Upworthy's book GOOD PEOPLE, now available - take a look!

Shop
 Explore 

crops

Heroes

This science fair winner is taking on global drought using oranges and avocados.

True

Who ever thought you could fight the effects of drought just by mixing fruits together?

A 16-year-old from Johannesburg, that's who!

Photo by Andrew Weeks, used with permission.

Science whiz Kiara Nirghin, a grade 11 student at St. Martin's School in Johannesburg, came up with an idea that could make a big difference in drought-stricken regions.

"Currently, South Africa is experiencing one of the worst droughts in its history," said Nirghin. "I started looking at it, and not only is it affecting my community, it's a worldwide problem. From there, I started looking at, 'OK. What could I do to lessen the impact that the drought had on South Africa's food supply?' — which is one of the main things that it is affecting."

Photo by unserekleinemaus/Pixabay.

With temperatures rising to blistering levels and South Africa declaring a state of disaster due to drought in eight provinces, Nirghin's game-changing invention couldn't have come at a better time.

Using orange peels and avocado skins, Nirghin created her ownsuperabsorbent polymer (SAP) to nourish crops in desperate need of water.

An SAP is a powder-like material that can take in large amounts of liquid without taking up a lot of space. In fact, it's known to absorb hundreds of times its own weight. SAPs are planted alongside crops to create mini reservoirs of water that keep soil moist longer and allow growing plants to survive with less rainfall or water.

A helpful slide from Nirghin's award-winning submission. Image via Google Science Fair.

According to Science Direct, the problem with many SAPs is they're made from some pretty harsh chemicals that can harm people as well as the environment. So Nirghin set out to create a more natural, biodegradable alternative.

"I started looking at what characterized a superabsorbent polymer and how I could emulate that characterization," she said. "And one of those things were the polysaccharide found in orange peels."

GIF via Google Science Fair.

Nirghin breaks down her process in a video for the Google Science Fair. First, she boiled the orange peels to extract pectin (more typically used as a gelling agent in jams and jellies). She then combined the pectin with sun-dried orange peels, baked the mixture, crushed it into a powder, and added more sun-dried orange peels and avocado skins.

The project, dubbed "No More Thirsty Crops," earned Nirghin the grand prize at this year's Google Science Fair.

GIF via Google Science Fair.

Not only is Nirghin's SAP biodegradable, it's also affordable — and creating it produces less pollution than regular SAPs.

"[Commercial SAPs are] not biodegradable and they’re extremely costly," said Nirghin. "And one of the important aspects that’s often overlooked is that the making of the superabsorbent polymers pollutes the environment. … The production is not only timely, it’s very difficult to reproduce in poorer areas … So I looked at basically minimizing all those negative aspects."

In Nirghin's research paper, she estimates her SAP would cost about $30 to $60 per metric ton to mass produce — whereas current commercial SAPs can go for a staggering $2,000 to $3,000 per metric ton. Even better? Nirghin found her method to be more effective at retaining water than commercial SAPs.

Nirghin now has her sights set on getting her SAP in as many hands as possible and affecting more positive change around the world.

Photo via Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/Flickr.

"I would love for it to go into actual farms out there," Nirghin said. "I want it to actually be supplied to farmers all over the world that are currently experiencing a drought. I don’t want to keep it as an idea that I just came up with … I would really like for it to go out and help people out there."

On top of her Google Science Fair victory, Nirghin's invention also garnered her a spot on Time's 30 Most Influential Teens of 2016 — an honor that could help her spread even more good. For starters, she's already looking to expand her SAP to test water filtration as well as oil removal from water.

Nirghin also has an inspiring message for anyone looking to follow in her footsteps.

Nirghin (third from left) and her fellow finalists. Photo by the Nirghin family, used with permission.

She said, "One of the main things is looking at what your community is facing because it's great coming up with an idea, but unless it impacts your community and makes it better — like the Google Science Fair says, 'What will you make better?' — that should be one of the main driving forces to lessen the impact of the problems of your community."

From there, just think of that idea as a freshly planted crop. With a little nourishment and attention, it can grow into something even stronger and more essential than you ever imagined.

