- Hawaii's Kilauea volcano erupts, spewing columns of lava
- El Salvador Congress votes to end ban on metal mining
- Five things to know about Panama Canal, in Trump's sights
- NBA fines Minnesota guard Edwards $75,000 for outburst
- Haitians massacred for practicing voodoo were abducted, hacked to death: UN
- Inter beat Como to keep in touch with leaders Atalanta
- Man Utd boss Amorim questions 'choices' of Rashford's entourage
- Trump's TikTok love raises stakes in battle over app's fate
- Is he serious? Trump stirs unease with Panama, Greenland ploys
- England captain Stokes to miss three months with torn hamstring
- Support grows for Blake Lively over smear campaign claim
- Canada records 50,000 opioid overdose deaths since 2016
- Jordanian, Qatari envoys hold talks with Syria's new leader
- France's second woman premier makes surprise frontline return
- France's Macron announces fourth government of the year
- Netanyahu tells Israel parliament 'some progress' on Gaza hostage deal
- Guatemalan authorities recover minors taken by sect members
- Germany's far-right AfD holds march after Christmas market attack
- Serie A basement club Monza fire coach Nesta
- Mozambique top court confirms ruling party disputed win
- Syrian medics say were coerced into false chemical attack testimony
- NASA solar probe to make its closest ever pass of Sun
- London toy 'shop' window where nothing is for sale
- Volkswagen boss hails cost-cutting deal but shares fall
- Accused killer of US insurance CEO pleads not guilty to 'terrorist' murder
- Global stock markets mostly higher
- Not for sale. Greenland shrugs off Trump's new push
- Acid complicates search after deadly Brazil bridge collapse
- Norwegian Haugan dazzles in men's World Cup slalom win
- Arsenal's Saka out for 'many weeks' with hamstring injury
- Mali singer Traore child custody case postponed
- France mourns Mayotte victims amid uncertainy over government
- UK economy stagnant in third quarter in fresh setback
- African players in Europe: Salah leads Golden Boot race after brace
- German far-right AfD to march in city hit by Christmas market attack
- Ireland centre Henshaw signs IRFU contract extension
- Bangladesh launches $5bn graft probe into Hasina's family
- US probes China chip industry on 'anticompetitive' concerns
- Biden commutes sentences for 37 of 40 federal death row inmates
- Clock ticks down on France government nomination
- Mozambique on edge as judges rule on disputed election
- Mobile cinema brings Tunisians big screen experience
- Honda and Nissan to launch merger talks
- Police arrest suspect who set woman on fire in New York subway
- China vows 'cooperation' over ship linked to severed Baltic Sea cables
- Australian tennis star Purcell provisionally suspended for doping
- Luxury Western goods line Russian stores, three years into sanctions
- Wallace and Gromit return with comic warning about AI dystopia
- Philippine military says will acquire US Typhon missile system
- Afghan bread, the humble centrepiece of every meal
Wine growers 'on tip of Africa' race to adapt to climate change
At a South African wine farm, dry, uprooted grapevines are stacked at the bottom of a hilly stretch of brown fallow land.
Much of the vineyard is being replanted to better cope with climate change, which is projected to bring rarer but more violent rainfall to this wine-loving corner of the world.
From Australia to California, France, Spain and Italy, producers in wine-growing regions around the world face a race to adapt to a changing climate which affects the grapes.
"I don't like just accepting things. Let's put up a bit of a fight," said Rosa Kruger, the viticultural consultant overseeing the project in the Cape Winelands region east of Cape Town.
Like other wine farms surrounding the city of Stellenbosch, the Reyneke estate's vineyards were ill-equipped to withstand climatic shocks, she said.
"In the old days we used to have square blocks," Kruger, 64, sporting boots, jeans and a dark windbreaker jacket, told AFP of the planting set-up she is in the process of replacing.
To better deal with heavy rains, the new grapevines are being laid out to conform with the hilly landscape.
The replanting is done in phases, with old vines notably Chenin, the emblematic grape variety of France's Loire region, keeping up production while the new ones grow.
It can take them up to four years to become productive.
"We designed the vineyards according to the natural lay of the land," said Kruger.
- Erratic climate -
Drains to collect rainwater run between each plot, converging into a reservoir that is to provide water during dry spells.
Native shrubs have also been planted across the estate to increase biodiversity, bringing back insects and other animals in a bid to render the surrounding soil healthier.
Pine trees brought by European settlers that used to stand at the edge of the vineyards have been uprooted as they used too much water.
Natural fertiliser is provided by dozens of cows living on the property.
"We want to build and conceive the perfect farm, one that will still be relevant in 50 or 100 years," said Rudiger Gretschel, 46, Reyneke's chief winemaker and director.
The estate enjoys fairly favourable conditions like "granite soils" and "proximity to the ocean", he said.
But growing grapes "on the tip of Africa" can be a challenge.
"Climate is already erratic," he said. "We already get very little rain. It is already very hot."
Things are set to get worse.
The planet is on track for a disastrous heating of up to almost 3 degrees Celsius this century, according to the United Nations.
And Stellenbosch's Western Cape province is expected to see a 30-percent decrease in annual rainfall by 2050, according to other projections.
While less frequent, rains are set to become more intense -- making flooding more common.
"If people don't believe in global warming, they should come to South Africa," said Kruger, who says she faced a good deal of scepticism when she started advocating for climate adaptation more than a decade ago.
Less than an hour's drive away, Cape Town already suffers from water shortages.
"When the rains are fewer, that water will go to the city people, not to the farmers," Kruger said. "That's why it is crucial to become self-sufficient. That's the whole idea."
M.A.Vaz--PC