from-bat-guano-in-southeast-asia/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Jul 2026 13:55:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Isabel Esterman]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/25102859/Banner_Rhinolophus_coelophyllus_Croslet-horseshoe-bat-e1784975703551-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324526</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, and Thailand]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Animals, Bats, Biodiversity, Business, Caves, Coronavirus, Diseases, Environment, Fertilizers, Health, Mammals, One Health, Public Health, Research, Science, Supply Chain, Wildlife, and Zoonotic Diseases]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As humans encroach further into ecosystems, people and wildlife are brought into closer proximity. One potential consequence is an increased risk of pathogens jumping from animals to humans, prompting researchers to explore the dynamics of how viruses circulate in nature and how best to prevent the risk of this transmission. New research from Thailand identified [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As humans encroach further into ecosystems, people and wildlife are brought into closer proximity. One potential consequence is an increased risk of pathogens jumping from animals to humans, prompting researchers to explore the dynamics of how viruses circulate in nature and how best to prevent the risk of this transmission. New research from Thailand identified genetic material belonging to Betacoronaviruses, a genus of viruses that includes the strains responsible for Covid-19, SARS and MERS, within commercially available agricultural products, raising concerns over a general lack of safety protocols to protect harvesters and handlers from exposure. In the study, published in PLOS One, researchers screened 41 samples of bat guano fertilizers commonly sold in Thai markets for the presence of coronaviruses. While all the samples were from products bought in Thailand, the researchers couldn’t determine the exact origins of the guano contained in each product, which may have been from outside the country. Two of the samples tested positive for Alphacoronaviruses, another genus of coronaviruses, and one tested positive for Betacoronaviruses. Genetic analysis showed the Betacoronavirus sample was closely genetically related to the sarbecovirus subgenus, the group that includes the Covid-causing pathogen, SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, the researchers note the viral strains detected are not known to infect humans. Moreover, they only detected a fragment of viral RNA, the genetic blueprint of viruses, and did not fully isolate a live virus in the samples. As a result, they couldn’t definitively confirm the genetic material detected is capable of posing risks to human health.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/study-investigates-how-to-prevent-viral-spread-from-bat-guano-in-southeast-asia/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324526</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A Tunisian phosphate plant that sickens children so US, Europe can get fertilizer</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>22 Jul 2026 02:00:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Dawn KikelElisângela MendonçaKhadija Ben Salah]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Andy Lehren]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/21020526/h-KhadijaBenSalah-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=324147</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, North Africa, and Tunisia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agrochemicals, Air Pollution, Business, Chemicals, Community Development, Environment, Fertilizers, Health, Industry, Mongabay investigation, Pollution, and Public Health]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Dalila grew up in the Tunisian coastal city of Gabès and is accustomed to the heavy, acrid smell from the state-owned phosphate processing plant about a 10-minute walk from her home. On days when noxious fumes fill the air, Dalila rushes to tightly shut the windows and tells her children to hurry indoors. She washes [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Dalila grew up in the Tunisian coastal city of Gabès and is accustomed to the heavy, acrid smell from the state-owned phosphate processing plant about a 10-minute walk from her home. On days when noxious fumes fill the air, Dalila rushes to tightly shut the windows and tells her children to hurry indoors. She washes them, believing it lessens harmful effects from chemicals. Emissions can last all day. Residents may get little or no advance warning. But one day in September 2025, children were at school when gases spread. Some students fell to the ground, complaining they had difficulty breathing. Others said they felt like they were suffocating. Dalila’s daughter said she felt like she was choking. Dalila rushed her to a government-run hospital. When she asked about test results or the type of substances that may have caused her difficulty breathing, Dalila said she did not get clear answers. The incident sickening the schoolchildren helped spark mass protests in the streets of Gabès, with people waving banners that read “Stop Pollution” and “Move The Plant.” It is not the first time that residents have protested water and air pollution from the factory. Dalila feels that she and others in Gabès are being ignored. They are far from alone. Fishermen report coastal waters were once abundant with fish, but, now, their nets come up empty. Scientific studies provide evidence that environmental damage poses a danger to the health of those living nearby. People take part in a demonstration against pollution&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/a-tunisian-phosphate-plant-that-sickens-children-so-us-europe-can-get-fertilizer/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-324147</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malawi agroecologists see opportunity in Gulf fertilizer supply disruption</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/malawi-agroecologists-see-opportunity-in-gulf-fertilizer-supply-disruption/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/malawi-agroecologists-see-opportunity-in-gulf-fertilizer-supply-disruption/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2026 14:04:58 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Charles Mpaka]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03135918/5549095911_375e8f47bf_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322462</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Malawi, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, climate finance, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Finance, Industrial Agriculture, and Subsistence Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As the first rays of the sun streak through the misty morning early in June, James Singano spits into his right hand for a good grip of the hoe handle. With one swing, he brings down a shrub. Malawi’s farming season is five months away, but Singano has started clearing the land where he inter-crops [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As the first rays of the sun streak through the misty morning early in June, James Singano spits into his right hand for a good grip of the hoe handle. With one swing, he brings down a shrub. Malawi’s farming season is five months away, but Singano has started clearing the land where he inter-crops maize, a staple food here, with pigeon peas. He is one of the more than 4 million smallholder farmers that depend on subsistence farming and contribute significantly to national food security by producing 80% of Malawi&#8217;s annual maize harvest. Most of them farm on less than a hectare. From his farm in the outskirts of Blantyre City in Southern Malawi, Singano’s maize harvest varies between 400kg and 600kg annually, which hardly feeds his family of six for a year. He says the land’s yield has consistently over the last 21 years, since he inherited it from his parents. “They (parents) did not need fertilizer to produce enough maize for our family,” he says, sweeping off the shrub he has cut with his bare foot onto a heap of grass nearby. “These days, farming is a lot of toil for very little harvest because the soil isn’t producing as much and fertilizer is getting harder to afford.” Maize is staple crop in Malawi and its production is heavily dependent on chemical fertilizers. Malawi imports over 90 percent of the over 400,000 tons of fertilizers it consumes annually – Image by Charles Mpaka for Mongabay. Soils losing&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/malawi-agroecologists-see-opportunity-in-gulf-fertilizer-supply-disruption/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/malawi-agroecologists-see-opportunity-in-gulf-fertilizer-supply-disruption/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Running on empty: How the gulf war is threatening Kenya’s food security</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/running-on-empty-how-the-gulf-war-is-threatening-kenyas-food-security/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/running-on-empty-how-the-gulf-war-is-threatening-kenyas-food-security/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2026 13:28:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Achieng’ Otieno]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03132332/72-year-old-Peter-Kitur-at-his-farm-in-Kipkeikei-Trans-Nzoia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322457</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate, Climate Science, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Natural Resources, Science, and Subsistence Agriculture]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Philip Kitur walks through a neat row of maize stalks, with budding leaves painting a picture of a bountiful harvest. The 71-year-old has a 41-acre parcel at Kipkeikei village in Trans-Nzoia County. However, hidden behind Kitur’s smile is the fear of losing a significant yield if he does not access fertilizer. “The crop is due [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Philip Kitur walks through a neat row of maize stalks, with budding leaves painting a picture of a bountiful harvest. The 71-year-old has a 41-acre parcel at Kipkeikei village in Trans-Nzoia County. However, hidden behind Kitur’s smile is the fear of losing a significant yield if he does not access fertilizer. “The crop is due for top dressing, but I have not accessed urea, without which I may lose up to 30% of my harvest,” he told Mongabay. Mutahi Kagwe, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, says the country has adequate stocks of fertilizer, including 2 million bags for top-dressing. He says Kenya is working around finding alternative sources for the fertilizer to ensure food security in spite of global shocks triggered by the tension between Iran and USA. “While we cannot preempt or predict how long the conflict in the Middle East will take, we have had conversations on sourcing Urea from Algeria and fertilizer from Morocco,” Kagwe told Mongabay in an interview done virtually. A maize farm belonging to Dennis Chemonges, a farmer in Cherengani, in Kenya&#8217;s Trans-Nzoia. The crop is due for top dressing. Photo by Achieng&#8217; Otieno. Key food basket Trans-Nzoia is one of Kenya’s food baskets, especially for maize, which is a staple food. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics’ 2025 National Agriculture Production Report, Trans-Nzoia accounted for 423,156 (10.5%) of the 4,028,320 tons of maize produced in 2024. However, there has been immense strain in Kenya’s ability to sustain its maize production over&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/running-on-empty-how-the-gulf-war-is-threatening-kenyas-food-security/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/running-on-empty-how-the-gulf-war-is-threatening-kenyas-food-security/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322457</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Zambia’s bumper harvest masks likely food insecurity amid geopolitics and climate threats</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zambias-bumper-harvest-masks-likely-food-insecurity-amid-geopolitics-and-climate-threats/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zambias-bumper-harvest-masks-likely-food-insecurity-amid-geopolitics-and-climate-threats/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2026 13:12:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Chisapi Kumbutso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/03133435/5433664321_547a088000_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322469</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Southern Africa, and Zambia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Climate, Climate Change Denial, Climate Science, El Nino, Environment, Fertilizers, Finance, Food, Food Industry, Food Prices, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Impact Of Climate Change, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Nutrition, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA, Zambia — The escalating conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran, has prompted warnings that disruptions to the supply of fuel and fertilizer shipped through the Strait of Hormuz could cause food insecurity in some African countries. While experts say it will take time for the effects of the conflict to be felt in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[LUSAKA, Zambia — The escalating conflict involving the US, Israel and Iran, has prompted warnings that disruptions to the supply of fuel and fertilizer shipped through the Strait of Hormuz could cause food insecurity in some African countries. While experts say it will take time for the effects of the conflict to be felt in Zambia, they also point to vulnerabilities in the country&#8217;s food system and suggest greater resilience to possible stresses. Zambia&#8217;s food security is generally understood to rest on a single crop: maize. Zambia Statistics Agency reports that the price of a 25-kilogram bag of breakfast mealie meal declined slightly from April to May. In fact, the price of mealie meal is 15% lower than it was this time last year. The FAO&#8217;s April 2026 country briefing for Zambia said good rains since last October point to a second consecutive year of above-average harvests of maize. The rains are also expected to support a rebound of wheat harvest, as full reservoirs mean a steady supply of hydroelectric power that will allow the crop’s growers (primarily large-scale, industrial farmers) to irrigate their fields. The briefing reported that reference prices for maize were 25% lower year-on-year in March, thanks to plentiful domestic supply and a strengthening of the currency. Maize meal prices also declined by 15%, according to the Zambia Statistics Agency. Drawing on the IPC classification, the FAO said the number of Zambians facing &#8220;crisis&#8221; levels of acute food insecurity in the six months to March 2026 was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zambias-bumper-harvest-masks-likely-food-insecurity-amid-geopolitics-and-climate-threats/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/zambias-bumper-harvest-masks-likely-food-insecurity-amid-geopolitics-and-climate-threats/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322469</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ancient Maya knowledge helps Guatemalan farmers cut agrochemical use</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2026 11:05:08 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mark Hillsdon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/09105544/Actividad-control-de-plagas-y-preparacion-de-insecticidas-caseros-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320767</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Guatemala, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Farming, Indigenous Peoples, Pesticides, Pollinators, Soil Carbon, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the mountain villages of Guatemala’s Western Highlands, farmers are combining ancient Maya knowledge with modern sustainable farming techniques to protect their crops from pests and disease. Smallholders are creating homemade biopesticides using plants with strong smells and flavors to deter pests on their family plots. This is helping to cut back on the use of increasingly expensive agrochemicals, many of which have been labeled as dangerous to human health and linked to soil degradation. About 60 Guatemalan communities in the Western Highland departments of Sololá and Huehuetenango, as well as Chiquimula in the east, are working to revive these traditional techniques with support from the international development organization World Neighbors. Their focus is to restore and strengthen traditional knowledge, combining it with agroecological practices that help families produce surplus food they can sell to boost household incomes. “Traditional farming techniques are becoming popular because they are simple practices to apply, use local resources, and have proven to be effective,” Dayani Roche, a program associate at World Neighbors, told Mongabay via email. Rather than a single ancient recipe, farmers are using “a living combination of ancestral knowledge, local experimentation and more recent agroecological practices,” he said, which are “safer for families, soil, water and biodiversity than many chemical alternatives.” The Maya civilization, which once stretched across modern-day Central America, had a rich history of farming dating back to 2000 B.C.E. Its most celebrated agriculture system is the milpa, a form of intercropping that involves a mix of maize, beans and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/ancient-maya-knowledge-helps-guatemalan-farmers-cut-agrochemical-use/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320767</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>It&#8217;s time to engage Mennonite communities in reducing deforestation across Latin America (analysis)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jun 2026 21:16:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Timothy J. Killeen]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/12/08174714/CH_20220608_0015-Edit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320555</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Analysis, Avoided Deforestation, Commentary, Community Development, Deforestation, Development, Forests, Governance, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Rainforests, Religions, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the global debate over tropical deforestation, the usual cast of villains is well established: agribusiness, global supply chains, cattle ranchers, and governments granting land concessions for political support. One actor rarely appears in this narrative yet has played a consequential role in transforming the South American lowland frontier: The Mennonite agricultural colonist. For more than five decades, Mennonite communities have functioned as systematic agents of agricultural frontier expansion in the Gran Chaco and Andean Amazon, methodically clearing forests, draining wetlands, and catalyzing waves of deforestation that extend far beyond any individual colony. Mennonite communities operate within the law. They purchase land through formal channels, build permanent communities, and transfer agronomic knowledge to surrounding populations. Their values emphasize hard work, communal solidarity, and a theological relationship to land as stewardship. None of this changes the ecological outcome: Wherever a Mennonite colony is established, forests fall. Faith, mobility and colony formation Mennonites are an Anabaptist denomination rooted in the 16-century Reformation, distinguished by pacifism, communal life, and cultural separation from mainstream society. Conservative congregations — whose ancestors moved from Russia to Canada, then to Mexico, Belize and South America — are organized around a local congregation that functions simultaneously as a religious community, governance structure, credit cooperative and social welfare system. When a colony is established, it is an orderly community with collective decision-making, shared infrastructure, and a coherent plan for the future. Forest being cut, burned, and prepared by a Mennonite colony before planting crops. Image courtesy of Mario Silvero.