From Your Site Articles

Some people are going bananas about bananas possibly going extinct.

Save the bananas.

True

You may have heard that bananas are going extinct.

And it's sort of true: The banana as we know it isin danger. But that's also only part of the story.

To understand what’s happening with bananas today, we have to take a look at the bananas of years past ... because we’ve actually been in this situation before.

Years ago, the bananas found in grocery stores didn’t look or taste like the bananas we know now.

They looked like this:

The "original" banana: Gros Michel. Image via iStock.

By all accounts, those bananas apparently tasted better. Known as the Gros Michel strain, they were cloned and mass produced and shipped all around the world until their days as the reigning banana species were brought to an abrupt end. You know that deliciously sweet artificial banana flavoring that tastes nothing like a banana? Well, allegedly, that’s what the Gros Michel tasted like.

So, what happened? Why aren’t we still snacking on deliciously sweet candy-flavored bananas?

The Panama disease, a fungus that destroys any crop that’s susceptible to it, killed most of the supply, bringing the Gros Michel bananas to their knees more than a century ago.

With the Gros Michel banana near extinction, the banana industry went into a panic.

Farmers lost their crops and their livelihoods. The soil was tainted because of the Panama disease, so they couldn’t just start over.

But, luckily, there was a solution: One species of banana proved to be resistant to the Panama disease. It could be planted in the infected soil and would bear fruit — no problem. It was the Cavendish banana to the rescue.

The bananas we're used to seeing! The Cavendish. Image via iStock.

The Cavendish banana is what most of us think of when we think of bananas.

While there are other varieties of bananas sold in local markets, many of which taste sweeter and are fun shades like pink and red, the Cavendish was the best bet for farmers because of its resistance to the disease. It’s not as delicious as the Gros Michel, but it would have to do.

The banana trade made a mistake though: They treated the Cavendish pretty much the same way they did the Gros Michel the century before. Instead of diversifying their banana production, they cloned just the Cavendish and ratcheted up production until the Cavendish became the most dominant banana in the market. Today, about 99% of the bananas consumed worldwide are of the Cavendish variety.

But here’s the thing: Relying too heavily on one species of banana (or any other item, really) can be a mistake.

The red banana. Image via iStock.

That’s called monoculture cropping — growing a genetically similar or identical crop without introducing any variants. And while it bodes well for production because it’s much easier to mass produce genetically identical crop, it also means that the slightest change can put the entire crop at risk. One disease can kill them all.

That’s what happened with the Gros Michel. And it’s on the verge of happening again today with our beloved Cavendish.

The adorably fuzzy pink bananas. Image via iStock.

A new version of the original Panama disease is back with a vengeance, and it’s targeting the Cavendish.

The situation is bad, but it’s not dire — not yet at least. While it feels a bit like a ticking banana time bomb, scientists and banana-breeders are on the case.

They’re trying to mate plants that are resistant to the new disease together, to create offspring that are more likely to make it if this situation repeats itself. They’re creating bananas that are built to survive.

And the farmers and economies that depend on the banana trade? They’re working to diversify their crop and to identify already-resistant banana species that can be grown in soil that’s been compromised by the disease. They’re not just waiting for a solution, they’re creating one.

The adorably tiny Lady Finger bananas. Image via iStock.

Our banana history may be repeating itself, but don't cry yourself to sleep just yet.

This time, we might be ready for it.

We’ve learned that doing the same thing over and over again will probably yield the same results, so we’ve got to change it up. Who knows, maybe in a few years, we’ll find a variety of delicious banana breeds in stores for all of us to enjoy snacking on.

Heroes

Climate change could change what we eat. It’s already happening in Africa.

True

If your livelihood depends on crops, which need water, and there isn’t any water ... what do you do?

Borrie Erasmus struggled with this very problem just this year in South Africa.

His family has lived on the same farmland for 50 years. It usually rains between October and April in the region, but in 2015, El Nino weather patterns caused a drought that lasted through late February of 2016.

