This coloring book for youngsters has a message for parents too.

In Zambia, where hygiene and safety are critical issues in food processing, researchers are using a new tool to get their message across: a coloring book for kids. “Protect Yourself With Handwashing” features three smiling youngsters in a cartoon car of citrus, melons, and vegetables in vibrant hues. Though its target audience is children of employees at food processing and distribution centers in Lundazi and Mfuwe, the book also reminds parents that good hygiene begins at home.

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A hippopotamus in Zambia, where habitat is threatened.

Its name means “water horse,” apt for the hippopotamus, which spends most its life in deep water holes. But in Zambia’s Luangwa River region, drought, deforestation, and farming are threatening the streams that the hippos call home.

Using aerial and satellite images, rain gauges, soil and water samples, Conrad Heatwole, associate professor in Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, is studying how agriculture, commerce, and tourism affect the water supply and, in turn, the wildlife in Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park Continue reading →

A Madagascar forest damaged by illegal logging is recovering, writes the scientific team who visited the site in 2005 and again in May 2007.

“The forest is recovering through natural regeneration,” the team wrote in a comprehensive report released in September. “At this point, there do not seem to be major incursions of invasive species.” A logging road has been rendered impassable to vehicles, the team wrote, due to erosion, gullying, landslides, and bridge washouts Continue reading →

A short film released this year by the SANREM CRSP documents how a family applied sustainable agriculture practices to establish a highly successful business in Lantapan, Bukidnon, Philippines. Titled, Taming the land, the wind and the sun: The story of the Binahon Agroforestry Farm, the 21-minute documentary was produced by TMPEGS Scaling-Up Coordinator Maria Victoria O. Espaldon, dean of the School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños. (To download a copy of the video, RIGHT-click this link and choose the ‘Save’ option: Binahon Agroforestry Farm video (large download alert: this file is 85 MB).)

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A SANREM CRSP publication, Winning the Water War: Watersheds, Water Policies and Water Institutions, won the Outstanding Book Award for 2007 from the Philippines' National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) at an awards ceremony July 12 in Manila.

The book, co-edited by Agnes C. Rola, Herminia A. Francisco and Jennifer P.T. Liguton, comprises papers presented at the Water Resource Management Policy Forum, sponsored and organized by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) and the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Forestry and Natural Resources Research and Development (PCARRD) in August 2002. Continue reading →

Julia Kathleen Pryde

Julia Pryde, a land and water resources engineering graduate student in Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, was among those who died in the tragic Virginia Tech incident on April 16.

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Mubarik Ali, left, on a visit to Virginia Tech with SANREM PI Manuel Reyes of NC A&T State University.

Mubarik Ali, a team leader for the SANREM CRSP in Asia, has been appointed Chief Executive of the Punjab Agriculture Research Board (PARB), a research agency being reactivated in the Punjab region of Pakistan.

The agency, dormant since 1998, will oversee the allocation of a $20 million annual research development budget. Continue reading →

Theo Dillaha is welcomed at Nong Lam University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam by University Rector Bui Cach Tuyen. Nong Lam is a partner on LTR-5.

Between January 13 and February 14, 2007, Program Director Theo Dillaha visited SANREM field sites and partners in Southeast Asia associated with the Long-Term Research Activity “Agroforestry and Sustainable Vegetable Production in Southeast Asian Watersheds,” under the direction of NC A&T’s Manuel Reyes. While in Southeast Asia, Dillaha visited field research sites, observed activity progress to date, met with project teams and their partners, learned more about implementation contexts, and visited USAID missions. Continue reading →