FARM NEWS - AFRICA DAILY

New approach to improve nitrogen use, enhance yield, and promote flowering in rice

Feb 27, 2018 (SPX)

Application of nitrogen fertilizers delays flowering, leaving crops vulnerable to late-season cold weather, which can impair grain filling. Traits that increase...

'Noah's Ark' seed vault chalks up a million crop varieties

Feb 26, 2018 (AFP)

Dubbed the "Noah's Ark" of food crops, the Global Seed Vault is located deep inside a mountain on Svalbard, a remote Arctic island in a Norwegian archipelago an...

Crop-saving soil tests now at farmers' fingertips

Feb 26, 2018 (SPX)

As the name implies, these tests detect disease-causing pathogens in the soil that can severely devastate crops. Until now, the tests have required large, expen...

Chinese billionaire sees baguette goldmine in French fields

Feb 25, 2018 (AFP)

Over the past four years Hu Keqin has quietly snapped up 3,000 hectares of wheat fields in the central Indre and Allier regions, including next door to Bernarde...

Berlin films journey into agribusiness wastelands

Feb 24, 2018 (AFP)

They take viewers on road trips through Big Food's wastelands, from Indonesia where rainforests are razed for palm oil plantations to Argentina's soy and grain ...

Macron eyes action against Chinese farm buyers

Feb 22, 2018 (AFP)

"For me, French agricultural lands are strategic investments on which our sovereignty depends, so we can't allow hundreds of hectares of land to be bought by fo...

Farming crops with rocks to reduce CO2 and improve global food security

Feb 21, 2018 (SPX)

The pioneering research by scientists at the University of Sheffield together with international colleagues suggests that adding fast-reacting silicate rocks to...

Land use change has warmed the Earth's surface

Feb 21, 2018 (SPX)

The research team used satellite data to analyse changes in global vegetation cover from 2000 to 2015 and link these to changes in the surface energy balance. M...

Global grazing lands increasingly vulnerable to a changing climate

Feb 21, 2018 (SPX)

A new study in Nature Climate Change reveals that over the past century year-to-year precipitation variability has increased significantly on 49 percent of the ...

Pesticide traces in three-quarters of French fruit: report

Feb 20, 2018 (AFP)

Samples of 19 fruits and 33 vegetables were studied in the report by Generations Futures, a French environmental group that campaigns against pesticide and GMOs...

Growing crops with crushed rocks could reduce CO2 emissions

Feb 19, 2018 (UPI)

In addition to capturing CO2, the rocks also protected crops against pests and disease while improving the soil's structure and fertility. Researchers detailed ...

Myanmar farmers going against the grain with apps

Feb 18, 2018 (AFP)

As she watches her workers haul in this year's harvest, the 35-year-old is in a triumphant mood, ascribing her victory over the seasonal scourge to advice recei...

Intensive agriculture influences US regional summer climate, study finds

Feb 15, 2018 (SPX)

The researchers show that in the last half of the 20th century, the midwestern U.S. went through an intensification of agricultural practices that led to dramat...

Cover crops in nitrogen's circle of life

Feb 15, 2018 (SPX)

Some cover crops, such as hairy vetch or cereal rye, are not grown to be eaten. Instead, they capture nutrients, including nitrogen, from previous crops, the ai...

New model for evaluating rangeland systems launches

Feb 15, 2018 (SPX)

The modeling tool offers the potential for forecasting future conditions to address resilience in the face of climate change and highlighting regions of concern...

Giant London glasshouse to reopen with world's rarest plants

Feb 14, 2018 (AFP)

"Temperate House" in London's Kew Gardens is large enough to house three jumbo jets, and was home to around 1,000 species of plants from around the world before...

App delivery boom shakes up China food sector

Feb 14, 2018 (AFP)

He doesn't need them -- stationed outside each outlet are packs of food deliverymen on motorbikes waiting to whisk dishes from Guo's steaming kitchens to homes,...

Bordeaux's 'magnificent' lost vintage pushes small growers to the edge

Feb 10, 2018 (AFP)

"We have nine batches which are satisfactory but not enough to produce a Climens," Nivelle says of the 2017 harvest. "It's a shame, it had a nice potential." It...

Study warns of return of forgotten crop pathogen

Feb 08, 2018 (UPI)

Since scientists were first alerted to the infected wheat plant in 2013, scientists at the John Innes Center in Norwich, England, have been studying the pathoge...

Sweet route to greater yields

Feb 08, 2018 (SPX)

They knew that the rice gene affected the performance of a natural chemical in maize, trehalose 6-phosphate (T6P), which influences the distribution of sucrose ...