“On our farm, there has never been a time when there has not been any maize in December,” Erasmus told Aljazeera. “We could not even try planting seeds. It has been drier than ever.”

‌Weeds grow in a maize field in Malawi, which is one of the areas affected by drought earlier this year. Image by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images.‌

Over the last 40 years, Africa has suffered seven major droughts like this one that have dramatically affected food supply, crops, and livestock.

Philip Tioko, a villager in the northwestern Turkana region of Kenya, told the Washington Post that he lost all his livestock — including some 200 goats — in the span of just 20 years after repeated droughts dried up the rivers and caused the nearby lake, Lake Turkana, to recede. Now he survives by fishing, but even the number of fish are dwindling as water levels continue to fall.

‌A fisherman carries a caught fish at Lake Turkana in northwestern Kenya. Photo by Simon Maina/AFP/Getty Images.‌

These dangerous droughts are likely to become more common if trends in climate change play out as predicted by scientific studies.

Many of the world’s important food crops, as well as its livestock, are sensitive to changes in temperature and rainfall. Many simply won’t be able to survive in certain regions if it gets too hot or too dry. This problem will affect what local farmers can grow across the globe, as well as their everyday diets — especially when they rely on what they farm in order to eat.

‌A man cuts what is left of his yield to feed his livestock in Lesotho after a year-long drought devastated crops in the region this year. Image by John Wessels/AFP/Getty Images.‌

The good news is, people around the world are already starting to figure out ways to adapt their diets to the changing climate. To see some of the changes a warming world has had and will have on how people eat, take a look at Africa.

Here are five ways climate change could affect how Africa — and the world — will eat in the next century:

1. Corn might become less common.

Maize — a type of corn — has become an important staple food throughout the African continent over the last century. It's actually a pretty popular food all over: It’s the world’s third most important cereal crop (after rice and wheat).

A woman prepares the maize she raised inside her hut in Malawi. Photo by Kate Holt/Africa Practice/Flickr

‌In Africa, maize is often eaten by itself — roasted over a fire — or it is featured as a prominent ingredient in a lot of local dishes, such as the common mealtime starch ugali (a thick, stiff porridge) or the popular Kenyan githeri stew.

However, according to a study published in the scientific journal Nature, as much as 41% of the land in Africa devoted to growing maize could stop being productive by 2050.

2. Other staple foods might disappear too.

A banana harvest in Arba Minch, Ethiopia. Photo by Rod Waddington/Flickr.

Maize isn’t the only crop in trouble. Beans, bananas, barley, and wheat are just a few of the crops that could all struggle to grow because of climate change in certain regions of the world. This means that these foods might become less prominent in local diets, or they will need to be imported.

In Africa, the effects could be profound for local farmers. According to the study in Nature, 60% of bean agriculture and 30% of land currently cultivated for bananas could stop being productive.

3. New grains might become more popular.

‌A man loads his cart with millet near the village of Simiri in Niger, Africa. Image by Boureima Hama/AFP/Getty Images.‌

If some crops won’t grow where they used to, local farmers will need to grow something else in order to survive.

In Africa, this could me

an that farmers grow varieties of millet or sorghum instead. Both of these grains are actually native to Africa — unlike maize — and they are expected to maintain their production levels in the region despite climate change through 2100 because they are more resilient to drought. (Red millet also makes for a delicious and nutritious substitute to maize in ugali.)

4. We might eat different kinds of meat.

‌Image via iStock.‌

If it becomes too difficult to grow certain crops, some farmers might swap crop agriculture for livestock farming. Other farmers might change what animals they raise entirely.

In Kenya, camel rearing is catching up with cattle farming, reports Reuters News, because camels can withstand drought situations better than other animals.

While cows (and goats) require daily access to water and pasture, camels can survive without food or water for up to three weeks because their hump stores fluids to keep them hydrated.

5. We might start eating new veggies.

‌A man drying cowpeas in Ghana. Cowpeas grow in dry areas because they are able to survive high temperatures with little water. Image by Tree Aid/Flickr.‌

Several organizations, including the World Food Programme, are working to help local farmers in Africa become more resilient to climate change and “climate shocks” — like droughts — by diversifying what they grow. Instead of growing just one crop, farmers grow a variety so that even if one crop dies, others might survive.

