MPOB: Oil palm a more viable cash crop
Reading Time: 2 minutesKUALA LUMPUR: Being the most widely used and traded cash crop in the world and yet the most controversial, palm oil is here to stay. Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) Director General Datuk Ahmad Kushairi Din said this at the recently concluded 14th International Symposium on Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology (ISBAB 2018) in Kuala Lumpur […]
Genes that can ‘beef up’ cattle
Reading Time: 2 minutesBEEF cattle improvement programmes have focused for decades on promoting the rapid growth of calves. Now, the goal is to improve other traits, such as meat tenderness or ribeye muscle area. Researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil who are studying the genome of the Gir breed of Zebu cattle have identified 35 […]
Older plantation crops release more CO2 in M’sia
Reading Time: 2 minutesOLDER rubber trees and oil palm plantations in Malaysia release more carbon dioxide from the soil into the atmosphere than younger groves, according to new research in the Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science. Forests and plants store carbon dioxide to produce energy. However, when plants drop their leaves or die, soil microbes go to […]
Indonesia’s first GM crop to hit the market
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE government of Indonesia has approved the first locally developed genetically modified crop which will soon be commercialised in the country. The biotech sugarcane event NXI-4T which contains the betaine gene was developed by the state-owned sugar company, PT Perkebunan Nusantara XI (PTPN XI). The gene expressed osmoprotectant compound which was introduced using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated […]
New tool helps scientists better target the search for alien life
Reading Time: 3 minutesCOULD there be another planet out there with a society at the same stage of technological advancement as ours? To help find out, EPFL scientist Claudio Grimaldi, working in association with the University of California, Berkeley, has developed a statistical model that gives researchers a new tool in the search for the kind of signals […]
Boost for boiler industry
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY NOOR ESZEREEN JUFERI SERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) Faculty of Agriculture has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Malayan Flour Mills Berhad as a prelude to the collaboration between Malayan Flour Mills Berhad and UPM. UPM Vice-Chancellor, Prof Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris said through the MoU, Malayan Flour Mills has agreed to […]
Spotlight on Ulam Raja
Reading Time: 2 minutesStudy finds anti-diabetes chemicals in local salad eaten by Malay community RESEARCHERS in Malaysia have shown that the plant Cosmos caudatus Kunth contains chemicals that can lower blood glucose levels. These plant-based substances could be investigated further as potential therapeutic agents to help manage high blood sugar in diabetes, a disease that affects 422 million […]
New tomato from gene editing
Reading Time: < 1 minuteFOR the first time ever, an international team of scientists from Brazil, the United States, and Germany has created a new crop from a wild plant within a single generation using the modern genome editing process CRISPR-Cas9. The team used Solanum pimpinellifolium as the parent plant species, a wild tomato relative from South America, and […]
Bill Gates: GMO seeds can help farmers adapt to climate change
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN a conference call during the Global Climate Action Summit held in San Francisco on September 12-14, 2018, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, said that the power of innovation should extend to climate change. Gates believes that innovation will be key to confronting climate change, helping those affected by it, […]
‘Give us this day our daily bread’
Reading Time: < 1 minutePope on World Food Day POPE FRANCIS on Oct 16, which is World Food Day (WFD) embraced the theme of the event: Our actions are our future: A Zero Hunger world by 2030 is possible. The Holy Father’s words came in a letter to Prof José Graziano da Silva Director General of the Food and […]