Nigeria’s dry season agriculture starts in late October and runs until late March. Dry periods are worst from early December to late February. Nigeria’s patterns and unpredictable rainfall mean that farmers have to participate in dry season agriculture to increase their income.

Which is the reason you should know what the weather says before planting. These are ways farmers check the weather before they start planting.

1. Farmer Versus Unpredictable Weather

A farmer can’t fight the weather. However, he can adopt the given situation and take additional farm management practices to minimize crop losses. Therefore, accurate information regarding the weather is important so that farm activity can be planned without adverse events.

Being aware of real-time weather conditions like air and dew temperature, precipitation, and humidity is the best way to protect crops and secure a high and healthy yield.

Extreme weather such as drought, flood, hail, or frost can cause instant plant stress, thus leading to failed production and increased cost

2. Flooded Vineyard

The only way to manage and ensure profitable crop production is accurate weather forecasts. Available on any device (radio, TV, mobile, or computer), it gives great value to farmers whose success largely depends on the weather.

3. Weather Monitoring Determines Farmers’ Success

Crop growth is closely related to the weather. Some crops require certain high or low temperatures to start their germination and continue further development.

On the other hand, temperatures in combination with humidity are often used to predict various insect pest and disease occurrences.

Based on this information, farmers can plan times for sowing, protection, harvesting, and other field activities in order to avoid negative weather effects and yield losses.

Weather monitoring offers a set of measurement options to provide useful information about soil and crop conditions, some of which are:

• Air And Soil Temperature
• Relative Humidity
• Soil Moisture
• Rainfall
• Wind Speed/Direction
• Evapotranspiration

All measured parameters can be used for specific field operations, such as an irrigation events schedule, pest alarm models, as well as the determination of the right time for crop fertilization and protection.

Farming based on weather data is crucial to successful farm management. More importantly, it ensures sustainable farming, thus protecting the environment.

A western Pennsylvania-based company is using waste left behind by old coal power plants to generate electricity to power supercomputers used in bitcoin mining

As cryptocurrencies explode in popularity, so has the amount of electricity required to mine the digital tokens, which raises concerns about the impact crypto has on the environment.

But for Stronghold Digital Mining, a company based in western Pennsylvania, mining bitcoin could actually be a way to reduce environmental waste and clean up their community.

The company burns leftover harmful waste from abandoned coal mines to generate the electricity that powers hundreds of supercomputers running around the clock to mint bitcoin – an imperfect solution to energy generation but one that mitigates a century-old coal waste problem in Pennsylvania.

Stronghold CEO, Greg Beard says there are more than 800 abandoned coal mining sites in Pennsylvania that are overrun with coal ash – the byproduct from burning coal to produce electricity.

Coal ash can leach into groundwater and pollute waterways, and contains heavy metals considered by many to be carcinogens.

Stronghold collects coal ash from the bygone mine and processes it at a waste coal processing facility where it is sorted, crushed, and burned to generate the electricity to power the company’s bitcoin mining operation.

Beard acknowledges that Stronghold’s solution to mine bitcoin using coal waste isn’t perfect as burning coal ash also releases carbon into the atmosphere.

Still, he noted that because the existing coal waste is extremely combustible, much of the ash would end up catching fire and burning regardless of collection.

Beard says that processing the coal ash removes some of the harmful chemical content, plus he says his business has created hundreds of new jobs in the region.

Four years of drought, the worst in decades, along with deforestation, have transformed this once fertile corner of southern Madagascar into a dust bowl.

With few trees left to slow the wind in southern Madagascar, sand blows continuously.

It settles across fields, villages, roads and in the eyes of hungry children waiting for food aid.

Four years of extremely dry weather and forest clearing to make farmland have turned the once fertile area into a dusty red emptiness.

Madagascar is the fourth-largest island on Earth and it contains one of the planet’s most diverse ecosystems. It has thousands of species of colorful plants and wild animals.

But, it is not all a natural, green paradise. Especially in the south, the environmental reality on the island has changed.

Theodore Mbainaissem runs WFP operations in southern Madagascar. He said there are no usual weather patterns any longer.

Villagers can no longer predict the best time to plant or harvest.

Madagascar is home to 30 million people. The world’s fourth-largest island and one of its most diverse ecosystems, with thousands of endemic species of plants and animals such as lemurs, Madagascar projects the image of a lush natural paradise.

Away from water-related stories, For the first time in over two decades, house prices in the U.S. have increased by more than the average worker earns in a year.

The Wall Street Journal reported that according to online real-estate site Zillow, the value of a typical U.S. home has risen near 20 percent in 2021, jumping by more than 52-thousand U.S. dollars from 2020.

With Census Bureau data showing the median average income is about 50-thousand dollars, that means the average homeowner saw their house go up in value by more than the average worker took home from their job.

This is the first time since 2000 that the increase in house prices has topped the median pretax income, indicating the booming house market in the U.S.

The Nigerian Institution of Water Engineers has called on the Federal Government and relevant stakeholders to take actions on conservation of ground water resources.

National Chairman, NIWE, Chinyere Igwegbe, made the call at a news conference to commemorate the 2022 World Water Day in Abuja, nigeria’s seat of power.

Igwegbe said this year’s theme on groundwater draws attention to the hidden water resource that had always been critically important but not fully recognised in sustainable development policymaking.

Speaking on what the institution of water engineers was doing to help alleviate water challenges in the country, Igwegbe said the institution had undertaken many initiatives that had far reaching impacts.

“It is important we reflect on ways in providing solution to water challenges in the nation, beginning from our own local communities.

“NIWE will continue to engage relevant authorities, particularly the Federal Ministry of Water Resources, the Federal Capital Territory Water Board, State Water Boards and other water organisations in providing solutions to water challenges in the country.

“Here in FCT, we have had a cause to check water pipe leakages and report to the FCT Water Board for their attention and necessary action.

“This programme is called Water Watch and all our chapters in the various states are encouraged to do same. We are having advocacy on incessant drilling of borehole without monitoring.

“We donated 10,000 litres to Durumi IDP Open defecation campaign and propose open defecation outreach and programmes in FCT now being extended to states.

World Water Day celebration started since 1993 involving all nations on March 22 annually, except in countries where war was prevalent.