Grain legumes, such as cowpeas, are often a great choice for this in Africa. These legumes are more drought-resistant, can provide protein, and they can even help restore the farmer’s soil because their roots "fix" nitrogen from the air, which then helps grow future crops. The stems and stalks of these plants can also be used to feed livestock.

While it is true that climate change could cause certain crops to disappear altogether, scientists, organizations, and farmers are working hard together to adapt and prepare for the future. It might just change what foods we all eat.

From Your Site Articles

The biggest problem with living on a cruise ship - Upworthy ›

Heroes

See 9 stunning vertical farms that could solve the planet's food crisis.

For as long as most people can remember, horizontal farming has been the only way to go.

But now, farmers are discovering that while horizontal fields of crops are beautiful, they might not be the best use of space.

As roots spread out across the ground, they leave a lot of unused real estate overhead. So what's stopping us from stacking our crops like densely-packed cities? Well, sunlight, for one. And gravity. Soil too.

But once that's all figured out? Perpendicular planting could be a much more efficient way to grow food.

What does vertical farming look like? Here are nine farms that are going above and beyond with their indoor produce systems:

Photo via Kirsten Dirksen/YouTube.

1. VertiCrop

VertiCrop was the first big company to kick off the vertical urban farming trend, stacking shelves upon shelves of delicious greens that could produce up to 20 times the crop yield with only about 8% of the water of a comparable horizontal garden setup. Time magazine even named it as one of the world's greatest inventions in 2009.

Though the company had some financial trouble, they definitely set a high bar for the power of this kind of sustainable farming.

Photo by Valcenteu/Wikimedia Commons.

2. Growing Power Aquaponic System

This aquaponic system takes advantage of the existing symbiotic relationship between plants and animals.

The pump pulls water from a five-foot-deep pool to feed multiple layers of plants — in this case, watercress and tomatoes — then drips back down into the pool again, where the fresh oxygen helps to feed the tilapia in the tank below. It's like a little self-contained and portable ecosystem! (Also, the fish poo works as fertilizer.)

Photo by Ryan Griffis/Flickr.

3. Wigan UTC Hydroponic Vertical Farm

This is believed to be the world's first educational vertical farm, where curious students can study, train, and experiment in farming progress.

At Wigan, a British university, the setup boasts a rotating soilless conveyor belt system, temperature and lighting controls, and even a state-of-the-art kitchen where students can actually start to develop recipes for the future (which may or may not include the delicious aquaponic fish they're raising as well — mmmm, space salmon).

Photo via Wellcome Trust/YouTube.

4. DIY Windowfarms

These vertical windowfarms are catching on in major cities where everything is already stacked up tall and tight — 'cause hey, if it works for people in a city, why can't it work for plants? There are plenty of online communities offering tips, tricks, and instructions, but the basic idea is that you can set up rows of recyclable drip-water systems in the comfort of your own home. All you need is a window, some old plastic bottles, and string.

Photo by SparkCBC/Flickr.

5. The Land at Epcot Center

That's right, even the mouse himself is getting in on the vertical farming action. And they're actually doing lots of cool research and experiments too! Plus, sometimes they make hydroponic mouse-shaped pumpkins.

Photo by Paul Goings/Flickr.

6. Bright AgroTech Zip Farm

These innovators found a cool new way to make their vertical farming even more vertical. They're not just stacking horizontal flowerbeds upright: They use zip ties to create vertical planes that grow crops outward.

Photo via Bright AgroTech/YouTube.

7. Green Sense Farms

Whoa, is that pink?!Green Sense Farms uses specially-made red and blue diodes to amplify the actual light rays that help plants grow. 'Cause who needs a full spectrum of colors when two of them can do the job even better?

Photo via The Good Stuff/YouTube.

8. Pasona Group Urban Farm

While vertical farms are great for making optimal use of space, what do you do in a place as densely-packed as Tokyo, where there's no room to build from the ground up? Simple: Start growing food in office buildings, like the folks at Kono Designs have done.

