259 News & Press Releases found
SciDev.Net News
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Exploration urged to discover new rice species
More exploration is needed to discover new wild varieties of rice, before they are lost to science forever, heard the 7th International Rice Genetics Symposium held this week (5-8 November) in Manila, the Philippines. There are still many ...
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Nitrogen fixation helps double some African farm yields
A large-scale research and development project has shown that giving farmers resources and advice on nitrogen fixation through legume plants can double yields and boost incomes in Africa. But not all farmers are benefiting from this practice due to ...
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Smartphone app offers cheap aflatoxin test for farmers
A smartphone application could offer a cheap way for African farming communities to manage cancer-causing toxins produced by a fungus that grows on crops while building a ‘big data’ set to assist research on outbreaks. The ...
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Farmers could cut emissions while boosting production
Farmers could earn more and protect the environment by using technologies and practices that reduce the global warming gases that livestock emit, according to a report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The report`s five case ...
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Climate change to disrupt soil nutrients in drylands
The increased aridity expected this century as a result of climate change may disrupt the balance of key soil nutrients with a knock-on effect on soil fertility threatening livelihoods of more than two billion people, a study finds. The drop in ...
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Supermarket jungle
Borneo’s intact rainforests are among the world’s most biologically diverse environments, providing an abundance of foods that have fed people for thousands of years. Villagers in the Kelabit Highlands, near the Malaysian-Indonesian ...
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Nepal`s shifting rains and changing crops
With weather becoming more erratic every year as a result of climate change, Nepali farmers are progressively shifting their approach, turning vast areas of rice paddies into small-scale vegetable farming. Vegetables are more resilient as they ...
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Focus on Disability: Changing agricultural attitudes
Low-tech projects are overturning prejudices and leaving disabled people free to farm, says Sue Coe. Two recent SciDev.Net stories covered important current food provision issues: farming methods for smallholders and the need for more agricultural ...
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Better land care may be worth US$1.4 trillion a year
Better management of degraded lands could deliver up to US$1.4 trillion a year in increased crop production, says a report presented at the UN Convention to Combat Desertification conference in Windhoek, Namibia, last month (24 September). But it ...
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Tiger growl recordings deter crop-raiding elephants
Lives could be saved and crops protected by playing sounds of growling tigers to wild elephants on their way to raid fields in India, a study reports. There have been hundreds of deaths and much crop loss in the last decade in areas where elephants ...
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Switch to organic farming may boost yields and incomes
Switching to organic and resource-conserving methods of farming can improve smallholder crop yields, food security and income, a review study has found. But a more-extensive evidence base founded on rigorous and consistent research methods is ...
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Microbes `cheaper, fairer` for boosting yields than GM
Adapting microbes that dramatically increase crop yields while reducing demand for fertilisers and pesticides through selective breeding or genetic engineering could be cheaper and more flexible than genetically modifying plants themselves, says an ...
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World agribusiness R&D controlled by `cosy cartel`
The increasing consolidation of global agribusiness is leaving the world`s food production in the hands of a corporate "cartel", warns a new market report from ETC Group, a civil society organization based in Canada. According to the report, six ...
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Research funding and skills key to food for post-2015
Public spending on agricultural research must double in the next decade if the world is to successfully move to sustainable methods of food production, says a UN-backed report. This funding must be coupled with long-term investment in the training ...
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Start-up promises to revolutionise shrimp farming
A UK start-up says it has developed a low-cost, ecological alternative to traditional shrimp farming by using bacteria as both a water filter and food for its shrimp. IKEA-like portable units using microbes and solar power to cheaply grow shrimp ...
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Farmers` rights `at stake in Chile`s Monsanto law bill`
Campaigners who last month marched through more than a dozen Chilean cities against a bill dubbed the `Monsanto law` after the giant US biotech firm, plan to protest again if the bill progresses through the country`s Senate. Meanwhile, the ...
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Small birds save big money for Costa Rica`s farmers
Research in Costa Rica shows that wild birds significantly reduce damage by a devastating coffee pest, the coffee berry borer beetle, contributing to huge savings to local farms and providing incentive to protect wildlife habitat, Nature News ...
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Erratic weather threatens livelihoods in Pakistan
In recent years, climatic stresses, particularly droughts and floods, have devastated yields and caused crops to fail for many farmers across Pakistan. Erratic rainfall — particularly in rain-fed areas like Taxila, 20 miles northwest of the ...
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Farming and knowledge monocultures are misconceived
Food needs can be met with a new vision for agriculture and science, say Brian Wynne and Georgina Catacora-Vargas. In mainstream policy and corporate thinking, scientific knowledge and global markets are considered key for food security. This has ...
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Desert plantations could help capture carbon
Planting trees in coastal deserts could capture carbon dioxide, reduce harsh desert temperatures, boost rainfall, revitalise soils and produce cheap biofuels, say scientists. Large-scale plantations of the hardy jatropha tree, Jatropha curcas, ...