Fresno County is one of the top agricultural counties in the United States producing billions of dollars in revenue for growing crops like fruits, nuts, livestock, vegetables and other field crops. As the Africa Reporting Project class digs deeper into African agriculture and the Green Revolution, they decided to also look into their backyard.

Aflatoxin contamination in staple crops like maize is a huge problem in Africa. Earlier this year 2.3 million bags of maize in Kenya were declared unfit for human and animal consumption due to aflatoxin contamination. The solution might lie in biological control. Themis Michailides, a plant pathologist at the Kearney Agricultural Research Center, talks about [...]

Pesticide safety is a serious concern among agriculturists. While pesticides are seen as necessary to prevent crop losses, they often have unintended consequences on health and the environment. Laura Van Der Staay, who works in the IR4 program that facilitates pest management solutions for specialty crops and minor uses, feels that pesticide risk can be [...]

Every day, a Cessna 206 flies over California’s San Joaquin Valley. As it approaches the valley’s cotton fields, its rear door opens some 500 ft above the ground, to release a sea of small gray moth with fringed wings — pink boll worms.

Mark Schapiro, Senior Correspondent for the Center for Investigative Reporting, stopped by the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley to talk about carbon trading and why exactly it should be on everyone’s radar.

American University professor Deborah Brautigam stopped by to talk about Africa-China relations and zeroed in on the textile industry.

J. Michael Halderman, a Berkeley-based consultant whose work focuses on rural development and environmental issues, talks about why African pastoralists need more advocacy.

The Africa Reporting Project’s One Question series continues with UC Berkeley Ph.D candicate Nathan McClintock, who facilitated a discussion about urban agriculture.

We launch our One Question series today with a Q&A with Patrick Vinck, our speaker for the week, who spoke about how to understand and achieve food security after conflict in Africa.