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/its-time-to-engage-mennonite-communities-to-reduce-deforestation-in-latin-america-analysis/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320555</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>After quinoa’s boom, Bolivian farmers face degraded soils and climate stress</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 May 2026 15:15:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Benjamin Swift]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/05/13161907/Benjamin-Swift_DJI_0055-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=319215</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bolivia, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Drought, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Impact Of Climate Change, Monocultures, Planetary Boundaries, Precipitation, Regenerative production landscapes, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AROMA MARKA, Bolivia — The rolling hills around the town of Aroma Marka are a cacophony of colors: golden-yellow, deep-red and purplish-black quinoa pods smatter the otherwise barren landscape here in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau. At 3,800 meters (about 12,500 feet) above sea level, the Altiplano stretches across much of western Bolivia and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AROMA MARKA, Bolivia — The rolling hills around the town of Aroma Marka are a cacophony of colors: golden-yellow, deep-red and purplish-black quinoa pods smatter the otherwise barren landscape here in Bolivia’s southern Altiplano, the Andean Plateau. At 3,800 meters (about 12,500 feet) above sea level, the Altiplano stretches across much of western Bolivia and into Peru, Chile and Argentina. Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) has been grown on the Altiplano since pre-Hispanic times, but it was only recently that the nutrient-dense pseudocereal was put on the global map, fueling a production boom in the Andes. Prices later tumbled as countries outside the region also began cultivating it. Yet the striking scenery belies the lasting scars the 2010-2014 quinoa boom left in the region. At its height, sky-high prices triggered a production frenzy, drawing former residents back from cities to plant the “golden grain.” But Walter Canaviri, a quinoa producer and local leader, remembers that the sudden spike came at a cost. “Everyone wanted to produce more,” he told Mongabay. In the rush to capitalize on the moment, some growers encroached on neighbors’ lands, leading to disputes. “It was a sad time for this area because everyone turned against everyone,” he said. While the quinoa boom brought a temporary boon for rural Andean Indigenous communities, it also came with the destruction of local ecosystems, soil degradation, and social conflict – all of which have been exacerbated by changes in regional weather patterns and global climate change. Though Bolivian producers like Canaviri are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/05/after-quinoas-boom-bolivian-farmers-face-degraded-soils-and-climate-stress/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-319215</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Strait of Hormuz crisis should catalyze African biofertilizer production (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Apr 2026 00:44:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Susan Chomba]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/23081210/44366384701_940bc33dc5_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317598</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biochar, Business, Conflict, Fertilizers, Food, food security, International Trade, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Trade, and War]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In early mornings across rural Kenya, as the long rains approach, farmers are already at work. Fields are being cleared, seeds checked, and planting plans quietly rehearsed. But this year, alongside the usual uncertainties about soil quality, rain and pests, there is a more pressing question: will there be enough fertilizer, and will it be [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In early mornings across rural Kenya, as the long rains approach, farmers are already at work. Fields are being cleared, seeds checked, and planting plans quietly rehearsed. But this year, alongside the usual uncertainties about soil quality, rain and pests, there is a more pressing question: will there be enough fertilizer, and will it be affordable? Reports from the Middle East echo through their favorite radio stations as they wonder about the war’s effect on their lives. As tensions disrupt food, fuel and fertilizer flows through the Strait of Hormuz — a key artery for global exports and imports into Iran — Africa’s dependence on imported synthetic inputs is once again exposed. For many countries, from 20% to more than 50% of fertilizer supplies originate from Persian Gulf nations. Besides the production of fertilizer, fossil fuels are also crucial for driving farming machinery such as tractors, irrigation pumps, and of course vehicles that transport food from farms to markets. Africa is aware of her vulnerability as a result of the war in Iran and the previous disruptions from COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine, which have triggered policy and economic consequences. Frameworks such as the Africa Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan 2024-2034 aim to reduce reliance on imports by fostering local production. Currently, the Dangote Group, which operates Africa&#8217;s largest chemical fertilizer manufacturing complex, based in Nigeria, plans to triple its production to 9 million metric tons per annum. The group is also starting the construction of a $2&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/strait-of-hormuz-crisis-should-catalyze-african-biofertilizer-production-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317598</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As EU-Mercosur agreement goes into effect, environmentalists raise red flags</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2026 21:56:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ramana Rech]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/08214604/07_05_2022_Ato_alusivo_a_visita_a_23a_Feira_Nacional_da_Soja_52057648056-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317212</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, European Union, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Commodity agriculture, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Economics, Environment, Environmental Law, Law, Law Enforcement, Mining, Pesticides, Rainforest Destruction, Saving Rainforests, Solutions, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In March, after decades of negotiations, the free trade agreement between Mercosur nations and the European Union (EU) was ratified by Paraguay, the last founding member of the Latin American bloc to give the green light to the deal. Already in its final stage, the document will be provisionally implemented in May, 2026, according to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In March, after decades of negotiations, the free trade agreement between Mercosur nations and the European Union (EU) was ratified by Paraguay, the last founding member of the Latin American bloc to give the green light to the deal. Already in its final stage, the document will be provisionally implemented in May, 2026, according to the European Commission. The agreement is being hailed as an economic boon for both EU and Latin American nations. However, it may cause a series of environmental impacts. According to various NGOs and environmental advocates, major problems for Latin America could include expansion of deforestation, mining, and pesticide imports and use. Other experts argue that the agreement could impose a series of environmental rules on already existing global trade – in addition to facilitating knowledge exchange among the parties. Good for trade, bad for the environment? Mercosur, as it’s known in Spanish, and Mercosul, in Portuguese, has been dubbed the Southern Common Market. It represents one of the world’s leading economic blocs, and its fifth-largest economy. It is composed of five member countries (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia) and seven associate members (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and most recently Panama). In general terms, the treaty between Mercosur nations and the European Union provides for gradual reduction of import tariffs between the two continental blocs. In late February, the Brazilian government stated that the EU “commits to eliminating import tariffs on approximately 95% of goods that account for 92% of the value of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/as-eu-mercosur-agreement-goes-into-effect-environmentalists-raise-red-flags/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317212</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Railroad &#038; tariff war boost soy in Brazil’s Cerrado, endangering Indigenous lands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/railroad-tariff-war-boost-soy-in-brazils-cerrado-endangering-indigenous-lands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/railroad-tariff-war-boost-soy-in-brazils-cerrado-endangering-indigenous-lands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Apr 2026 16:29:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kevin Damasio]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Xavier Bartaburu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/02155029/08-05102025-Z08_2257-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=316840</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon and Brazil]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Pesticides, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MATO GROSSO, Brazil — In 2025, soy farmers in Brazil saw a new boost caused by the tariff war between the United States and China. Brazilian soy exports to the Chinese market reached a record high: 85.4 million metric tons, almost 80% of total soy shipments. In Mato Grosso, soy production had already seen a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MATO GROSSO, Brazil — In 2025, soy farmers in Brazil saw a new boost caused by the tariff war between the United States and China. Brazilian soy exports to the Chinese market reached a record high: 85.4 million metric tons, almost 80% of total soy shipments. In Mato Grosso, soy production had already seen a boost in 2019, partly due to trade tensions between the Chinese and the first U.S. President Donald Trump administration. In addition to China’s demand for the product, new agricultural frontiers were opened for soy farmers after the BR-163 federal road was paved, connecting them to ports in Pará state. Since then, soy plantations in Mato Grosso have increased by 3.4 million hectares (8.4 million acres), according to Brazil’s National Supply Company (CONAB), while their output went from 33 million metric tons in the 2018-19 harvest to 51 million metric tons in 2024-25 – a 54.5% increase. Soy plantations are advancing mainly in the Cerrado, the most biodiverse savanna on the planet, which is essential to Brazil’s water supply, since its sources provide it to eight of the country’s 12 hydrographic regions. In the Juruena River Basin, in western Mato Grosso, consolidation of monocultures — not only soy but also corn and cotton — is a matter of concern to people in the Tirecatinga Indigenous Land. They report that the surrounding farms have been contaminating water bodies, plants and fruit with pesticides and are blocking the rivers with small hydroelectric plants. Located between the Buriti and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/railroad-tariff-war-boost-soy-in-brazils-cerrado-endangering-indigenous-lands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-316840</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Brazil, regenerative farming advances, but deforestation still pressures ecosystems</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Mar 2026 16:58:15 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mie Hoejris Dahl]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/17165558/BANNER-UF17MGJ-25178_0047-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Commodity agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Ecosystems, Farming, Forest Destruction, Habitat Degradation, Industrial Agriculture, Pesticides, Ranching, Restoration, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINOP, Brazil — In Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s agricultural heartland, vast stretches of lush Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna give way to seemingly endless fields of soy. Located in a transition zone where the Amazon and Cerrado meet the Pantanal wetlands, about 90% of the state’s area was once covered in native vegetation. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINOP, Brazil — In Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, the country’s agricultural heartland, vast stretches of lush Amazon rainforest and Cerrado savanna give way to seemingly endless fields of soy. Located in a transition zone where the Amazon and Cerrado meet the Pantanal wetlands, about 90% of the state’s area was once covered in native vegetation. But from the 1970s onward, agricultural innovation and public policies — including subsidies that encouraged farmers to settle and clear land in Mato Grosso — allowed the agricultural frontier to advance rapidly, turning Mato Grosso into one of Brazil’s main farming powerhouses. The Amazon, the world’s largest tropical rainforest, covers about 60% of Brazil. The Cerrado, one of the world’s most expansive savannas, spans some 2 million square kilometers (772,000 square miles) of tropical grasslands, trees and watersheds that regulate rainfall patterns and temperatures. About a fifth of the Brazilian Amazon has been deforested since monitoring began in 1985, and nearly half of the native vegetation of the Cerrado biome has been cleared for cattle and soy. Some of Mato Grosso’s former vast soy fields and cattle pasture have been left degraded — eroded grasslands that function neither as forest nor productive farmland. At a Biancon Group farm in Mato Grosso’s Itaúba municipality, Ivan Biancon, co-owner of the family-owned agribusiness group, scoops soil into his hands and lets it fall. The soil, he says, is now healthy enough to grow cotton, corn and soy beans. When he and his brother, Igor, first arrived, “these were&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/in-brazil-regenerative-farming-advances-but-deforestation-still-pressures-ecosystems/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Nations not on track to meet UN 2030 pesticide risk reduction targets: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/nations-not-on-track-to-meet-un-2030-pesticide-risk-reduction-targets-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/nations-not-on-track-to-meet-un-2030-pesticide-risk-reduction-targets-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2026 16:46:39 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/16203216/pexels-gilmer-diaz-estela-6345502-scaled-e1673901240276-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315348</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Biology, Chemicals, Conservation, Crops, Environment, Environmental Policy, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Pesticides, Pollution, Public Health, and Regulations]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The world’s nations committed to halving overall threats to biodiversity from pesticides and other highly hazardous chemicals by 2030 at the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022. But new research finds most countries are trending in the wrong direction when it comes to ecological risks from pesticides, with the U.N.’s global risk reduction target [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The world’s nations committed to halving overall threats to biodiversity from pesticides and other highly hazardous chemicals by 2030 at the 15th United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022. But new research finds most countries are trending in the wrong direction when it comes to ecological risks from pesticides, with the U.N.’s global risk reduction target unlikely to be met without substantial changes to agricultural systems. In fact, only one country, Chile, is currently on track to meet the U.N. target of reducing pesticide risk by 50% by 2030, according to recent findings by a team of environmental scientists from German university RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau, and published in the journal Science. Pesticide risk in this context is defined as the probability of chemical compounds — including insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides — used to control agricultural pests having adverse effects on species not directly targeted by the pesticides and, thus, on ecosystems more broadly — and ultimately on humans. The new study found that the applied toxicity of insecticides has increased for pollinating insects such as honey bees. Image by Louise Docker via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). To determine global pesticide risk, the study researchers looked at data on pesticide use from 2013 to 2019 in 65 nations that collectively represent nearly 80% of global crop acreage. They then combined these statistics with data on the toxicity of 625 pesticides for eight different species groups, including aquatic invertebrates and plants, fish, pollinating insects, soil organisms, and terrestrial arthropods, plants and vertebrates. This&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/nations-not-on-track-to-meet-un-2030-pesticide-risk-reduction-targets-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315348</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From chemistry to regeneration: Agriculture’s next transformation has begun (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Feb 2026 21:53:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sallie Calhoun]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/17213606/cover-crop-workshop-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=314374</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Business, Chemicals, Commentary, Farming, Food, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture is on the cusp of its most profound transformation in a century. Just as the Green Revolution shifted farming from sun and soil to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we are just beginning another revolution: returning to an agriculture based on biology rather than chemistry. This isn&#8217;t new knowledge; rather, it&#8217;s wisdom refined over millennia [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture is on the cusp of its most profound transformation in a century. Just as the Green Revolution shifted farming from sun and soil to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, we are just beginning another revolution: returning to an agriculture based on biology rather than chemistry. This isn&#8217;t new knowledge; rather, it&#8217;s wisdom refined over millennia that we temporarily abandoned. If we embrace it, this transition could restore ecosystems, strengthen rural economies, and secure a healthier food future for all. For most of human history, farming relied on natural systems: the symbiosis between plants, soil and sun. That changed in the 20th century when synthetic fertilizers and pesticides made soil little more than a prop to hold up a plant that was externally fed everything it needed, and was stripped of its biodiversity. The approach boosted yields, but at enormous costs that we’re just now beginning to grasp fully: degraded soils, contaminated water, rising chemical input dependence (and correlated rising costs to farmers, even as food gets cheaper), which all result in collapsing farm economics and ecosystems. The