Not only does it produce some delicious crops, but employees are generally happier with the fresh oxygen in the air and the affective lighting. It's like being outdoors, but in an office!

Photo via Kirsten Dirksen/YouTube.

9. AeroFarms

Last but not least, built inside a former laser tag arena just outside New York City, AeroFarms is known as the planet's largest indoor vertical farm to date, with the ability to grow 75 times more crops per square foot while using 95% less water.

Their system relies on an aeroponic mist instead of standard soil and uses concentrated LED lights, and — oh yeah — it's also being used to provide affordable food to underserved communities. Win.

Rendering from AeroFarms. Used with permission.

Vertical farming doesn't just look cool — it's solving some serious planetary problems, and not a moment too soon.

This kind of urban agriculture is innovative and beautiful, which is great. But it's also a major step forward in addressing our impending food and population crises.

Between climate change and our rapidly increasing influx, some estimates suggest farmers will need to nearly double their crop output by 2050 if our civilization expects to survive — all while more than a quarter of our available farmland is already falling apart.

And while that sounds like a scary situation, these vertical farms are making sure we move upward and onward, so these kinds of problems can go right over our heads.

Learn more about the future of our plants and our planet in the video below:

Heroes

How an app for tractors is actually changing lives for some farmers.

The plight of farmers has never been more real.

Erosion caused by drought. The increased scarcity of water ... caused by drought. Lack of resources, from equipment to information. Ever-increasing energy costs. Increasingly unpredictable weather. The list goes on and on.

Image via iStock.

According to Tech Times, drought conditions and heat waves caused by an ever-warming planet have led to a 10% drop in worldwide cereal harvests in the past 50 years alone and could result in as much as a 30% loss in total global crop production by the year 2080.

With fewer resources, financial support, and social safety nets to lean on, the harsh reality is that underdeveloped countries will face the greatest setbacks as the effects of climate change continue to increase.

"People who are socially, economically, culturally, politically, institutionally or otherwise marginalised are especially vulnerable to climate change," reads a 2014 report by the UN's climate panel.

Image via CIAT/Flickr.

In countries with agriculturally based labor forces like Nigeria, these hardships often force farmers to outsource their labor in order to harvest what few crops they have.

Those who can't afford to pay for seasonal labor, however, are left with little choice but to underuse their land and lose out on the potential income that comes with it.

Image via South African Tourism/Flickr.

While something as simple as a tractor could be a huge help to addressing their financial woes, it's also something that many farmers can't afford because of said financial woes. Not to mention that most commercial banks in Nigeria charge a 30% interest rate and require loan repayment within a year.

This is exactly the kind of fiscal dilemma that apps like Hello Tractor are hoping to solve.

The brainchild of founder/CEO Jehiel Oliver, Hello Tractor is a revolutionary mobile app that connects tractor owners with nearby farmers in marginalized areas of sub-Saharan Africa for the purposes of renting out their equipment and skills.

With a simple SMS text message, a farmer in need can send a message requesting tractor services to the app, which will then connect to the nearest Smart Tractor (a tractor embedded with Oliver's low-cost GPS/telematics system) using local and cloud-based data to connect them.

Image via iStock.

Hello Tractor's system provides a quicker and cheaper alternative to hiring manual laborers and is off to a promising start.

According to TakePart, "Since Hello Tractor launched in the summer of 2014, farmers who participated in the beta period saw their yields increase by 200 percent using a machine that’s 40 times faster than manual labor."

Can't afford to rent a tractor? Hello Tractor's got your back on that, too!

In parts of the developing world with few banks and fewer credit unions, getting access to enough capital to buy a bag of fertilizer presents a difficult challenge in and of itself, let alone renting a tractor.

"The farmers operate on small plot sizes, which means they don't make enough money to invest in a big piece of machinery," Oliver told Fast Company/Co-Exist. "There also aren't bank loans for farmers, so it's pretty difficult to finance a tractor."

