SciDev Net

1 week 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 week 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 week 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.

1 month ago | scidev.net | Esther Nakkazi

This article was supported by SGCI. [KAMPALA] Ugandan researchers are transforming discarded banana stems into textiles, hair extensions and sanitary pads, positioning the East African nation to capitalise on growing global demand for sustainable fibres.

1 month ago | scidev.net | Gilbert Nakweya

[NAIROBI] “A great loss” for science journalism as Kenyan science journalist Ochieng’ Ogodo—the former head of SciDev.Net’s English language Africa edition—passed away in the early hours of Thursday (17 April). Ogodo, Africa editor of Mongabay, started out in journalism in 1996 at The East African Standard, now known as The Standard in Kenya, one of the country’s leading media houses.