system is locked in a treadmill of toxicity and debt. Sheep graze in the vineyard at Paicines Ranch. Image by Alicia Arcidiacono / Paicines Ranch. Nature&#8217;s intelligence Regenerative agriculture offers a path forward, and away from agrichemicals and bare ground. It builds on thousands of years of Indigenous knowledge, farmer-led innovation, organic farming and agroecological science that challenge chemical dependency and center biology in agriculture, while avoiding rigid prescriptions that risk turning principles&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/from-chemistry-to-regeneration-agricultures-next-transformation-has-begun-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-314374</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pesticides found in 70% of European soils, harming beneficial life: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Feb 2026 19:29:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/06190852/header-Plump_Springtail_iNat_105831052_-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313903</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Chemicals, Environment, Fungi, Green, Insects, Pesticides, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[For farmers, sometimes the easiest way to save a crop or prevent catastrophic insect damage is to spray a pesticide. But this common practice is wreaking havoc on the soil, according to new research published recently in the journal Nature. The study examined soil from 26 European countries, finding that pesticide contamination is widespread beyond [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[For farmers, sometimes the easiest way to save a crop or prevent catastrophic insect damage is to spray a pesticide. But this common practice is wreaking havoc on the soil, according to new research published recently in the journal Nature. The study examined soil from 26 European countries, finding that pesticide contamination is widespread beyond agricultural lands and substantially damages the beneficial soil organisms essential for healthy ecosystems. Researchers found pesticide residues in 70% of the 373 soil samples collected from agricultural fields, grasslands and forests. The contamination emerged as the second-strongest factor shaping soil biodiversity patterns, surpassed only by basic soil properties like texture and pH. &#8220;This contamination has a major impact on various beneficial soil organisms, such as mycorrhizal fungi and nematodes, impairing their biodiversity,&#8221; Marcel van der Heijden, a professor at the University of Zurich&#8217;s Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and one of the study&#8217;s lead authors, said in a statement. Mycorrhizal fungi form partnerships with the roots of plants and generally help plants obtain minerals and water from soil. Image by Wilhelm Zimmerling PAR via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Mycorrhizal fungi, which form partnerships with plant roots to help crops absorb water and nutrients, were among the organisms most affected by pesticide exposure. The fungicide bixafen, commonly used to combat harmful fungi on cereal crops, proved especially damaging to multiple types of soil organisms studied. The harmful effects of pesticides on birds, bees and other insects have been well documented. However, impacts on soil&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/pesticides-found-in-70-of-european-soils-harming-beneficial-life-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313903</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Why is a Philippine island now the Asia Pacific center for agroecology? Interview with Ramon ‘Chin-Chin’ Uy Jr.</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/why-is-a-philippine-island-now-the-asia-pacific-center-for-agroecology-interview-with-ramon-chin-chin-uy-jr/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/why-is-a-philippine-island-now-the-asia-pacific-center-for-agroecology-interview-with-ramon-chin-chin-uy-jr/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Feb 2026 21:38:30 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/03211559/chin-chin-copy-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313665</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Oceania, Philippines, South Asia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Climate Change, Environment, Food, food security, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Interviews, Sustainability, and Sustainable Development]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Ramon “Chin-Chin” Uy Jr. is a sustainable-food entrepreneur based on Negros Island in the Philippines, which recently hosted the global “good food” movement Slow Food’s first-ever regional conference in Asia and the Pacific. Held in Bacolod City, in Negros Occidental province, from Nov. 19-23, 2025, the gathering brought together farmers, chefs, food artisans and policymakers [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Ramon “Chin-Chin” Uy Jr. is a sustainable-food entrepreneur based on Negros Island in the Philippines, which recently hosted the global “good food” movement Slow Food’s first-ever regional conference in Asia and the Pacific. Held in Bacolod City, in Negros Occidental province, from Nov. 19-23, 2025, the gathering brought together farmers, chefs, food artisans and policymakers from across the region to discuss agroecology, biodiversity and climate-resilient food systems. Uy has also been named &#8220;Slow Food councilor&#8221; for Southeast Asia, after having spent nearly two decades working with organic farmers and the provincial government to advance a vision of Negros as an “organic island” — a sustainable food hub where people can access healthy, locally grown produce at fair prices without relying on imported, oil-based chemical fertilizers that undermine environmental health, farmer livelihoods and food security. That vision now encompasses an estimated 20,000 hectares (nearly 50,000 acres) of organic farmland across Negros, involving roughly 20,000 small-scale farmers and farming households, with Bacolod serving as a key urban hub linking producers, markets and institutions. Uy&#8217;s work in sustainable food systems began in 2005, when he and his wife started a composting business that converted organic waste into fertilizer. At the time, chemical inputs were inexpensive and widely used, but a subsequent spike in global oil prices exposed the vulnerability of conventional agriculture to fossil fuel dependence. That experience prompted Uy to establish an organic farm in 2006, both to demonstrate the viability of organic inputs and to build direct relationships between farmers, chefs&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/why-is-a-philippine-island-now-the-asia-pacific-center-for-agroecology-interview-with-ramon-chin-chin-uy-jr/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313665</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Banned for years, dangerous pesticides persist in Nigerian farming</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Dec 2025 20:15:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Samuel Ogunsona]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Karen Coates]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/12115728/Nigeria-women-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311227</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Nigeria, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Chemicals, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Farming, Health, Pesticides, Pollution, Public Health, and Soil Carbon]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The sun rises over lush farm fields of on the outskirts of Lagos. For more than 20 years, a farmer named Joe has tilled the land, coaxing life from the earth and reaping bountiful harvests. But here, beneath the surface of this idyllic scene, lies a complex web of challenges — chief among them, the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The sun rises over lush farm fields of on the outskirts of Lagos. For more than 20 years, a farmer named Joe has tilled the land, coaxing life from the earth and reaping bountiful harvests. But here, beneath the surface of this idyllic scene, lies a complex web of challenges — chief among them, the relentless threat of pests. Joe’s story is one of trial and error, of desperation and loss, and of the unintended consequences of relying on chemical pesticides. “I planted scent leaf [African basil] on my farmland, it started germinating … that was the beginning and first time planting such seedlings, so I didn’t know how tough it could be,” Joe recalls, his voice laced with a mix of frustration and resignation while speaking to Mongabay. He notes an abundance of aphids and caterpillars on his plants, which present a constant challenge. “I came to my farmland one fateful morning and I saw a lot of insects flying around my farm,” he says. “They have taken over my scent leaf. That incident resulted in total loss of my investment because no one could buy that produce.” That experience marked a turning point in his farming career. Desperate to protect his livelihood, Joe turned to chemical pesticides, convinced they held the key to safeguarding his crops. But the pesticides that promised to save Joe’s crops have become a double-edged sword for him. The substances he used are called organochlorine pesticides, which have been linked to soil degradation, the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/banned-for-years-dangerous-pesticides-persist-in-nigerian-farming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311227</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Silent epidemic of chemical pollution’ demands radical regulatory redo, say scientists</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/silent-epidemic-of-chemical-pollution-demands-radical-regulatory-redo-say-scientists/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/silent-epidemic-of-chemical-pollution-demands-radical-regulatory-redo-say-scientists/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Dec 2025 