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'Magical' Blue Flower Changing Farmers' Fortunes in India

The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  
The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  
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'Magical' Blue Flower Changing Farmers' Fortunes in India

The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  
The butterfly pea grows wild across India. (Shutterstock)  

“Until a few years ago, the butterfly pea flower was just another climbing plant in my village,” said Nilam Brahma who lives in Anthaigwlao, a village in the northeastern Indian state of Assam.

Butterfly pea, also known as aparajita in India, grows as a vine and has a striking blue flower.

Around two years ago, Brahma heard that local women were making money selling the flowers, which can be made into tea, or a blue dye, according to BBC.

She decided to join them.

“The results surprised even me. The first time I earned $50 from selling dried flowers, I felt a shock. It made me believe I could control my own future,” she said.

The experiment led to a small business.

“I applied for a small loan and invested in solar dryers. The machines helped me dry flowers faster, preserve their color, and meet the quality standards demanded by buyers,” Brahma added.

Thailand and Indonesia have been the leading growers and consumers of butterfly pea flowers. But there's growing global demand for the flower, which is attracting entrepreneurs in India.

“The global demand for natural colorants is exploding,” explained Varshika Reddy, the founder of THS Impex, which exports natural dyes and additives.

Behind that demand is consumer appetite for natural ingredients and tighter controls in the US and Europe on synthetic food dyes.

In 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved butterfly pea flower as a food additive.

However, in 2022 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) raised safety concerns about using the flower.

Both the EU and the UK classify butterfly pea flower as a "novel" food, meaning it still needs approval for widespread use.

Nevertheless, Indian entrepreneurs still see potential and want to develop India's market.

“The crop is still seen as a backyard ornamental or medicinal plant rather than a commercial commodity,” said Reddy. “There is no structured market awareness, no government classification, and no standard pricing mechanism, making farmers uncertain about returns.”

She is working with farmers to raise production standards.

“We work with a dedicated cluster of farmers and their families in Uttar Pradesh, including a significant number of women farmers. We have established formal contracts... we provide comprehensive agronomy support, including guidance on best farming practices, irrigation management, and crop-specific techniques,” Reddy said.

Others in India have spotted the commercial opportunity.

“When you infuse the flower in hot water, it turns blue, and when you squeeze lemon into it, it turns purple. That felt magical,” said Nitesh Singh, who is based just outside Delhi.

Like Reddy, he thought that the flower had much more potential in India.

“It was here for thousands of years, but nobody knew it could become clean, healthy food,” Singh added.

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Varieties

Experts Say Oceans Soaked up Record Heat Levels in 2025

People exercise along Sydney Harbour, Australia, 08 January 2026. (EPA)
People exercise along Sydney Harbour, Australia, 08 January 2026. (EPA)
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Experts Say Oceans Soaked up Record Heat Levels in 2025

People exercise along Sydney Harbour, Australia, 08 January 2026. (EPA)
People exercise along Sydney Harbour, Australia, 08 January 2026. (EPA)

The world's oceans absorbed a record amount of heat in 2025, an international team of scientists said Friday, further priming conditions for sea level rise, violent storms, and coral death.

The heat that has accumulated in the oceans last year increased by approximately 23 zettajoules -- an amount equivalent to nearly four decades of global primary energy consumption.

This finding -- published in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences -- was the highest reading of any year since modern record keeping began in the early 1950s, researchers said.

To derive these calculations, more than 50 scientists from 31 research institutions used multiple sources including a thousands-strong fleet of floating robots that track ocean changes to depths of 2,000 meters.

Peering into the depths, rather than fluctuations at the surface, provides a better indicator of how oceans are responding to "sustained pressure" from humanity's emissions, said study co-author Karina von Schuckmann.

"The picture is clear: results for 2025 confirm that the ocean continues to warm," von Schuckmann, an oceanographer from French research institute Mercator Ocean International, told AFP.

Oceans are a key regulator of Earth's climate because they soak up 90 percent of the excess heat in the atmosphere caused by humanity's release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.

All that additional energy has a powerful knock-on effect. Warmer oceans increase moisture in the atmosphere, providing fuel for tropical cyclones and destructive rainfall.

Hotter seas also directly contribute to sea level rise -- water expands when it warms up -- and make conditions unbearable for tropical reefs, whose corals perish during prolonged marine heatwaves.

"As long as the Earth continues to accumulate heat, ocean heat content will keep rising, sea level will rise and new records will be set," said von Schuckmann.

- Humanity's choice -

Ocean warming is not uniform, with some areas warming faster than others.

The tropical oceans, the South Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the northern Indian Ocean, and the Southern Ocean were among waters that absorbed record amounts of heat in 2025.

This occurred even as average sea surface temperatures decreased slightly in 2025 -- yet still remained the third-highest value ever measured.

This decrease is explained by the shift from a powerful, warming El Nino event in 2023-2024 to La Nina-type conditions generally associated with a temporary cooling of the ocean surface.

In the long term, the rate of ocean warming is accelerating due to a sustained increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere caused mainly by burning fossil fuels.

As long as global warming is not addressed and the amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere keeps rising, oceans will keep breaking records, the researchers said.

"The greatest uncertainty in the climate system is no longer the physics, but the choices humanity makes," said von Schuckmann.

"Rapid emission reductions can still limit future impacts and help safeguard a climate in which societies and ecosystems can thrive."

