Millet and sorghum are major food crops in the Sahel, where they have been diversified quite considerably. However, the existing capital is likely to shrink as a result of human activity, in terms of socioeconomic development and environmental changes, particularly climate change. While there have been very few large-scale studies of the issue to date, CIRAD and its partners are beginning to reap the first results of a project funded by the Institut français de la biodiversité (IFB). The aim is
A recently published study in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research indicates that fuel reduction treatments should simultaneously take place in the overstory, understory, and on the ground to adequately reduce fire severity. Thinning trees without treating surface fuels does not reduce mortality adequately because mortality can occur from hot fires on the ground, as well as fires that burn through the tree crowns.
The study, “Fuel Treatments Alter the Effects of Wildfire in a M
Between January and March 2006, researchers from the CIRAD Animal Production and Veterinary Medicine Department (CIRAD-EMVT) are having a blitz on bird flu in North, East and West Africa, the Middle East, and eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the zones covered by the five FAO-TCPs.
As Emmanuel Camus, Director of CIRAD-EMVT, points out: “the primary aim is to work with our partners in the field to see whether migrating birds introduced the virus at their overwintering sites thi
The end of the post-colonial conflicts in Africa and the rebuilding of both States and societies have considerably improved the lives of both individuals and communities. However, in many cases, the state of peace achieved is very fragile, and conflicts often recur. One common denominator of the situation in these countries is the failure of post-conflict reconstruction to address the issue of land. Land is a primary, fundamental resource that is also highly symbolic for most Africans, and plays
Cotton is one of the main cogs in the machinery of the African economy: it accounts for 60% of agricultural export revenue and 5 to 10% of GDP in producing countries, and supports 10 million people, including 3.3 million in Mali. Moreover, excluding subsidies, the cotton sector is competitive and exports more than 90% of what it produces. However, over the past ten years or so, the huge subsidies granted to producers in the United States (US$ 2.3 billion in 2001/2002), China ($ 1.2 billion in 2001/20
Robots are on the march again into the last bastion of labour intensive industry – farming and horticulture. Research engineers and horticulture specialists at the University of Warwick are working together to devise a suite of robots and automated systems which could transform farming and horticulture over the next decade.
The researchers from the University of Warwick’s horticultural arm, Warwick HRI, and its manufacturing engineering section, Warwick Manufacturing Group, are working
The wood shavings from sawmills can be used to produce an organic substrate for use in intensive crop growth in containers. Moreover, this substrate has the advantage that it can be recycled and is more economic than other, imported ones such as peat or coconut fibre.
These are the findings of researchers at the Public University of Navarre who, jointly with the Aralur company in Ziordia (Navarre), have developed this substrate material. The product has already been patented and marketed
Mouthwatering Peruvian cuisine like causa (mashed yellow potatoes layered with avocado and seafood) and carapulcra (dried potatoes and pork/chicken in peanut sauce) combine food crops from Amazon basin rainforests and Andean highlands. Smithsonian archaeologists and colleagues presenting in the prestigious journal, Nature1, uncover the first definitive evidence for this culinary, cultural link: 3600-4000 year-old plant microfossils and starch grains.
Heading to the supermarket to pi
Archeology and genetics team up to put a much earlier date on South American agriculture
Research by UMaine researcher Dan Sandweiss places cornmeal on the menu for native Americans much earlier than previously believed.
Working with colleagues from Ithaca College and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, Sandweiss discovered evidence of cultivated corn in the Cotahuasi Valley of southern Peru that dates back to nearly 4,000 years before the present, su
Alterations in irrigation schedules may be needed when wheat streak mosaic infection is suspected in winter wheat crops, according to a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher in Amarillo.
Drought this winter has prompted more irrigation of wheat than normal; however, wheat streak mosaic is also being detected, said Jacob Price, a graduate student and diagnostic technician for the Experiment Station’s plant pathology department.
Wheat streak mosaic, the mos
To evaluate the environmental effects of hedgerows on crops is the aim of the project being undertaken by researchers at the Public University of Navarre, within the framework of the Agenda Local 21 of Noáin municipal council in Navarre.
A hedgerow may be defined as a line of hedges, sometimes with trees, along the roadside or surrounding estates, farms or naturally-occurring enclosures.
Various studies agree that it is a good thing to have hedges surrounding crops and alongside
The University of Rome “La Sapienza” and the Italian National Committee for relations between the Italian Government and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), on occasion of the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the FAO award
*50 grants for scientific research papers, of the amount of 2000 Euro each.
Deadline: 30.06.2006
*10 grants for postgraduate research, of the amount of 17 000 Euro each.
Deadline: 31.03.2006
Applications a
Laboratory testing of agricultural produce in the wake of the food scares of the 1990s has made the food on European dinner tables safer than ever before. But, say a team of researchers, an even better job could be done by taking the laboratory to the farm, slaughter house or processing plant.
The GoodFood project aims to do just that by using micro and nanotechnology to develop portable devices to detect toxins, pathogens and chemicals in foodstuffs on the spot. Food samples w
Apple scab and fire blight are two of the most important diseases affecting apple trees. The Venezuelan biologist, Alejandro Martínez Bilbao, has undertaken research into more than 200 types of apple tree, indigenous to Spain, in order to select those varieties resistant to these pathogens. One of the main conclusions of the PhD thesis of this biologist is that, in Navarre, there are 12 apple tree varieties capable of resisting these highly damaging pests. This is the first time in Spain that such
A group of Dartmouth researchers has evidence that disturbing the land where farms once thrived can mobilize both arsenic and lead that were applied as pesticides in the early 1900s. Once disturbed, these metals can then contaminate nearby surface waters.
“We continue to learn more about how past agricultural practices are affecting our current environment,” says Carl Renshaw, Associate Professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth. “Unlike some of the pesticides used today, metals l
Organic diets lower children’s dietary exposure to two common pesticides used in U.S. agricultural production, according to a study by Emory University researcher Chensheng “Alex” Lu, PhD. The substitution of organic food items for children’s normal diets substantially decreased the pesticide concentration to non-detectable levels.
Dr. Lu, an assistant professor in the department of environmental and occupational health, Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, will re
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