Who is afraid of GM0s?
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY MARGARET KAREMBU THE genetically modified organism (GMO) debate remains engulfed in a maelstrom of controversies. Sadly, what is largely a first world debate continues to increasingly hurt poor farmers in the developing world. While sharing knowledge about developments in modern biotechnology and biosafety around the globe, I have had an opportunity to interact with […]
Sweet way to greater yield
Reading Time: < 1 minuteTHREE years ago, biotechnologists demonstrated in field trials that they could increase the productivity of maize by introducing a rice gene into the plant that regulated the accumulation of sucrose in kernels and led to more kernels per maize plant. They knew that the rice gene affected the performance of a natural chemical in maize, […]
Genetic engineering, CRISPR and food: What the ‘revolution’ will bring in the near future
Reading Time: 6 minutesBY STEVEN CERIER HUMANKIND is on the verge of a genetic revolution that holds great promise and potential. It will change the ways food is grown, medicine is produced, animals are altered and will give rise to new ways of producing plastics, biofuels and chemicals. Many object to the genetic revolution, insisting we should not […]
Minister: Brace up for 2050’s digital agriculture
Reading Time: 2 minutesSERDANG: The agriculture sector has to remain strategically important as a food provider and must keep pace with a fast changing world moving towards digital technology, says Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based industries, Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek. “New digital and biotechnologies will impact on the livelihood of millions of farmers worldwide. We need to […]
A case of man failing technology
Reading Time: 3 minutesSO, Clearfield Rice has failed in Malaysia. For those who are new to Clearfield Rice, here is the background information. It is high-yielding and weed-resistance rice variety developed by BASF and further improved by the Malaysian Agricultural Research & Development Institute (MARDI) to suit local environment. MARDI took seven years to perfect it for local […]
Gene-edited cacao plants could save the chocolate industry
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY SHAWN KENG IMAGINE a world without chocolate? Put melting ice cap aside for a while, chocolates may melt away from your hands and its very existence. While this seems extreme, devastating effect of climate change should not be undermined. Climate change threatens the survival of cacao plants in West Africa and the rest of […]
Engineers make wearable sensors for plants to measure water use in crops
Reading Time: 3 minutesIOWA State University plant scientist Patrick Schnable quickly described how he measured the time it takes for two kinds of corn plants to move water from their roots, to their lower leaves and then to their upper leaves. This was no technical, precise, poster talk. This was a researcher interested in working with new, low-cost, […]
Once and for all, here’s what science says about GMOs
Reading Time: 10 minutesAcademy Award-nominated documentary director Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s latest film, Food Evolution revisits the GMO conversation, imbuing it with science and revealing the truth through a haze of propaganda and misinformation. He recently sat down with Futurism to talk about the film, what it tells us about other controversial subjects in American society today, and what […]
Breakthrough in wheat disease
Reading Time: 3 minutesIn a world first, science has leaped a step ahead of an old foe that has recently re-emerged in some parts of the world, where it has devastated crops because of its ability to evolve, undoing much of the hard work that began in earnest with the Green Revolution – using natural techniques to isolate […]
African agri researchers trained on science communication
Reading Time: 2 minutesTHERE is a strong need for scientists to learn how to simplify their messages for a non-scientific audience. This was a key takeaway from a two-week science communication training workshop organised by Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa (BecA-ILRI) Hub in collaboration with ISAAA AfriCenter and the International Foundation for Science (IFS) at the International Livestock […]