20:28:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/03085540/Image-3-Pesticide-spray-in-a-field-63313-pixahive-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=310482</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Global, North America, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Animals, Biology, Chemicals, Climate, Conservation, Crops, Diseases, Environment, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Mammals, Oil, Pesticides, Planetary Health, Plastic, Pollution, Public Health, Regulations, and Toxicology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[An international team of scientists has issued a stark warning that current toxicology and chemical regulatory regimes are failing to protect public health and the environment from a host of toxins found in pesticides and other petrochemical-based compounds. In an article published in November in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe, 43 researchers from five [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[An international team of scientists has issued a stark warning that current toxicology and chemical regulatory regimes are failing to protect public health and the environment from a host of toxins found in pesticides and other petrochemical-based compounds. In an article published in November in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Sciences Europe, 43 researchers from five continents, including leading experts in toxicology, biology, public health and environmental sciences, began by pointing out severe lapses in current regulatory systems for evaluating the safety of products derived from petrochemical byproducts. They note, for example, that the full commercial formulations of common petrochemical-based pesticides used in global agriculture have never been subjected to long-term tests on mammals. They also note that only the active ingredients declared by makers of pesticides and plasticizers (a type of chemical additive used to increase pliability) have been assessed for human health risks. In fact, the full ingredient lists for these commercial chemical compounds are often proprietary — not publicly disclosed by the companies that develop them. And yet, the article’s authors found that these pesticides and plasticizers contain petroleum-based waste and heavy metals such as arsenic that could make them “at least 1000 times more toxic at low environmentally relevant doses than the active ingredients alone under conditions of long-term exposure.” As a result of these regulatory failings, “We are facing a silent epidemic of chemical pollution,” said article co-author Angelika Hilbeck, a biologist at ETH Zürich. “Chronic diseases are surging, biodiversity is collapsing, and public trust in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/silent-epidemic-of-chemical-pollution-demands-radical-regulatory-redo-say-scientists/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/silent-epidemic-of-chemical-pollution-demands-radical-regulatory-redo-say-scientists/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-310482</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As Singapore heats up, pests are seeking refuge indoors</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Oct 2025 07:08:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Robin Hicks]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/09070714/Dorsal_view_of_Papilio_demoleus_Linnaeus_1758_%E2%80%93_Lime_Swallowtail_02-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307253</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare, Cities, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Global Warming, Insects, Pesticides, Rodents, Temperatures, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s cleanest cities is being put to the test by a surge in rodent and insect infestations that experts say is being fueled by climate change and heat stress. At Changi Airport, famous for its indoor gardens that embody the “City in Nature” image Singapore markets to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — Singapore’s reputation as one of the world’s cleanest cities is being put to the test by a surge in rodent and insect infestations that experts say is being fueled by climate change and heat stress. At Changi Airport, famous for its indoor gardens that embody the “City in Nature” image Singapore markets to the world, lush plant displays have been succumbing to disease and insect attacks. In the last two years, swaths of greenery have had to be replaced. It’s a similar story at the iconic floating Apple Store at Marina Bay Sands, where a circle of Chinese banyan trees lines the interior of its glass dome, encircling the latest iPhones, iPads and MacBooks. Last year, the trees had to be replaced because of insect infestations. “The insects are coming inside — to escape the heat,” says Veera Sekaran, a botanist at the National University of Singapore and founder of Greenology, the firm that manages landscaping at both Changi and Apple’s flagship store. “Heat stress doesn’t just affect people.” Biological markers for heat stress Plants grown in artificial indoor environments are already vulnerable to disease. When insects move in to feed on sap or build nests, they become even more susceptible, Sekaran tells Mongabay. “The best biological markers are the little creatures, because their tolerance to extremes is very low,” he tells Mongabay. “This is especially true in the tropics, where temperatures are usually stable. For a butterfly, a 1-degree [Celsius, or 1.8° Fahrenheit] temperature rise is very&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/as-singapore-heats-up-pests-are-seeking-refuge-indoors/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307253</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Burkina Faso’s women farmers reviving the land with fertilizer trees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Sep 2025 14:35:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Yvette Zongo]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[africa]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/25140012/image1-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306582</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Burkina Faso, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Crops, Environment, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, food security, Gender, Subsistence Agriculture, Sustainability, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CASSOU, Burkina Faso — With her daba in hand, her back bent from decades in the fields, Maan — meaning “grandmother” in the local Nuni language of Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest region — isn’t ready to put down her hoe just yet. On this July afternoon, as the sun blazes overhead, the septuagenarian works cheerfully alongside [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CASSOU, Burkina Faso — With her daba in hand, her back bent from decades in the fields, Maan — meaning “grandmother” in the local Nuni language of Burkina Faso’s Centre-Ouest region — isn’t ready to put down her hoe just yet. On this July afternoon, as the sun blazes overhead, the septuagenarian works cheerfully alongside her 8-year-old grandson, weeding her plot near Cassou, a rural commune of some 54,000 inhabitants where she was born. The 2-hectare (5-acre) plot, which Maan Alima Tagnan inherited from her late husband, sustains her small family. For years, she has cultivated a mix of crops here. What draws the eye, however, is the unusual layout: carefully spaced rows of young trees alternating with mature ones, thriving among cowpeas, millet and other crops now nearing harvest. Maan Alima Tagnan under one of the trees she has planted in her field. Image by Yvette Zongo for Mongabay. This is agroforestry polyculture using “fertilizer trees,” an ancestral technique that the Association for the Promotion of Fertilizer Trees, Agroforestry and Forestry (APAF) has revived and modernized by introducing new varieties of nitrogen-fixing trees. “We haven’t invented anything — it’s nothing new to plant trees in fields to enrich the soil,” Firmin Hien, deputy executive director of APAF-Burkina Faso, tells Mongabay. “Our parents used to do it too, but people abandoned the practice with the arrival of chemical fertilizers.” His remarks are echoed by Cheick Zouré, a specialist in the rehabilitation of degraded ecosystems at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Burkina&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/burkina-fasos-women-farmers-reviving-the-land-with-fertilizer-trees/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306582</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agroecological market gardening: Benin’s climate-resilient farming solution</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/agroecological-market-gardening-benins-climate-resilient-farming-solution/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/agroecological-market-gardening-benins-climate-resilient-farming-solution/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 12:55:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ange Banouwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Christophe Assogba]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/04085252/image4Image-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301901</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Benin, and West Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Crops, Farming, Fertilizers, Food, food security, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[OUÈDO AHOUANSSODJA, Benin — It was a cool, quiet morning in March 2025 when we visited the lush green Agro-Eco farm, and a dozen young people were already hard at work. Their voices carried across the fields as they called out to one another. Surrounded by groves of palms and other trees and rows of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[OUÈDO AHOUANSSODJA, Benin — It was a cool, quiet morning in March 2025 when we visited the lush green Agro-Eco farm, and a dozen young people were already hard at work. Their voices carried across the fields as they called out to one another. Surrounded by groves of palms and other trees and rows of pineapple, the Agro-Eco Farm covers 2.5 hectares (6.2 