While one of Oliver's Smart Tractors can be rented out for just $75 per hectare (roughly 2.5 acres) farmed, Hello Tractor also takes things a step further by connecting farmers to microfinancing companies that can offer lower interest rates as compared with the nationally backed banks.

Hello Tractor is also opening huge doors for female farmers in Africa.

Image via iStock.

A report published by the World Bank last year found that farm plots harvested by women yielded 13% to 30% less crops per hectare than those produced by men. The biggest reason for this disparity lies not in the skill level of female farmers but the "more than unequal access to inputs [and] unequal returns to the inputs they have."

Hello Tractor, on the other hand, is using the anonymity of its users to narrow the culturally fueled wage gap between men and women.

"Uber has made it easier for a black man in New York to hail a cab. You request something through the cloud with no face, and that request is paired with the closest car. It sort of circumvents racism," Oliver told TakePart.

"The same is true of Hello Tractor: When they arrive with that tractor, you’re going to still want that service. This was our way of circumventing the negative gender stereotypes that exist in Nigeria — and they’re really entrenched here."

Image via iStock.

An app helping to end both poverty and inequality in the parts of the world that need it the most? Talk about a game-changer.

From Your Site Articles

The UN's dire warning about climate change is a wake-up call for everyone to take action - Upworthy ›

crops

Who ever thought you could fight the effects of drought just by mixing fruits together?

Science whiz Kiara Nirghin, a grade 11 student at St. Martin's School in Johannesburg, came up with an idea that could make a big difference in drought-stricken regions.

Using orange peels and avocado skins, Nirghin created her ownsuperabsorbent polymer (SAP) to nourish crops in desperate need of water.

Not only is Nirghin's SAP biodegradable, it's also affordable — and creating it produces less pollution than regular SAPs.

Nirghin now has her sights set on getting her SAP in as many hands as possible and affecting more positive change around the world.

Nirghin also has an inspiring message for anyone looking to follow in her footsteps.

Save the bananas.

You may have heard that bananas are going extinct.

Years ago, the bananas found in grocery stores didn’t look or taste like the bananas we know now.

With the Gros Michel banana near extinction, the banana industry went into a panic.

The Cavendish banana is what most of us think of when we think of bananas.

But here’s the thing: Relying too heavily on one species of banana (or any other item, really) can be a mistake.

A new version of the original Panama disease is back with a vengeance, and it’s targeting the Cavendish.

Our banana history may be repeating itself, but don't cry yourself to sleep just yet.

If your livelihood depends on crops, which need water, and there isn’t any water ... what do you do?

These dangerous droughts are likely to become more common if trends in climate change play out as predicted by scientific studies.

Here are five ways climate change could affect how Africa — and the world — will eat in the next century:

1. Corn might become less common.

2. Other staple foods might disappear too.

3. New grains might become more popular.

4. We might eat different kinds of meat.

5. We might start eating new veggies.

For as long as most people can remember, horizontal farming has been the only way to go.

What does vertical farming look like? Here are nine farms that are going above and beyond with their indoor produce systems:

1. VertiCrop

2. Growing Power Aquaponic System

3. Wigan UTC Hydroponic Vertical Farm

4. DIY Windowfarms

5. The Land at Epcot Center

6. Bright AgroTech Zip Farm

7. Green Sense Farms

8. Pasona Group Urban Farm

9. AeroFarms

Vertical farming doesn't just look cool — it's solving some serious planetary problems, and not a moment too soon.

Learn more about the future of our plants and our planet in the video below:

The plight of farmers has never been more real.

In countries with agriculturally based labor forces like Nigeria, these hardships often force farmers to outsource their labor in order to harvest what few crops they have.

This is exactly the kind of fiscal dilemma that apps like Hello Tractor are hoping to solve.

Can't afford to rent a tractor? Hello Tractor's got your back on that, too!

Hello Tractor is also opening huge doors for female farmers in Africa.

An app helping to end both poverty *and* inequality in the parts of the world that need it the most? Talk about a game-changer.

An app helping to end both poverty and inequality in the parts of the world that need it the most? Talk about a game-changer.