High-tech plant factories: Challenges and way forward
Reading Time: 7 minutes BY PAUL TENG & STELLA LIU WIDESPREAD flooding in Indonesia, Japanese tropical cyclones that caused force winds of 63 km/h, and intense heat waves that led to thousands of deaths in India. Natural disasters in the Asia Pacific region have set a global record. In the 2015 Natural Disasters report, the United Nations Economic […]
Ban on GM crops hurting productivity, says retired don
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA BAN on genetically modified (GM) crops in the European Union hurts productivity, according to retired Montana State University Economics Prof Gary Brester (pix). At the Montana Farm Bureau Annual Convention in Billings, Professor Brester explained that claims that European yields without GM crops match those in the US the debate is not taking into […]
Push for pineapples
Reading Time: 2 minutesBCDP introduces first pineapple growing project in Perak BAGAN DATUK: Malaysia’s pineapple industry is set to expand following the launch of the first Pineapple Farming Project in Perak under the Bioeconomy Community Development Programme (BCDP). Overseen by the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) and Malaysian Bioeconomy Development Corporation (Bioeconomy Corporation), the project involves […]
FAO: Fast-spreading pests harm food security
Reading Time: < 1 minuteCOLLECTIVE efforts must be given to combat rapidly spreading, cross-border animal and plant pests and diseases that could harm global food security. This is according to the assessment of representatives from over 20 countries who attended a meeting organised by the United Nations – Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), World Organisation for Animal Health, Bioversity […]
UPM researchers produce PKC and synbiotics based animal feed
Reading Time: 2 minutesSERDANG: Universiti Putra Malaysia’s (UPM) research team has successfully produced animal feed from palm kernel (PKC) and synbiotics. These particular feed is rich in various enzymes, proteins and metabolites that increase the nutritional and prebiotic content of the feed. The product termed as ‘Thohira Symbiotic’, encourages the growth of livestock and is comparable to similar […]
Call to African govts to promote agri-biotechnologies
Reading Time: 2 minutesAFRICAN governments need to exert more effort to put in place viable legislation and investments that promote agricultural biotechnologies and address food insecurity. This was one of the recommendations put forward during the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Regional Meeting on Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition in Sub-Saharan Africa held from Nov […]
‘Food Evolution’ provokes pro-GMO debate
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY ARUNA GANESAN BANDAR SUNWAY: A recent forum held in conjunction with the documentary Food Evolution directed by Scott Hamilton Kennedy pushed the global pro-GMO agenda a notch higher. Panellists from various countries including Malaysia, Belgium, Philippines, India, and Kenya [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3,5″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] who watched the movie at Monash University Malaysia here – lent […]
GM tomato gives added value
Reading Time: 2 minutesHong Kong researchers produce tomatoes with extra vitamins, antioxidants THE School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), in collaboration with the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes (CNRS, Strasbourg, France), has identified a new strategy to simultaneously enhance health-promoting vitamin E by ~6-fold and double both provitamin A and […]
Biotech boosts farmers welfare, boosts poverty reduction
Reading Time: < 1 minuteN CHANDRASEKHARA RAO (pix) from the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi discussed the impact of biotechnology on farmers’ welfare and poverty reduction in his paper published in the Agricultural Economics Research Review. “The peer-reviewed research findings suggest higher yields, higher net income and lower chemical use with conservation tillage. The most recent meta-analysis estimated 22 percent […]
Large US study reports no link between glyphosate and cancer
Reading Time: < 1 minuteA LARGE, prospective cohort study conducted among agricultural workers, farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina in the United States reports that there are no associations between glyphosate use and overall cancer risk or with total lymphohematopoietic cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma. The long-term study updated the previous evaluation of […]