Can a potato last 20 years? Bolivian farmers share their secret
By AFP
18 July 2021 |
5:58 pm
Forced by the pandemic to swap city living for the rural life they had left behind, Egberto and Prudencia fell back on an old family tradition. Last winter, this Bolivian couple began making chuno using a technique widespread in the Andean region to preserve potatoes through a natural freeze-drying process which allows them to be eaten decades after they are dug up.
Related
14 Jul 2021
A convoy of members of the self-defense group Pueblos Unidos travels through plantations in the municipality of Ario de Rosales, where they maintain checkpoints and have erected stone trenches. Armed with rifles and travelling in pick-up trucks, the hooded men and women claim to be avocado growers who have revolted against the country's drug traffickers, whose violence has once again escalated in the country.
18 Jul 2021
Forced by the pandemic to swap city living for the rural life they had left behind, Egberto and Prudencia fell back on an old family tradition. Last winter, this Bolivian couple began making chuno using a technique widespread in the Andean region to preserve potatoes through a natural freeze-drying process which allows them to be eaten decades after they are dug up.
6 Aug 2021
Nigerian authorities enlist the help of traditional hunters to guard farmers in their fields against attacks from the radical Islamist insurgent group Boko Haram.
6 Aug 2021
Only shrubs grew naturally in the sandy acid soil that farmer Volker Miros chose as a site to test the potential for truffle production in South Africa. After years of trial and error, today Miros is a pioneer of South Africa's budding truffle cultivation industry.
21 Aug 2021
Solar panels generate electricity in the fields, helping both farmers and climate protection. DW visits a German solar farm — and looks at other places this combination is paying off. How widely can agrovoltaics spread?
22 Aug 2021
A collar camera fitted to a dingo in Australia captures the dog's life on Fraser Island, as part of efforts to track and prevent interactions between people and the wild dogs. From posing for snap-happy onlookers to scavenging on the pristine sand of the world heritage site off Queensland's coast, the collar camera captured the daily life of the dog, also known as wongari, in close up detail for the first time, according to the Queensland Department of Environment and Science.
23 Aug 2021
Fires sweep through a forest in Chiquitania, a transition zone between the Amazon and the Gran Chaco lowlands in eastern Bolivia, where large blazes have already ravaged at least 200,000 hectares, according to reports from local authorities.
13 Sep 2021
Tens of thousands of farmers continue to take to the streets in protest against new farm laws and vow to campaign against Prime Minister Modi's party in key state elections.
27 Sep 2021
Farmer unions in India staged a huge protest to pressure the government into withdrawing its controversial reforms.The protests have been ongoing for 10 months, and joined by several opposition parties.
3 Oct 2021
One year ago, India's parliament passed a series of laws aimed at reforming the country's agricultural system. The move was supposed to allow farmers, especially those cultivating wheat and rice, to sell their products to private companies without going through local markets. But what was meant to be a revolution for Prime Minister Narendra Modi has turned into the longest and biggest peasant protest since the country's independence nearly 75 years ago.
2 Oct 2021
Desperate farmers in Afghanistan are turning to opium as a means to survive. Prices of opium have more than tripled since the Taliban takeover of the country, in combination with a deep water crisis have forced farmers into poppy farming. The opium is then smuggled over the border and turned into heroin for distribution in European markets.
1 Oct 2021
At 94, Saturnino Lopez says he can walk four kilometres in a day. Awake early in the morning, he cuts firewood at his home on the Nicoya Peninsula in Costa Rica, one of the areas with the longest-living inhabitants on the planet.
Latest
2 hours ago
A renounced Al Jazeera journalist was killed last week during an Israeli raid in the West Bank. Shireen Abu Akhleh was wearing a flak jacket with the word "press" clearly marked. Israelis and Palestinians have traded blame over who fired the fatal shot, while Israel has opened an investigation into heavy-handed police tactics used during Abu Akleh's funeral procession, which almost caused her coffin to fall to the ground. We get analysis with Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
2 hours ago
In a UN Security Council briefing, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert said the streets in Iraq could "boil over" if political leaders were unable to end a political stalemate that has gripped the country for over seven months.
4 hours ago
As the 75th Cannes Film Festival gets underway, FRANCE 24's Olivia Salazar-Winspear brings us a glimpse of what its opening ceremony will involve, including a Palme d’Honneur for Forest Whitaker. We also take a look at the composition of this year’s jury, with French actor Vincent Lindon shepherding an artistic team who'll assess the features competing for the Palme d’Or. Plus we get a preview of the opening film "Final Cut", in which director Michel Hazanavicius declares his love for genre movies in a lighthearted French parody of a zombie horror slasher.
5 hours ago
Argentina is struggling to deal with spiraling food inflation, driven by soaring commodity prices worldwide, the war in Ukraine and the lingering effects of the pandemic. Millions in Argentina are relying on food aid.
7 hours ago
Find these stories and much more when you grab a copy of The Guardian on Wednesday.
7 hours ago
Tiger Woods says he is feeling “stronger” than he did at the Masters ahead of the PGA Championship. Woods is still recovering from injuries he sustained to his foot and leg in a car crash last February. Woods made his return at the Masters in April but found the hilly terrain of Augusta tough, and he faded after two rounds.