“There are indicator species that you can see at different stages of ecosystem repair,” said Bronwyn Botha, regenerative agriculture and biodiversity strategist for Textile Exchange, a nonprofit supporting the fashion, apparel, and textile industries in sourcing raw materials and fibers from preferred production systems. “If you’ve got one of those predators, like a puma, it might be annoying for your wool production, but it can also be a great sign that things are doing well.”

New AFSA report finds hunger up 58% across AGRA’s target countries since 2006 — while Senegal, never part of the programme, cut hunger in half.

High fertiliser prices and unpredictable rains have made reliance on standard staple crops risky. Neglected indigenous species, such as cowpea and amadumbe, offer natural soil enrichment, drought survival, and food security for smallholder farmers across South Africa

In a new analysis, published in Agricultural Systems on March 25, researchers find that grass-fed beef can compete with grain-fed beef in the region, even given those higher costs and prices for consumers — particularly if operations are scaled up, either through larger farms or farm cooperatives, which could drop production costs and prices by 24%.