Varieties

‘Hectic’ Bushfires Threaten Rural Towns in Australian Heatwave

Smoke from the Longwood bushfire is seen at a staging area outside Seymour in central Victoria, Australia, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)
Smoke from the Longwood bushfire is seen at a staging area outside Seymour in central Victoria, Australia, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)
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‘Hectic’ Bushfires Threaten Rural Towns in Australian Heatwave

Smoke from the Longwood bushfire is seen at a staging area outside Seymour in central Victoria, Australia, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)
Smoke from the Longwood bushfire is seen at a staging area outside Seymour in central Victoria, Australia, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (Joel Carrett/AAP Image via AP)

Bushfires destroyed houses and razed vast belts of forest in southeast Australia on Friday, firefighters said, as hot winds fanned "hectic" conditions in the tinder-dry countryside.

Temperatures soared past 40C as a heatwave blanketed the region, creating some of the most dangerous bushfire weather since the "Black Summer" blazes of 2019-2020.

Dozens of rural hamlets in the state of Victoria were urged to evacuate while they still could, while three people, including a child, were missing inside one of the state's most dangerous fire grounds.

"If you don't leave now, it could result in your life being lost," Emergency Management Commissioner Tim Wiebusch told reporters.

Powerful wind gusts temporarily grounded firefighting aircraft trying to contain some 30 different blazes dotted across the state.

Already, firefighters fear at least 20 houses have burnt to the ground in the small town of Ruffy, about two hours' drive north of state capital Melbourne.

Country Fire Authority boss Jason Heffernan said the fire danger was "catastrophic" -- the most severe rating possible.

"Victorians should brace themselves for more property loss or worse.

"Today is going to be quite a hectic and volatile day for firefighters, fire authorities and communities."

One of the most destructive bushfires has already razed some 28,000 hectares (70,000 acres) near the town of Longwood, a region cloaked in native forests.

"Some properties have lost everything," said local fire captain George Noye.

"They've lost their livelihoods, they've lost their shearing sheds, livestock, just absolutely devastating," he told national broadcaster ABC.

"But thankfully, at the moment, no lives have been lost."

The worst bushfires have so far been confined to sparsely populated rural areas where towns might number a few hundred people at the most.

- 'Black Summer' -

Photos taken this week showed the night sky glowing orange as the fire near Longwood -- north of state capital Melbourne -- ripped through bushland.

"There were embers falling everywhere. It was terrifying," cattle farmer Scott Purcell told the ABC.

Another bushfire near the small town of Walwa crackled with lightning as it radiated enough heat to form a localized thunderstorm, fire authorities said.

Hundreds of firefighters from across Australia have been called in to help.

"Today represents one of the most dangerous fire days that this state has experienced in years," said state premier Jacinta Allan.

Allan urged people to flee rather than stay put and try to save their homes.

"You will simply not win against the fires of these magnitudes that are created on days like today."

Millions of people in Australia's two most populous states -- Victoria and New South Wales -- are sweltering through the heatwave, including in major cities Sydney and Melbourne.

Power outages left more than 30,000 houses without electricity on one of the hottest days to hit Victoria in years.

Hundreds of baby bats died earlier this week as stifling temperatures settled over the neighboring state of South Australia, a local wildlife group said.

The "Black Summer" bushfires raged across Australia's eastern seaboard from late 2019 to early 2020, razing millions of hectares, destroying thousands of homes and blanketing cities in noxious smoke.

Australia's climate has warmed by an average of 1.51C since 1910, researchers have found, fueling increasingly frequent extreme weather patterns over both land and sea.

Australia remains one of the world's largest producers and exporters of gas and coal, two key fossil fuels blamed for global heating.

Varieties

New Zealand's Rare Flightless Parrot Begins Breeding Again

New Zealand's critically endangerd kakapo parrot only breeds every few years. Don Merton / DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/AFP/File
New Zealand's critically endangerd kakapo parrot only breeds every few years. Don Merton / DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/AFP/File
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New Zealand's Rare Flightless Parrot Begins Breeding Again

New Zealand's critically endangerd kakapo parrot only breeds every few years. Don Merton / DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/AFP/File
New Zealand's critically endangerd kakapo parrot only breeds every few years. Don Merton / DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION/AFP/File

New Zealand's critically endangered flightless parrot, the kakapo, started breeding last week for the first time in four years, the government conservation department said.

Only 236 of the rotund and regal-looking green parrots remain in three breeding populations on some of New Zealand's most remote southern islands.

That includes 83 breeding age females, with high hopes this year could bring the most hatched chicks since records began, said AFP.

"It's always exciting when the breeding season officially begins, but this year it feels especially long-awaited after such a big gap since the last season in 2022," said Deidre Vercoe, the Department of Conservation's kakapo recovery operations manager.

"Now it is underway, we expect more mating over the next month and we are preparing for what might be the biggest breeding season since the program began 30 years ago."

In 1995 the Department of Conservation and indigenous Maori tribe Ngai Tahu launched the Kakapo Recovery Program, with a population of just 51 birds at serious risk of extinction.

By 2022, numbers had rebounded to 252, but 16 birds died over the past four years.

This mating season is the 13th in the past 30 years, with the bird breeding every two to four years.

"Kakapo are still critically endangered so we'll keep working hard to increase numbers," Vercoe said.

"But looking ahead, chick numbers are not our only measure of success. We want to create healthy, self-sustaining populations of kakapo that are thriving, not just surviving.

"This means with each successful breeding season we're aiming to reduce the level of intensive, hands-on management to return to a more natural state."

Tane Davis, a Ngai Tahi representative on the recovery program, said it was hoped kakapo would one day thrive throughout New Zealand's South Island.

The first chicks are expected to hatch in mid-February.