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East Africa’s Pending Famine

An unfortunate mix of drought, failed harvests and rising food prices have brought severe food shortages to the east and the Horn of Africa. The severe food crisis is already affecting around 10 million people in parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia. Rains have failed over two seasons, with a strong La Niña event … Read more

Warding Off Famine

Managing the Mautam The predator satiation hypothesis holds that by fruiting at the same time, a plant population increases the survival rate of their seeds by flooding the area with fruit so that even if predators eat their fill, there will still be seeds left over. Certain species of bamboo, for instance, have a flowering … Read more

Bamboo flowering threatens famine in Assam’s North Cachar

The cricket ball-sized flowers have sprouted along entire lengths of bamboo stalks to produce a huge volume of seeds that attract thousands of rats, which feed on them as they are very nutritious, say agriculture and forest experts.And the flowers are threatening to create a famine, a phenomenon the district has witnessed every 50 years … Read more