Climate change has disrupted weather patterns across the globe destroying farmland and increasing pest outbreaks. As a result, the livelihoods of farmers and food supplies have been pushed to breaking point. Earthrise first sets off to South Africa where the country has been experiencing the worst drought seen in the last 100 years. Since the 1990s South Africa has lost a third of its farms due to water scarcity.
Ndoni Khanyile explores some solutions for farming during severe drought. In South Africa she meets Jill Farrant, a professor at the University of Capetown who has been trying to unlock the secret behind resurrection plants which can survive long periods without water.
She thinks they may hold the answer to crops surviving long periods without water. Ndoni then heads to a large orchard that is using Fruitlook, a cutting-edge satellite application to track soil health and irrigate precisely. As trade has become more globalised so has the movement of pests from one country to another. This coupled with a changing climate that has become suitable to pests has meant that in Nepal farmers are having to cope with new problems threatening their crops. Gelareh Darabi travels to Pokhara, Nepal to learn about a new initiative called Plantwise which sets up clinics to advise and aid farmers in ridding farms of pests with eco-friendly methods.
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