Frontline heroes battle disease in Rwanda
Rwanda’s female community health workers have been beating back malaria—can they do the same for…
Genetics help solve puzzle of how goats spread through Africa
Eleven thousand years ago in the Middle East, goats became one of the first herbivores that humans domesticated. Since then, the horned livestock has spread…
Digging for gold in Africa’s garbage
Landfills—those smelly, polluted no-man’s lands of modern life—often contain useful raw materials. Recycling them for profit presents opportunities and challenges for Africa, Eman El-Sherbiny reports.…
In Kenya, tomato farming is a male affair
Smallholder tomato farming in Kenya remains dominated by older men despite efforts by the government NGOs to encourage women and youth into agriculture and to…
Getting watermelons to market in Benin
Watermelons are a popular fruit in Benin. But their profitability for market traders—95% of whom are women—is limited as a result of the country’s poor…
Options for keeping the lights on in Ghana
The thunk-thunk-thunk of generators is a common background noise in cities and villages where electrical power supplies are erratic. In Ghana, the government is investing…
Old cooking solutions could bring new benefits in Ethiopia
Cooking on open fires can waste fuel and produce smoke dangerous to human health—especially if the stove is located indoors. So, in the 1980s, Ethiopia…
Saving Africa’s wild larder
Changes in land-use, population growth, and climate change spell trouble for wild plants that have fed Africans for centuries, writes Joseph Opoku Gakpo. At Nyankpala,…
Dialing down the sun
Spraying reflective chemicals into Earth’s atmosphere could be an effective, if controversial, way to halt global warming. But few African scientists have studied how this…
Helping little girls grow tall, one dead weevil at a time
Weevils create a horrible sight. They cause mould to grow which produces poisonous substances that can make people sick.” When I was a little girl,…
