Space farms will feed astronauts and earthlings
Reading Time: 4 minutesBY MICHAEL DIXON Professor and Director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility, University of Guelph CANADIAN researchers are leading an effort to grow crops in space, paving the way for humanity to live on other worlds and push the frontiers on Earth. Food is the main obstacle to long-term space exploration. It limits how […]
Bangladesh releases high-yielding disease-resistant wheat variety to farmers
Reading Time: 2 minutesAS wheat farmers in Bangladesh struggle to recover from a 2016 outbreak of a mysterious disease called “wheat blast,” the country’s National Seed Board (NSB) released a new, high-yielding, blast-resistant wheat variety, according to a communication from the Wheat Research Centre (WRC) in Bangladesh. Called “BARI Gom 33,” the variety was developed by WRC using […]
India-IRRI engage in rice talks
Reading Time: 2 minutesLOS BANOS, PHILIPPINES: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Resilient Rice Field Laboratory (RRFL) at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) recently. While in the Philippines for the Asean Summit meetings, Modi spent time at the International Rice Research Institute discussing agriculture innovations and research advances for the rice sector. He met with several […]
Power up energy efficiency in crops
Reading Time: 2 minutesBY SHAWN KENG IN a resource-demanding world, humans have developed green technologies which are energy efficient and minimal in carbon footprint. Now, imagine the engineering of energy efficiency is applied in crops. Scientists are programming rice to produce more yield during photosynthesis, by interchanging genetic code found in maize. Based on University of Oxford press […]
There’s a darker side to mushrooms
Reading Time: 4 minutesYou had a hearty meal and then succumb to diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea. You think it is food poisoning. You might be right about the food poisoning but this time it is not because of the unicellular microbes – bacteria or virus. It could be due to a larger member of the microbial world – […]
Africa’s most notorious insects – the bugs that hit agriculture the hardest
Reading Time: 3 minutesBY ESTHER NDUMI NGUMBI, Research Fellow, Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University THE dreaded crop-eating fall armyworm continues to spread across Africa like wildfire. This invasive insect pest, first reported in Africa in early 2016, is in more than 20 African countries including South Sudan and South Africa. It has destroyed many staple crops […]
Gluten-free GM wheat for coeliac patients
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTISTS have engineered a new strain of wheat that produces forms of gluten that decrease triggering of a dangerous immune reaction in as many as one in 100 people. All gluten is not created equal. Most immune reaction to gluten is caused by a component in gluten called gliadins. Scientists at the Institute for Sustainable […]
Green Urea – Fertiliser breakthrough for future sustainability
Reading Time: 3 minutesThe birth of the nitrogen fertiliser via the Haber-Bosch process is one of the world’s greatest contributions to modern agriculture. It has tremendously changed the face of agriculture since the days of the synthetic nitrogen fertiliser – known as an essential crop nutrient – made vastly available and affordable to grow more crops, which eventually […]
How durian got its pungent stench
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe smell of durian has been described by some to turpentine and onions, garnished with a sweaty gym sock. The green, spiky fruit is banned from public transportation and many hotels in south-east Asia because of its characteristic and pungent smell. But where does it get its scent from? A team of researchers in Singapore, […]
Iran’s Vice President urges scientists to solve farmers’ problems
Reading Time: 2 minutesThe 2nd International and 10th National Iranian Biotechnology Congress organised by the Biotechnology Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran not only saw researchers and students convening to share information but it was also an attraction for the Vice President and Head of the Environmental Protection Organisation of the country, Dr Isa Kalantari and one […]