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The Africa Food Prize winner talks about her work with Kenya’s smallholder farmers, and how indigenous crops can be a tool in the battle against food insecurity and climate change

When Ruth Oniang’o was working as a nutrition researcher in 1980s Kenya, she noticed an ominous change in the country’s agricultural landscape: regions that had once provided a diversity of nutritious food crops were being turned over to cash crops like sugarcane. Grown mostly for export, these crops were usurping land and soil that was intended for feeding people.

Spurred on by what she witnessed all those years ago, today Oniang’o--a professor of nutrition and a native Kenyan--leads the Rural Outreach Program, a nonprofit that champions the role of indigenous African crops and smallholder farmers in safeguarding food security. With the ROP, Oniang’o visits hundreds of farming communities in Kenya and helps them access, grow, and share seeds for indigenous crop varieties like sorghum, cassava, arrowroot, and jute mallow--foods that are not only nutritious, but also disease-resistant and climate-resilient. This year, these efforts got her recognised as the joint winner of the 2017 Africa Food Prize.

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MPs say ministers are showing no confidence in tackling the illegal levels of air pollution that prematurely kill an estimated 40,000 people a year

Ministers have been accused of having to be “dragged screaming” to tackle illegal levels of air pollution across the UK, which kills an estimated 40,000 people a year prematurely.

Neil Parish, co-chair of a parliamentary inquiry into air quality, told ministers from the Treasury, environment, transport and local government departments they were showing no confidence that they would tackle toxic air pollution as soon as possible.

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After digitising old weather data from atop Ben Nevis, citizen scientists tackle a much bigger project.

Annual survey by the Marine Conservation Society records 10% rise in litter in 2017 - with much of it plastic

The rubbish washing up on the UK’s beaches is continuing to increase, rising by 10% in 2017, the Marine Conservation Society’s (MCS) annual beach clean has revealed.

Much of the waste is plastic, leading the MCS to call on the government to urgently introduce a charge on single-use plastic items, such as straws, cups and cutlery. The chancellor, Philip Hammond, recently announced the government is considering such action.

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Retailers in favour of setting up mandatory system in England and Wales after government sought views on idea

Iceland and the Co-op have become the first supermarkets to support a bottle deposit scheme after the government sought views on the idea to reduce plastic pollution in the oceans.

The retailers came out in favour of setting up a mandatory deposit return scheme (DRS) in England and Wales as the environment secretary, Michael Gove, began to review the results of a seven-week consultation on whether to introduce a system to increase recycling rates of plastic bottles and reduce leakage into the oceans.

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In November 30, 1987 Australian scientists officially sounded the climate alarm. No one can say we haven’t been warned.

The predicted price of onshore wind in Germany is now half the EU’s projections for 2030, following an auction in Germany this week.

Tesla battery goes through final testing with a rapid series of charging and discharging – never seen before on Australia's ageing dumb grid.

Finkel vents his frustrations in final energy speech of the year, dumping on six biggest myths about electricity market, and delivering brick-bats to both policy makers and regulators.

Recent changes to the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Program reduce the burden on businesses and technicians, including by extending the duration of end-use permits from two to three years.

Recent changes to the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Program reduce the burden on businesses and technicians, including by extending the duration of end-use permits from two to three years.

Three decades since the GREENHOUSE 87 conference, credited as kickstarting public awareness of climate change in Australia, how far have we come, and how far do we have left to go in appreciating the risks? Marc Hudson, PhD Candidate, Sustainable Consumption Institute, University of Manchester Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Aera Energy to install first-of-its-kind solar project to reduce oilfield emissions.

New Zealand's plan to create the world’s first humanitarian visa for climate refugees has to consider ways people from Pacific island nations actually want to be assisted. Nina Hall, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.

Ken Matthews, who is in charge of fixing NSW’s water administration, says he is ‘disappointed’ at lack of progress on prosecutions

Modern water meters need to be rolled out as a matter of urgency in the Barwon-Darling river system and prosecutions launched against breaches, the man charged with fixing New South Wales’s water administration has warned.

Immediately after the ABC Four Corners program that alleged large-scale water theft and meter tampering by some irrigators, the state government asked water expert Ken Matthews to review the system.

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Sceptics might call it crazy to run a clean power ‘extension cord’ all the way to Indonesia, but the ELEXI plan to export Pilbara generated renewable energy to Asia has a serious team behind it.

The Australian Government has accepted all 24 recommendations of the independent review of governance of the Authority and will immediately move to implement key actions.

A bacterium made with "unnatural" DNA assembles proteins - a key characteristic of a functioning organism.

Having children is an intimately personal decision. But what about climate scientists? How is their knowledge impacting parenthood?