A new computer program for orchard planning, which can provide maximal profit in specific local conditions, is developed by a team from Krasnodar supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and Foundation for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises. Recommendations offered by the program are based on the data on environmental conditions and soil-climatic requirements of orchard trees, and primarily, stone fruit crops (apricot, peach, cherry).
Potential yields of vari
Botrytis cinerea (grey mould) has a large arsenal of molecular pumps at its disposal to protect it against toxic substances such as antibiotics, plant defence compounds and fungicides. Dutch researcher Henk-jan Schoonbeek saw how the fungus started to pump out certain toxic substances within just 15 minutes.
Botrytis cinerea causes rot in fruit and vegetables and is therefore a major problem for growers in horticulture and viniculture. Unfortunately, it is scarcely affected by natur
The novelty of the system lies in the possibility of having an on-site installation at the farm itself, thus avoiding the transport of the purines to other, off-site plants for their treatment.
ADE Biotec has undertaken the treatment of these residues in locations in Gipuzkoa, other areas of the Basque Country and a patented technology. In the case in hand, the purine treatment plant is installed on a pig farm at Egiluze in Renteria (Gipuzkoa).
Nowadays, the purine
Scientists at the University of York are to take part in research into a rare breed of sheep, which could yield clues for the development of a drug to treat a medical condition affecting one in 30,000 people worldwide.
The three-year study will be carried out by a collaborative team of researchers from the universities of Aberdeen, Liverpool and York, which has been awarded £413,000 by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The team will
In less than a month new EU food hygiene regulations will come into effect, forcing farmers, processors and distributors to definitively implement farm to fork traceability. E-FRUITRACE has validated a Europe-wide Internet-based solution for the fruit sector.
“From January 1, 2006 traceability will cease to be an added-value element in the agricultural industry and will become obligatory because of the introduction of the new EU legislation,” explains Pedro de la Peña, the tech
A complex farming society developed in Uruguay around 4,800 to 4,200 years ago, much earlier that previously thought, Iriarte and his colleagues report in this week’s Nature (December 2). Researchers had assumed that the large rivers system called the La Plata Basin was inhabited by simple groups of hunters and gatherers for much of the pre-Hispanic era.
Iriarte and coauthors excavated an extensive mound complex, called Los Ajos, in the wetlands of southeastern Uruguay. They
A number of emerging forest health issues are affecting the overall vitality of North American forests, say plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS).
At a recent APS Northeastern Division meeting, plant pathologists highlighted several types of diseases that are of growing concern, including:
Butternut Canker
First reported in Wisconsin in 1967, butternut canker is a fast moving, virulent disease that is killing butternut t
Today, the first ever Conference on Control with Remote Sensing (CwRS) of Area-based Subsidies held in a New Member State takes place in Budapest, Hungary. Marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the system and the 10th such Conference, it brings together a record number of 300 representatives from government and industry working within information technology, imaging instrumentation and support of farmers. The central issue of the conference is the fundamental reform of the Common A
It’s a match made in heaven. Or at least in the Texas Panhandle.
Three young bison bulls were donated by media tycoon Ted Turner from his New Mexico herd. They will be introduced into the Texas Bison Herd at the Caprock Canyon State Park next summer, in hopes they will provide much needed genetic diversity.
The Texas Bison Herd originated in the late 1800s with five bison calves captured by famed cattleman Charles Goodnight. The herd was donated to the state in 1997
With the confirmation that soybean rust has been detected in the U.S., plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS) are offering insight into the management and identification of this disease.
According to Doug Jardine, director of the APS Office of Public Affairs and Education and plant pathology professor at Kansas State University, plant pathologists from government agencies, industry, and universities have been working together to prepare for the appear
Plantains, otherwise known as cooking bananas, are an important food crop in Tanzania and require fertile soil for a good harvest. For around four centuries now, banana-growing land has been enriched by supplements of manure from cattle grazing on nearby pastures. The strongly increasing population pressure in recent decades has led to a decrease in pastureland and, consequently, manure, causing a reduction in banana harvests. Green manure crops such as herbaceous legumes provide a solution em
Researchers of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Plant Cultivation, Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences (St. Petersburg) jointly with their colleagues from Germany and Finland have grown up new lines of Solanum cultivated plants via the somatic hybridization method – hybrids of wild species of plants of the Solanum family with cultivars of tomato and potato, that posess new useful properties.
Potato and tomato – the plants that occupy the honorary place in the me
Yorkshire based Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms outlined how its products can be used successfully in the bioremediation and pharmaceutical sector at the White Rose University Consortium Bioscience Forum today (03 November).
Formed in 2002, Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms is the European leader in mycelium propogation technology and the only UK company replicating mushroom mycelium. Its products are developed on a continual cycle to ensure peak viability and it supplies mushroom spawn to m
The behavior of air bubbles in ordinary breakfast syrup demonstrates how scientists might be able to make vanishingly thin tubes and fibers for biomedical and other applications.
Previous experiments conducted in Sidney Nagel’s laboratory at the University of Chicago showed how to make liquid threads that measure only 10 microns in diameter (approximately one-fifth the diameter of a human hair). Now his Chicago colleague Wendy Zhang reports in the current issue of Physical R
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD) In Humans
The Institute of Food Science & Technology, through its Public Affairs and Technical & Legislative Committees, has authorised the following Information Statement, dated October 2004, replacing the Statement of October 2001 and any previous version.
Special Note
This updated Information Statement takes account of available data and published research up to
Rich pecan pie is a long-time favorite dessert of the holiday season. But this year, the amount of pecans harvested will be dramatically down due to substantial damage from the 2004 hurricanes, say plant health specialists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS).
Pecan growers in Georgia and Alabama, two of the primary pecan growing areas were already expecting a light production year due to reduced nut set on many cultivars, said Tim Brenneman, APS member and plant p
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