First zinc maize variety launched to reduce malnutrition
Reading Time: 3 minutesCOLOMBIA: A new zincenriched maize variety was released in Colombia on February 23 to help combat malnutrition in South America. Zinc is an essential mineral that plays an important role in human development but is not naturally produced by humans. Zinc deficiency can lead to impaired growth and development, respiratory infections, diarrheal disease and a […]
Study quantifies cost of delayed GM canola adoption in Australia
Reading Time: < 1 minuteWHAT is the cost of delaying GM crop adoption? Experts from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) and SGA Solutions answered this question using the case of GM canola in Australia. The results are published in GM Crops & Food. GM canola was approved in Australia in 2003 after a sciencebased risk assessment. This was followed […]
Conflicts and weather patterns strain food security
Reading Time: 2 minutesROME: High levels of food insecurity persist in the world, due largely to conflicts and to adverse climatic shocks that are taking a toll, particularly in East African and Near East countries, where large numbers of people continue to be in need of humanitarian assistance, a new FAO report notes. Some 37 countries are in […]
INBIOSIS- CFF collaborate to ensure food and national security
Reading Time: < 1 minuteBY ASMAHANIM AMIR SEMENYIH: Institute of Systems Biology (INBIOSIS), UKM is working hand-inhand with Crops For the Future (CFF) to ensure the sustainability of crops and food security, through research. UKM Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation, Prof Dr Hj Mohd Ekhwan Toriman said the research will focus on nutritional value chains for dietary diversification […]
Land study in Bangkok
Reading Time: < 1 minuteIN order to understand agriculture scenarios in other countries that have similar climate and land use for agriculture, a total of 25 students pursuing Master of Land Resource Management (LARM), Faculty of Agriculture, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) conducted an academic visit to the School of Agricultural Resources, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, recently. The visit was to […]
Renowned seed scientist dies
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRENOWNED Professor Emeritus Chin Hoong Fong passed away on March 19 at the age of 83. Chin has always attracted a full house of enthusiastic audience whenever he spoke. Other than being a devoted and highly respected “teacher” in Malaysia, Chin was also an internationally renowned seed scientist who pioneered storage of recalcitrant seeds in […]
Canada approves Golden Rice
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHE Government of Canada has approved the sale of Provitamin A Biofortified Rice GR2E (Golden Rice) in the country. In order to determine whether this rice variety could be sold in Canada as food, the scientists at Health Canada conducted a scientific assessment that ensured that GR2E rice is safe for consumption, that the increased […]
How South Africa is keeping its worst invader – famine weed – at bay
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY BLAIR COWIE, PhD Candidate Invasive Species Management, University of the Witwatersrand THE poisonous herb, Parthenium hysterophorus, is one of the world’s most destructive invasive plants. It threatens biodiversity, national food security and human health. Native to parts of Central and South America (Gulf of Mexico) it has spread to more than 40 countries including […]
UKM rice-es to the need
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY ASMAHANIM AMIR SEMANGGOL, PERAK: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has produced a new variety of high quality white rice that is durable, through a new innovation process involving cross breeding wild rice species and local rice species for the first time in Malaysia. That process is cross breed process between local high quality rice namely Oryza […]
Protecting cassava from disease? There’s an app for that
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY AMANDA RAMCHARAN Postdoctoral Researcher, Pennsylvania State University CASSAVA is one of the developing world’s most important crops. Its starchy roots and leaves are a staple food for more than 500 million people in Africa each day. And Africa produces half of the world’s total cassava output; the continent’s main growers are the Congo, Côte […]