acres), in the village of Ouèdo Ahouanssodja, about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the administrative capital, Cotonou. Launched in December 2022, Agro-Eco’s farmers mostly grow traditional vegetables such as African eggplant (Solanum macrocarpon), bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) and crincrin (Corchorus olitorius). In response to growing demand, they have also added crops like lettuce, cucumbers and carrots. “We’re a youth cooperative. We grow leafy greens, fruit and root vegetables using organic methods — no chemical inputs or pesticides,” says Carole Alimagnidokpo, an agronomist and president of the Agro-Eco Cooperative. “We use natural treatments — some we buy, others we make ourselves from things like neem, garlic, and papaya leaves.” Access to water is vital for a successful market garden. The Agro-Eco Cooperative has a borehole with a solar-powered pump and hopes to have a second well drilled soon. Image by Ange Banouwin for Mongabay. That morning, the dozen or so young farmers were busy watering and weeding their garden’s beds. One was spraying basil plants, while another was placing a mixture of ash and manure around the base of tomato plants. “Ash isn’t just a fertilizer — it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/agroecological-market-gardening-benins-climate-resilient-farming-solution/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/agroecological-market-gardening-benins-climate-resilient-farming-solution/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301901</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Agencies race to prevent new food crisis as locusts return to northern Africa</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2025 17:25:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Stephanie Achieng’]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Terna Gyuse]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/03085409/Driving-through-a-Desert-Locust-swarm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=301865</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Algeria, Chad, East Africa, Niger, North Africa, and Tunisia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Chemicals, Climate Change, Conservation, Crops, Disasters, Environment, Farming, Food, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Human-wildlife Conflict, Insects, Monitoring, Pesticides, Poisoning, Pollution, Weather, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025 speeding their reproductive cycle, ideal breeding conditions for locusts are in place. Significant outbreaks have already been reported in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while smaller [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[NAIROBI — Swarms of desert locusts are moving across parts of North Africa. With unusually heavy rains in late 2024 supporting growth of vegetation, and rising temperatures since February 2025 speeding their reproductive cycle, ideal breeding conditions for locusts are in place. Significant outbreaks have already been reported in Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, while smaller bands have appeared elsewhere across the Sahara Desert’s northern boundary, and in Saudi Arabia. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and its regional partners have issued caution-level alerts for Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Chad, and Niger. The FAO is coordinating efforts with national authorities to prevent the insects from spreading south into the Sahel, where further rains could trigger a new wave of breeding. “The current outbreaks are due to very favorable breeding conditions over a six-month period in the northern Sahel, following significant rainfall in August and September 2024,” said Cyril Piou of FAO’s Desert Locust Information Service (DLIS). Newly hatched desert locusts near Medenine, Tunisia. Image © Cyril Piou/FAO. Map of desert locusts&#8217; breeding and invasion areas courtesy of FAO. For now, these outbreaks are significant, but not on the scale of those that preceded swarms that devastated East Africa in 2019 and 2020. That earlier crisis affected more than 20 countries, with swarms covering hundreds of square kilometers and threatening the food security of more than 20 million people. It was triggered by an unusual combination of cyclones and sustained rains that enabled desert locusts to breed rapidly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/agencies-race-to-prevent-new-food-crisis-as-locusts-return-to-northern-africa/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-301865</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Invasive whiteflies pose a new threat to Bangladesh’s cash crops</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/invasive-whiteflies-pose-a-new-threat-to-bangladeshs-cash-crops/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/invasive-whiteflies-pose-a-new-threat-to-bangladeshs-cash-crops/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2025 08:14:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/15081035/original-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299131</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Conservation, Crops, Diseases, Environment, Farming, Insects, Invasive Species, Pesticides, Plants, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The mass invasion of a new insect, the whitefly, in Bangladesh’s agricultural farms — especially in coconut, banana and guava farms — has put farmers at risk due to its devastating effects on crops. How the insects are entering the country is yet to be confirmed, but researchers suggest the pest may have spread in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The mass invasion of a new insect, the whitefly, in Bangladesh’s agricultural farms — especially in coconut, banana and guava farms — has put farmers at risk due to its devastating effects on crops. How the insects are entering the country is yet to be confirmed, but researchers suggest the pest may have spread in the country via the high-yielding coconut imported in 2014 and 2015. According to a 2022 study, the whiteflies (Aleurodicus rugioperculatus) were first identified in Bangladesh in 2019 on coconut in the southwest. Since then, the insect’s presence has spread across the country with different levels of infestation. “The insect can damage a plant in many ways, including removing nutrients and water from leaves and disrupting the photosynthesis process,” the study states. “Initially, we found the pest in coconut trees; however, now the insect has already made 61 types of plants as their hosts,” said Gopal Das, lead author of the study and an entomology professor at Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU). He added that coconut, banana and guava are the most affected crops by the pest. Rice, wheat and maize are the primary crops grown in Bangladesh while other crops like jute, tea, banana, guava and coconut are grown as cash crops. According to media reports, in 2023, Bangladesh was the 12th highest coconut-producing country in the world with a yield of 442,700 tons from 25,335 hectares (62,00 acres) of land, while, in 2021-22, the country produced 430,000 tons of guavas from around 89,000 hectares (219,920&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/invasive-whiteflies-pose-a-new-threat-to-bangladeshs-cash-crops/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Solutions needed as climate change &#038; land use fuel global crop pest menace</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/solutions-needed-as-climate-change-land-use-fuel-global-crop-pest-menace/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/solutions-needed-as-climate-change-land-use-fuel-global-crop-pest-menace/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 May 2025 16:56:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/07144031/army-fallworm-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=298733</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Agroecology, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Farming, Food, Food Industry, food security, Global Environmental Crisis, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Insects, Land Use Change, Pesticides, Solutions, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate change, land use change and biodiversity loss are combining to drive an increase in agricultural pests and expansion of their ranges with concerning implications for future global food security. In a recent paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth &#38; Environment, an international team led by researchers at China’s Hebei University assessed that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate change, land use change and biodiversity loss are combining to drive an increase in agricultural pests and expansion of their ranges with concerning implications for future global food security. In a recent paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth &amp; Environment, an international team led by researchers at China’s Hebei University assessed that 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) warming over preindustrial levels could lead to increased pest damage and global crop yield losses of 46% for wheat, 19% for rice and 31% for maize. The complex causes for this pest population explosion: Temperature increases are enabling crop pests to move from the subtropics into higher latitudes and to higher ground, while agricultural expansion and biodiversity loss drives down natural pest controls. International trade networks are also exacerbating the introduction of destructive invasive species, with major economic consequences, the researchers write. “Crop pests are increasing in abundance, geographical range and reproductive capacity due to climate warming, land conversion and agricultural intensification,” Daniel Bebber, an ecology professor at the University of Exeter and a study author, told Mongabay. It is estimated that 40% of crops may already be destroyed before harvest due to pests globally, resulting in billions of dollars in losses annually. “Anything that&#8217;s going to increase that loss is problematic,” says Sanford Eigenbrode, distinguished