A new Michael Jordan of toxins isn’t required to increase crop protection against bugs as long as the right genes are strategically placed to take their shots at destructive insects, researchers report.
Plants modified with protectant genes designed to kill resistant insects can extend the usefulness of currently used pest-control methods and delay the development of pesticide-resistant bugs, according to Purdue University scientists and their collaborators from the University
The program developed by Russian specialists of the North-Caucasian Scientific Research Institute of Gardening and Viticulture (Russian Agricultural Academy, Krasnodar) allows to select cultures, horticultural crops and other agricultural specimen the most profitable for a given locality. The development was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the Fund for Assistance to Small Innovative Enterprises (FASIE). If the program’s advice is used competently, there will be no n
Insects and other invertebrates are the arena for the evolution of new infectious diseases in humans, new research shows.
Scientists now believe that not only are insects the carriers of some existing diseases but they are also the vehicle where recently emerging highly infectious diseases, such as the plague that killed millions in the 14th and 17th Centuries, evolve. Writing in the October edition of Nature Reviews: Microbiology, the researchers point to the large reservoir of d
In a world plagued by shortages of water, three facts stand out in an analysis by Cornell University ecologists: Less than 1 percent of water on the planet is fresh water; agriculture in the United States consumes 80 percent of the available fresh water each year; and 60 percent of U.S. water intended for crop irrigation never reaches the crops.
Their report in the October 2004 journal BioScience (Vol. 54, No. 10, “Water Resources: Agricultural and Environmental Issues”) names far
What do trees and statistics have in common? Pierre Dutilleul, a statistician and professor in McGill’s Department of Plant Science (Montreal, Canada), will tell you that many natural systems can be better understood using equations and models, provided appropriate data are collected.
Dutilleul is one of the first scientists who have used a computed tomography (CT) scanner to study how tree branching affects light interception. “We collect CT scan data, which basically me
It’s cheaper, and it enables quicker growth and bigger fish. These are the key characteristics of a new fodder in fish farming, which will replace the traditional dry fodder. The raw material is simple: Fish waste.
Fish offal is a high-grade raw material with a low price. We want to use this to make the industry grow,” says Oistein Baekken, manager of GellyFeed Ltd.
We are acquiring capital and the industry is showing a great deal of interest in applying this futur
Open-field trials of genetically modified (GM) crop-plants are implemented only sparingly. This is done with due transparency and in the respect of strict regulations. They are initiated to meet one or other of the following objectives: obtain and evaluate fundamental knowledge on the biology of the plants concerned, guarantee the quality of plant varieties sold in France and identify and evaluate the risks for the environment. Hence they provide input to national expertise on these questions
Claw complaints and lameness in dairy cattle are a considerable problem in livestock farming. Dutch research has shown that specific measures in the area of accommodation and management could improve the situation on dairy farms.
Joan Somers investigated the claw health of more than 7500 dairy cows on different stall floors. Four-fifths of the cows on a concrete stall floor, the most common accommodation, suffered from one or more claw problems. Cows in a straw yard had signifi
What is actually a “good” oyster? How can we evaluate and grade ”quality”? And how can we produce the quality we wish?
The European flat oyster has been used as food as long as man has inhabited the European coastline. The ancient Romans established oyster farms, and oyster culture and harvest gradually developed as an important activity along the coasts of Europe. Today, the oyster industry is important. The Pacific oyster, which is now the dominant species, is cultivated all ove
The newly developed system makes sure that farm animals won’t run out of food. One of the largest companies in the EU animal feed sector, Suomen Rehu Oy, has developed a feed silo that places feed orders automatically.
In the Signal 24 mobile technology-based ordering service, the silo is equipped with a measuring transducer that senses when the silo is running out of feed. This takes place several days before the silo should receive new feed supplies. From the silo, the data is
A new method will detect club root far more efficiently than before. This implies less waste and higher profits in farming.
Club root disease is very harmful to cultivated crucifers, i.e. various forms of brassica, especially cabbage. In Norway and in the rest of the world, huge crops are infected by the disease each year. For the farmer, crop failure may be up to 100 percent.
“So far we have lacked a quick method of detecting club root infections in the soil. Now we are i
Scientists from the Sainsbury Laboratory (SL), Norwich report in the journal Nature that important plant diseases previously thought only to infect plants through their leaves may also enter through the plant’s roots. They report that the rice leaf blast fungus is able to use very different routes and means of attacking the rice plant by switching between two completely different programmes of developmental events; one programme is characteristic of leaf-infecting fungi and the other characteristic
Changes in forestry and agriculture affecting ozone pollution
Changes in U.S. forests caused by land use practices may have inadvertently worsened ozone pollution, according to a study led by Princeton University scientists. The study examined a class of chemicals that are emitted as unburned fuel from automobile tailpipes and as vapors from industrial chemicals, but also come naturally from tree leaves. These chemicals, known collectively as VOCs, react with other pollutants to form
New find in Israel shows that cereal production predates agricultural societies by millennia
Archaeologists have found strong evidence that wheat and barley were refined into cereals 23,000 years ago, suggesting that humans were processing grains long before hunter-gatherer societies developed agriculture. The findings, including the identification of the earliest known oven and hence the oldest evidence of baking, were described in a recent issue of the journal Nature. “This is an
A consortium of researchers, farmers and a major baker are working together to fill future supermarket shelves with loaves of bread that will arrest the plummeting levels in the UK diet of a mineral that plays a significant role in male fertility and the prevention of some cancers.
The mineral selenium is of particular importance to men with its role in male fertility and in the prevention of prostate cancer but research has also shown that it can help in the prevention of cardiovasc
Heavy metals can trigger widely varying stress reactions in plants. A team at the Campus Vienna Biocenter was now able to provide evidence for this in a research funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The results, now awaiting publication, are an important basis to comprehend how plants cope with an increase in heavy metal concentrations in the soil – and how these abilities can be profitably utilised.
Adverse environmental conditions can cause enormous stress in plants. As sede
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