Farms

Lake Naivasha’s shoreline has been on the move. When farmer Dickson Ngome leased his 1.5-acre plot in Kenya’s Rift Valley in 2008, his vegetables grew more than 2 kilometers from the water’s edge. This October, he woke to find his home and fields inside the lake—about a foot of water covering everything. “It seemed as if the lake was far from our homes,” said his wife, Rose Wafula. “And then one night we were shocked to find our houses flooded. The water came from nowhere.” The couple and their four children now sleep on the…

Zimbabwe’s crocodile industry inches forward, raises questions about jobs, conservation and value What sounds at first like an exotic sideline to traditional agriculture is quietly becoming a fixture of Zimbabwe’s export economy. Over the past two years crocodile skin exports have inched up from US$32 million to US$34 million, Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Fisheries Davis Marapira told reporters — a modest rise that nonetheless signals a sector pushing for a larger role in foreign exchange earnings and rural…