professor of entomology, plant pathology and nematology at the University of Idaho, U.S., and a study author. Unpacking the implications of these projected large-scale staple crop losses on global food security and food prices is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/solutions-needed-as-climate-change-land-use-fuel-global-crop-pest-menace/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-298733</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>As US agroforestry grows, federal funding freeze leaves farmers in the lurch</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/as-us-agroforestry-grows-federal-funding-freeze-leaves-farmers-in-the-lurch/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/as-us-agroforestry-grows-federal-funding-freeze-leaves-farmers-in-the-lurch/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Apr 2025 16:05:19 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sarah Derouin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[agroecology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/01152843/American-Ginseng-Root-by-Amy-Shumaker-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296848</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[North America and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Agrochemicals, Agroecology, Agroforestry, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Community Development, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Crops, Farming, Food, Food Industry, food security, Mitigation, Nature-based climate solutions, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, the ancient agricultural system of integrating trees and shrubs with crops and livestock, has seen a revival in recent decades in the U.S. Around the country, agroforestry projects have sprung up, bolstered by federal grants like the Department of Agriculture’s Climate-Smart Commodities program. Federal agencies have also partnered with nonprofits to provide training and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Agroforestry, the ancient agricultural system of integrating trees and shrubs with crops and livestock, has seen a revival in recent decades in the U.S. Around the country, agroforestry projects have sprung up, bolstered by federal grants like the Department of Agriculture’s Climate-Smart Commodities program. Federal agencies have also partnered with nonprofits to provide training and resources for farmers interested in diversifying their crops, bolstering their soil, and sequestering carbon. From 2017 to 2022, the number of agroforestry projects increased by 6% nationwide. The efforts had a ripple effect, providing new opportunities for communities to strengthen their local economy and bolster food systems. But on Jan. 27, 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order to freeze federal funding over the next 90 days pending a review. This freeze included grants that went directly to agroforestry projects across the country. Reimbursement payments were halted for work already completed, pay was frozen, new hiring plans were canceled, and community services screeched to a stop. As the review process plays out, farmers face mounting insecurity. As of today, it’s unclear when, or if, funding will be reinstated, leaving many communities uncertain about their future. “Congress authorized and funded these programs to strengthen our economy, protect our health and allow us to continue enjoying nature’s bounty and beauty. It is essential that Congress ensures these funds are spent effectively and the programs function as intended,” conservation NGO The Nature Conservancy, which administers some federal agroforestry grants, said in a public statement. Harvested black cohosh&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/as-us-agroforestry-grows-federal-funding-freeze-leaves-farmers-in-the-lurch/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296848</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indiscriminate pesticide use threatens Bangladesh honey bees</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Mar 2025 07:11:14 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sadiqur Rahman]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Abu Siddique]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/27064423/beekeepers-bangladesh-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296568</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Bangladesh, and South Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Bees, Biodiversity, Conservation, Environment, Farming, Food Industry, Insects, Pesticides, Poisoning, Pollinators, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In February, during the flowering time of black cumin (Nigella sativa), beekeeper Pavel Hossen set up an apiary on leased barren land adjacent to farmer Abdul Hakim’s crop field in Kazirhat of Shariatpur, a district under Dhaka division and an emerging hub of spices, including the black cumin seeds. Pavel deployed Apis mellifera honey bees [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In February, during the flowering time of black cumin (Nigella sativa), beekeeper Pavel Hossen set up an apiary on leased barren land adjacent to farmer Abdul Hakim’s crop field in Kazirhat of Shariatpur, a district under Dhaka division and an emerging hub of spices, including the black cumin seeds. Pavel deployed Apis mellifera honey bees to collect nectar from the blooming cumin flowers. However, the hive boxes didn’t yield as much honey as expected. “Bees cannot forage freely across insecticide-treated crop fields. Their population growth is also slowing down,” Pavel recently told Mongabay. During a visit to Kazirhat in late February, the village’s agricultural landscape appeared fragmented by plots of different crops, including rice, wheat, coriander, black cumin, garlic, mustard and other vegetables. The use of agricultural chemicals like neonicotinoids as insecticides is popular with the cultivation of most of the mentioned crops. However, very few farmers know the permissible doses or potential effects of excessive use of insect killers on bees. Most of the farmers, like Abdul Hakim, said, “I spray the amount of chemicals that the sellers advise.” In a village market, agricultural chemical sellers with expertise in conservation of biodiversity is a rare thing. Entomologists and apiculturists have observed that rampant use of agricultural chemicals like neonicotinoids, present in different doses in nearly 600 brand products in Bangladesh, poses serious threats to bee colonies and other pollinators. “Because of food shortages, limited foraging grounds and frequent poisoning from insecticides, the population of honey bees is decreasing alarmingly,” said&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/indiscriminate-pesticide-use-threatens-bangladesh-honeybees/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296568</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Grassroots efforts sprout up to protect Central America’s Trifinio watershed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2024 16:21:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Maxwell Radwin]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Alexandra Popescu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/13213804/WhatsApp-Image-2024-12-13-at-2.32.57-PM-1-768x450.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=291605</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Latin America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Agriculture, Biodiversity, Cattle, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drinking Water, Environment, Environmental Law, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Freshwater, Freshwater Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Lakes, Pesticides, Politics, Pollution, Protected Areas, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Rivers, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Water, Water Pollution, Wildlife, and Women In Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — An estimated 8 million migrants have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, the highest number in centuries. Many still come from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as they seek to escape gang violence and a lack of employment. But there’s another driver of migration [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ESQUIPULAS, Guatemala — An estimated 8 million migrants have entered the U.S. during the Biden administration, the highest number in centuries. Many still come from the so-called Northern Triangle, made up of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as they seek to escape gang violence and a lack of employment. But there’s another driver of migration that officials sometimes overlook: climate change. Dry seasons in Central America are getting longer and hotter all the time, and rural families can’t grow enough crops to feed their families. More than 3 million people were expected to face crisis-level food insecurity earlier this year, potentially driving them out of the region. They also lack access to clean drinking water. “The problems of extreme poverty, low access to services, a highly aggravated and vulnerable population — all of that is made worse by the consequences of climate change,” said Berta Medrano, head of the Gaia Association, a conservation group that works in all three countries. Governments in the region are still working to develop policies that address crop failure and climate change-resilient jobs in hopes of slowing migration. The international community, whether in the form of NGOs or government agencies like USAID, are also very present in the region. But some parts of the problem may not be receiving enough attention. One major watershed running through Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador has been so polluted and industrialized that 20% of it could dry up by 2050, according to a U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/12/grassroots-efforts-sprout-up-to-protect-central-americas-trifinio-watershed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-291605</doi>				</item>
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