How a young beekeeper's initiative brought hope and profit to Sierra Leone communities

Farmland is expensive and scarce in urban areas. In Boston Higher Ground Farm uses green roofs to grow its produce and Grove Lab has designed a cabinet for people to grow their vegetables indoors.

In just the next couple of decades, the World Bank says, farmers across Africa could lose more than half their cropland to drought and heat - the issue is considered so pressing that, a few years ago, Malawi's Department of Meteorological Services added "Climate Change" to its name. A new aid group group now works with farmers in more than 60 villages — with plans to expand — helping them become more resilient to a changing climate.

Colombia’s National Development Plan for cattle ranching seeks to reduce pasture land from 94 million acres to 70 million acres while increasing cattle numbers from 23 million head to 40 million. The program focuses on planting trees on grazing land and the "cut and carry method," whereby farmers grow fields of shrubs and distribute the fresh cuttings to cows in pastures. The result is greater cattle productivity and a more eco-friendly farming system.

A Kenyan government initiative is helping a growing community of residents to tackle food insecurity in one of the largest slum areas in Africa, championing an unusual form of urban farming: sack gardens.

The people of Malawi count on wood for cooking, cleaning, and sanitation, which contributes to the country’s ranking as fifth highest in the world for deforestation. Once thought unsolvable, the people of the country are planting trees, benefiting from water filters, and using efficient cookstoves.

Environmental refugees in Ethiopia flee their country because there are no jobs without healthy land. A group of former refugees have returned to Ethiopia with a business venture in Gergera to improve the land by regreening efforts, foresting, and building water conservation systems. The new businesses demonstrated such positive effects that the region is now on the brink of resettlement due to improved environmental conditions.

Many unskilled workers in Tanzania are women and, due to gender inequality, they are often disregarded and live with economic hardship. Oxfam Tanzania has a reality show that raises awareness of women farmers. The winners of the show go use their notoriety to promote women’s rights and improve the lives of other women farmers.

Limited fertile land and scarce water make traditional farming difficult in Kenya, so several organizations have begun teaching women how to farm out of sacks. The practice is spreading throughout Kenya and to other African nations.

In agricultural communities across Kenya, global warming has led local farmers to turn to camels -- as an alternative to cows -- for dairy products both to feed their families and take to the local markets to sell. Furthermore, with an uptick in demand both regionally and nationally for camel milk, farmers are finding themselves with new purchasing power for various goods and services.

In many parts of the world, not owning one's own land is more directly correlated to poverty than other factors such as illiteracy, but land reform is controversial, difficult, and expensive. A new program called Landesa is having success in India through a non-confiscatory model that gives families tennis-court size plots.