
King's Birthday Honours 2025: List of recipients from Highlands, Islands and Moray
Thirteen people were awarded for their dedication and commitment to special causes as part of King Charles III's Birthday Honours.
Here is a list of recipients from the Highlands, Moray, Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland.
, a training officer with the Assynt Mountain Rescue Team, has been made an MBE for his dedicated voluntary service.
Over his 15-year career with mountain rescue he has clocked up more than 1,000 call-outs and has also managed to train two search and rescue dogs who assist the team.
is commercial director and co-owner of Witherbys.
The company publishes maritime navigational guidance for shipping around the UK and Kat's job is to make sure the guidance is written in readable English.
She has made an MBE for her services to the people of Scotland.
Angus John Tulloch is the founder and trustee of the Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust.
He is the father of two pipers – but is not a piper himself. He has been made an MBE for his services to music.
became the harbourmaster and chief executive of Ullapool Harbour Trust in 2007.
Since then he has overseen more than £2 million in investments into the harbour.
He also helped with the renovation of a dilapidated premises to provide a workshop and retail space for vulnerable adults.
He has been made an MBE for services to the economy and to the community in Ullapool.
is chairman of the East Sutherland Rescue Association.
ESRA is an independent charity which funds and operates an inshore lifeboat in the Dornoch Firth area crewed by volunteers.
The service has been operating for more than 40 years.
Mr Dalton has been made an MBE for services to the community in East Sutherland.
, a dedicated volunteer, has been recognised for services to the community in Dingwall.
is the company director for Kilbride Shellfish Ltd.
He has been made an OBE for services to the Scottish fishing industry.
and , set up the Linda Norgrove Foundation in honour of their daughter, an aid worker, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2010.
The foundation works to support women and children in Afghanistan who need their help.
They have been made OBEs.
Donald John MacSween has been made an MBE for services to the community in the Western Isles.
is the chairwoman of Speyside Youth, which runs a weekly youth cafe in Dufftown.
She has been awarded for her services to young people in Speyside.
is an advocacy service manager for Advocacy Northeast.
Under her leadership the service has grown, providing support for the disadvantaged and those with mental health issues and learning disabilities.
(Susan Foard) is a procurator fiscal for the Crown Office in Orkney.
She has been made an MBE for her work in the administration of justice and to her local community.
was the director for children's services at Shetland Islands Council for more than 13 years until she retired in September 2024.
She first began her career as a teacher in 1989 at the Urafirth Primary School, and then in Dunrossness.
She has been made an MBE for her contributions to education in Shetland.
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The Guardian
36 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Growing pains: can rice production in Africa keep up with demand?
Salmata Ouattara remembers 2023 as the turning point for her rice farm. June is usually the peak of the rainy season in Ivory Coast, but in the preceding years she and other farmers in M'Be on the outskirts of Bouaké, the country's second biggest city, would wait weeks for rainfall. Then in September, they would watch helplessly as their farmlands were flooded. Some abandoned their farms, frustrated by fluctuating crop yields. For Ouattara, that was not an option. As her family's breadwinner, proceeds from the farm catered to the needs of her three children as well as requests from other relatives. Then another farmer mentioned a concept called Smart Valleys that had helped solve similar issues and double his income. 'Before, I made 2 tonnes a year [and] earned at least 400,000CFA [west African francs, equivalent to £528.60],' said Ouattara, who has since added maize, tomatoes and cucumbers to her portfolio. 'But as soon as we put Smart Valleys into practice, I made 4.5 tonnes, which makes me 900,000CFA (£1,189.34).' Smart Valleys is a low-cost initiative by the nonprofit organisation Africa Rice that aims to help farmers get better control over the water on their land, for example by using channels, in order to reduce flooding and increase yields. It also helps farmers diversify crop production. The programme – backed primarily by Japan's agriculture ministry – focuses on inland valleys, low-lying areas between hills with fertile soils that are ideal for agriculture but rarely cultivated due to poor water control. Its head, Elliott Dossou-Yovo, said the valleys cover 190m hectares in sub-Saharan Africa, of which only 10% is cultivated. 'In the past, farmers were trying to produce rice only once a year and failing,' said Dossou-Yovo. With his team's support, fields that used to be abandoned during the dry season are cultivated with alternative crops, thereby diversifying farmers' portfolios and increasing their incomes. Africa Rice, established in 1971, set a goal to double rice production within a decade in 2009, when it changed its name from West Africa Rice Development Association. Since achieving that target, it has ambitiously turned to self-sufficiency for member states by 2030. The core of its work happens a few miles away from Ouattara's farm at an 800-hectare research campus, where there are facilities including testing sites, a seed science lab and gene bank with 22,000 rice varieties used by scientists to develop improved strains. Funders include the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and donor partners including Islamic Development Bank and African Development Bank, though member states also make contributions. The need for Africa Rice arose because in the 1960s and 70s, rice consumption and population growth surpassed food production rate in west Africa, Baboucarr Manneh, its Gambian-born director general, said. Today, rice that was previously reserved for feasting occasions, is arguably the continent's most popular staple. 'Rice is very popular because it is easy to cook,' he said. 'It used to seem like a luxury food to many consumers, compared with maize and millet. If you go to Sierra Leone, they used to consume a lot of roots and tubers etc, but people now associate those foods with poverty so they prefer rice.' Sali Atanja Ndindeng heads the rice sector development programme, which develops new varieties in conjunction with market trends and analyses samples received from partner institutions in member countries to help identify good grain quality. 'Our goal is to make rice not just an energy-dense food, but a nutrient-dense food … and at the same time, reduce the impact of rice causing peaks in glucose levels when people consume it,' he said. One way to do this, the team thinks, is to promote the consumption of parboiled rice – which some studies have shown has a lower impact on blood sugar levels – in countries such as Ivory Coast, where it is historically unpopular, to mirror countries like Nigeria where it is prevalent. Ndindeng's teams also make pop rice that can be ground to instant flour for children to eat with milk and chocolate as well as rice crackers integrated with local items including ginger, hibiscus, soy and tamarind which are high in zinc and iron, to tackle deficiencies in those micronutrients. Many barriers are holding back member countries from reaching self-sufficiency. For years, cheap imports have flooded African markets from Asia, where producers benefit from heavy subsidies. Africa imports about 40% of rice it consumes – about 15 to 16 million tonnes every year. More than half of the imports come from India alone. In July 2023, India banned rice exports, citing the need to consume more locally. 'That created a panic in Africa,' said Manneh. 'African ministers had to go to India to negotiate.' Only a fifth of rice fields in Africa use irrigation, with the rest relying on unpredictable rainfall, so member states are being guided on building climate-resilient systems. Tanzania is self-sufficient and exporting within east Africa. In west Africa, Nigeria, is close to doing so. Manneh is hoping for more success stories on a national level, but also on an individual level with farmers such as Ouattara, who are still stunned by what science is doing for their lives. 'They welcomed me … They guided me and I thank them,' she said.


Scotsman
2 hours ago
- Scotsman
Roseburn Path is too precious to lose to a tram line
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Daily Mirror
2 days ago
- Daily Mirror
Lavender will flourish every summer if one pruning rule is always followed
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