SciDev Net

1 week ago | scidev.net | Paul Adepoju

[SciDev.Net] As Africa reckons with shrinking foreign research support and looming health threats, scientists across the continent are pushing for a more self-reliant future. Long dependent on external funding and expertise, African institutions are now building infrastructure, training local talent, and taking control of critical research operations, from genomic sequencing to diagnostics manufacturing.

2 weeks ago | scidev.net | Vitalio Angula

[WINDHOEK, SciDev.Net] Researchers in Namibia are growing vegetables in the desert using fertiliser made from green hydrogen, in a project pitching to be Africa’s first Net Zero village. The Daures Green Hydrogen Village is part of Namibia’s strategy to establish itself as a green hydrogen leader while tackling domestic challenges including dependence on imported fertiliser and mounting food insecurity in a water-stressed environment.

1 month ago | scidev.net | Aleida Rueda

This article was supported by PlantwisePlus (CABI). Scientists and local farmers in Grenada are joining forces to use natural enemies to protect their profitable soursop trees from pests, writes Aleida Rueda. [ST.GEORGE’S, GRENADA, SciDev.Net] When Laurel Williams thinks of soursop, she thinks of ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but the one made from the soursop she grows on her farm in Grenada, a small island nation in the Caribbean Sea. “I have this real affection for soursop,” she says.

1 month ago | scidev.net | Malaka Rodrigo

[COLOMBO, SciDev.Net] Wildlife experts question the wisdom of adopting “elephant corridors” in Sri Lanka to end the country’s deadly human-elephant conflict, calling instead for a more science-based approach. Nearly 5,000 elephants and 1,600 people have been killed in the last 15 years in clashes between elephants and humans in Sri Lanka, home to one of the largest remaining populations of Asian elephants, according to official figures seen by SciDev.Net.

1 month ago | scidev.net | Paul Adepoju

[SciDev.Net] The “catastrophic” freeze on US funding for malaria has halted prevention programmes across Africa and also threatens to stall advances in genomic research, says Jane Carlton, director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute. The US President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) is one of numerous USAID-supported programmes to see its funding terminated under US President Donald Trump’s sweeping reforms this year.