The WaterBlog

Heading towards a nature-based future

How could my country look like if we were to embrace nature-based solutions? A reflection on the nature-based future challenge by team GO2V-NBF and their coaches David Mornout (MetaMeta) and Long Hoang (MetaMeta). Team members GO2V-NBF: Xinjue CUI, Songwen CHEN, Maria, Chenyue HE, Ruofei GUAN, Jiayi LI, Zhun LI, Qi RUAN. TheWaterChannel serves as media partner to this student challenge. This was the question that student teams from around the globe aimed to answer in the Nature-Based Future Challenge, organized by Wageningen University & Research. Interdisciplinary and international teams visualized a nature-based future for the delta of Bangladesh, showcasing innovative solutions to pressing environmental challenges. Chittagong Hill Tracts One of the teams, GO2V-NBF, focused on the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) with the goal of transitioning from "development at the cost of nature" to a future of "nature-based prosperity." This region in Southeast Bangladesh faces significant challenges related to climate change, biodiversity loss, and socio-economic development. The increasing intensity of extreme… Continued

Rural Transportation in Ethiopia: Status Quo and Ways Forward

By Getanew Tesfaw In Ethiopia, there are roughly 1.2 million vehicles, meaning that in a group of a hundred people, … Continued

Homestead poultry keeping for a vibrant rural economy

by Getanew Tesfaw Livestock and poultry are essential to strengthen the rural economies as they are serving as supplemental income … Continued

Now available: Key Results and Recommendations of the FAO’s Agroecology Dialogue Series

The Agroecology Dialogue Series is an initiative of FAO and the Biovision Foundation in support of the Coalition for food systems transformation through Agroecology … Continued

Green Roads for Water (GR4W)- a first outlook in Madhya Pradesh, India

By Saroj Yakami (MetaMeta Research), Anurudh Kumar Shastri (PRADAN), Khusbu Bisen (PRADAN), Nitesh Kumar (PRADAN), Supriya Sharma (PRADAN), & Luwieke … Continued

Agroforestry in Amhara, Ethiopia

By Bantamlak Wondmnow Agroforestry is a new name for a set of long-standing practices. Farmers in Amhara have immense traditional … Continued

Sustainable landscape rehabilitation: The establishment of Watershed User’s Cooperatives

By Bantamlak Wondmnow & Femke van Woesik In Ethiopia there are many succesful stories of rehabilitated watersheds through large scale … Continued

Postcard from Central Rift, Kenya (part 2). Shade but no grass.

By Ishani Sonak The rangeland in South of Kenya has been historically dominated by a wide variety of grass species. … Continued

Postcard from Central Rift, Kenya (part 1). End of the tether: Four years of drought

By Ishani Sonak Postcard from Central Rift Valley, Kenya. This is what four years of utter drought look like. … Continued

Multipurpose plantation – making productive use of watershed rehabilitation in Amhara, Ethiopia

By Bantamlak Wondmnow In Amhara, yearly successful watershed rehabilitation campaigns are carried out through the government’s mass mobilization of local … Continued

Scaling through horizontal learning: Liquid Biofertilizer take up in Oromia, Ethiopia

By Guta Eshetu Horizontal learning is peer-to-peer learning. It is how farmers learn, share new information and good practices with … Continued

Our minds are with the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria

On Monday February 6, a strong earthquake struck the southern and central regions in Turkey, and western Syria. The damage … Continued

Bio-resource centers as a tool to tackle the fertilizers crisis – The state of regenerative agriculture in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand

By Marina Vara Gutiérrez (Aidenvironment) and Rubén Borges Robles (Rockinsoils) India has … Continued

The multipurpose biofertilizer

By Bella Arlman Biofertilizer is a proven effective way to increase crop yield either as an alternative to the expensive … Continued

Making farming easier: introducing new farm tools in rural Ethiopia

By Getanew Tesfaw Farming is a back breaking and hard job. Luckily, using the right tools can make it a … Continued

Regenerative home garden designs

By Marina Vara Gutierrez Well-designed rainfed home gardens can increase crop productivity and increase biodiversity. Sustainably doing this requires a … Continued

Indigenous pasture production for regeneration of drylands and increased livestock production – A story from the drylands of Kenya to the drylands of India

Authors: Luwieke Bosma (MetaMeta), Ashutosh Mishra (PRADAN) and Ishan Agarwal (FES). In the blog on livestock production in India we … Continued