CEOs need to accelerate their action plans to safeguard the production of commodities critical to the global population and economy as heat stress and drought risk rise around the world, according to PwC's report, Climate Risks to Nine Key Commodities: Protecting People and Prosperity, published. The report, which analysed nine …
saving maize: Scientists have developed an effective form of biological control for a toxin-producing fungus that plagues crops in sub-Saharan Africa and poses serious health risks to people. The method uses a component of the fungus Aspergillus to control itself. Scientists from Germany, the us and Nigeria have carried out …
The nature of agricultural diversification differs across regions due to wide heterogeneity in agro climatic and socio-economic conditions. Generally, the pattern of agricultural diversification shows a shift from crop production to livestock production during the 1980s to 1990s. The focus of this paper relates to diversification of food production and …
In the last week of April, the Zimbabwean government invited two un bodies to conduct a joint food-security survey in the country. The Food and Agriculture Organization (fao) and the World Food Programme (wfp) have been called in the wake of a second consecutive drought in the south African nation. …
Now that the reality of climate change has been accepted even by its strongest sceptics, there is a rush to find answers. The latest buzz is to substitute the use of greenhouse gas-emitting fossil fuels with biofuels - fuel processed from plants. Unfortunately, the way we are going about implementing …
recently the Cuban leader, Fidel Castro, denounced us president George Bush's new-found fondness for biofuels. Food stocks for millions would be threatened, Castro warned. The octogenarian Communist speaking on ecology doesn't get much press. Castro's fulminations were duly consigned to back pages of newspapers, where they had more to do …
A drought-tolerant maize seed has been launched to boost food security in African countries. The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture have taken up the programme in 11 African countries that are the most maize-dependent and drought-affected areas. The researchers aim to generate …
The west Asian crisis, rising prices and global warming are pushing large oil users to rethink energy alternatives and biofuel has become the buzzword. Various options are being tried out to produce ethanol in laboratories as well as in industry The US with 5 per cent of global population and …
The Zimbabwean government has deployed soldiers to seize grain harvests from farmers. The "massive grain collection exercise' is to ensure food security, as the country falls 1.8 million tonnes short of its annual cereal requirement, says a recent statement of the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board
On July 27, a group of Greenpeace activists entered a field of genetically engineered maize in southern France and carved a giant "crop circle' with an "X' in the field. The action, taken to mark the field as a contamination zone, was in response to a ruling by a French …
An experiment at the M B Gurudev School in the Doddaballapur taluk has proved beneficial for farmers. An eco-toilet, built in collaboration with Mythi Sarva Seva Samithi
on may 12, Syngenta South Africa Ltd, a subsidiary of the Swiss agrochemical Syngenta, made public its application with the South African authorities for allowing import of its genetically modified (gm) maize, Event 3,272, for use in the production of ethanol. This is the first gm application for commercial approval …
• As many as 57 species of fish in Haryana have disappeared over the past four decades as a result of pollution and high siltation of rivers, a study found. • UN's Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination strongly reprimanded the Botswana government over eviction of the Gana and …
Zimbabwe is importing unmilled, genetically modified (gm) maize from Argentina, despite a ban on it. According to Reuters, local traders said that Argentinean ships loaded with yellow maize (a gm crop), were making their way to Zimbabwean shores. Government officials, however, pleaded ignorance and said their policy against gm crops …
This article examines the divergent political responses to unplanned exposure to genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the Global South. Although scientific and domestic political considerations have some relevance to explaining different positions among developing countries, trade considerations appear to be a principal driver of GMO policy. This consideration is strikingly …
This story reminds one of the Hollywood blockbuster of the 1960s that changed the way many people looked at birds. Gigantic flocks of the quela quela (Quelea quelea) bird have attacked rice and maize fields in Nigeria's northern states of Zamfara and Yobe, bordering Niger on the south of the …
Are you the leaseholder for lease number 522/03? Yes, that lease is under my name Do you yourself operate the lease? No. It is being operated by Arjun Singh of Jaisalmer. I work as a daily wage labourer in the same mine. How did you get the lease? I did …
Seed major Monsanto has been held guilty for supplying Bihar's farmers with bad quality hybrid maize seeds two years ago and causing them huge losses. A House panel of the state government recently urged the company to pay compensation to the farmers. In doing so, it rejected earlier findings by …
The European Commission (ec) has permitted import of food products containing Monsanto's genetically modified (gm) nk 603 maize. The decision was announced on October 26, 2004. It is meant to take effect immediately and would remain valid for 10 years. The ec had already permitted import of nk 603 maize, …
infected maize has claimed 26 lives in Kenya's Makueni district in April 2004. Six other suspected cases have been admitted to the hospital. Samples of the cereal collected from affected villages have shown the presence of aflatoxins, the chemicals produced when the fungus, Aspergillus flavus, grows on the grain stored …
