Moroccan Farmers Are Banking Traditional Seeds for a Hotter, Drier Future

Vermont's community-led movement to build a thriving local agriculture economy, through nonprofit infrastructure investments, diversified farming practices, and bipartisan collaboration, has revitalized small farms, boosted food resilience, and offered a viable economic alternative to industrialized agriculture.

The nonprofit Group to Promote Education and Sustainable Development teaches women in drought-ridden Indigenous communities across Mexico to use ancestral methods of irrigation and grow drought-resilient medicinal plants. The four-year training program also aims to address gender disparity through empowerment. Participants are encouraged to set up savings funds to increase their financial independence and attend group therapy sessions, among other activities.

The Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge runs a rice breeding initiative to preserve and encourage the planting of indigenous seeds. The program trains farmers how to problem solve, cultivate, and save the different seed varieties.

An Arizona farmer became the first organic regenerative certified farm in the southwest using practices that conserve water and improve soil health along the drought-stuck Gila River. His practices include growing arid-adapted crops, integrating livestock grazing, and planting cover crops.

Farmers in southeast Utah grow wheat and other select grains without irrigation, a technique called dryland farming. Relying only on rainwater eases water pressure amid droughts.

Farmers in Bangladesh are switching from shrimp aquaculture to growing rice and watermelon during different seasons to increase their incomes and have more consistent harvests as they deal with the impacts of climate change.

Farmers in Uttar Pradesh, India, are using an age-old farming practice known as flood recession farming, which involves planting crops in floodplains when water recedes, to grow crops with less water during droughts.

Farmers and distilleries in California are building a market for agave, a drought-resistant crop used to make tequila and mezcal, in light of the state’s increasingly hotter and drier climate. Agave could help farmers sustain their livelihood as thirstier crops like almonds or avocados become less viable.

Farmers in Ndiob, Senegal, have returned to an ancient technique called zaï to combat drought, use less fertilizer, and increase their yields. Zaï involves drilling holes in the soil so rainwater can fill them and soak into the land instead of running off.

In the Indian state of Bihar, women-led self-help groups are challenging traditional gender norms and saving money to buy and install solar irrigation pumps. The pumps increase the local agricultural capacity by providing a cleaner, more affordable alternative to the diesel pumps typically used to combat water scarcity in the region.