FARM NEWS - AFRICA DAILY

EU to simplify GMO import approval: sources

Apr 08, 2015 (AFP)

The EU plans to simplify the import approval process for controversial genetically modified foods and animal feed, allowing member states to decide whether to a...

California farmers spared worst of water rationing: governor

Apr 05, 2015 (AFP)

California Governor Jerry Brown on Sunday defended tough new measures aimed at combatting a crippling four-year drought, but which critics say are far too lenie...

Taxi drivers hospitalised after Beijing pesticide protest: police

Apr 04, 2015 (AFP)

More than 30 taxi drivers were hospitalised after apparently drinking pesticide during a protest in central Beijing over a dispute with authorities, police said...

Diversity prevents resistance

Apr 02, 2015 (SPX)

Our opponents always seem to be one step ahead. Although pest controllers now have numerous chemical preparations available, allowing them to take action agains...

Illegal cocoa farms threaten Ivory Coast primates

Mar 31, 2015 (SPX)

Researchers surveying for endangered primates in national parks and forest reserves of Ivory Coast found, to their surprise, that most of these protected areas ...

Photosynthesis hack needed to feed the world by 2050

Mar 31, 2015 (SPX)

Using high-performance computing and genetic engineering to boost the photosynthetic efficiency of plants offers the best hope of increasing crop yields enough ...

Vietnam rice boom heaping pressure on farmers, environment

Mar 29, 2015 (AFP)

Rice farmer Nguyen Hien Thien is so busy growing his crops that he has never even visited Can Tho, a town only a few miles from his farm in the southern Mekong ...

Italian olive tree disease stumps EU

Mar 27, 2015 (AFP)

EU member states are divided on how to stop the spread of a disease affecting olive trees in Italy that could result in around a million being cut down, officia...

Discovery of heat-tolerant beans could save 'meat of the poor' from global warming

Mar 27, 2015 (SPX)

Amidst fears that global warming could zap a vital source of protein that has sustained humans for centuries, bean breeders with the CGIAR global agriculture re...

Critics question study that denied pesticides' danger to bees

Mar 27, 2015 (UPI)

Several government ministers in the United Kingdom are facing criticism over the scientific legitimacy of a two-year-old bee study. The study in question -- spo...

Flower-enriched farms boost bee populations

Mar 26, 2015 (SPX)

Flower strips sown into farmers' fields not only attract bees but increase their numbers, new University of Sussex research has shown. A two-year study of farms...

African cattle parasite tamed by its less lethal cousins

Mar 26, 2015 (SPX)

African cattle infected with a lethal parasite that kills one million cows per year are less likely to die when co-infected with the parasite's milder cousin, a...

Researchers develop detailed genetic map of world wheat varieties

Mar 26, 2015 (SPX)

Kansas State University scientists have released findings of a complex, two-year study of the genomic diversity of wheat that creates an important foundation fo...

Microchip backpacks help track bee behavior

Mar 26, 2015 (UPI)

Measuring just 4.8 millimeters by 8 millimeters, bee backpacks can't hold much of anything. But strapped to the back of bees, scientists hope they can help solv...

Food-delivery process inside seeds revealed

Mar 26, 2015 (SPX)

Inside every seed is the embryo of a plant, and in most cases also a storage of food needed to power initial growth of the young seedling. A seed consists mainl...

New low-calorie rice could help cut rising obesity rates

Mar 26, 2015 (SPX)

Scientists have developed a new, simple way to cook rice that could cut the number of calories absorbed by the body by more than half, potentially reducing obes...

Lombardy, the new Caspian for caviar

Mar 25, 2015 (AFP)

With pools 85 times the size of the nearby pitches where Rugby Calvisano plays, the company Agro Ittica Lombarda is putting this northern Italian town on the ma...

Neither more food nor better food -- still, fish biomass increases

Mar 23, 2015 (SPX)

To increase the biomass of fish, contemporary ecological theory predicts that either the amount of food or the quality of the food has to increase. In a recent ...

Olive tree disease in Italy alarms EU

Mar 23, 2015 (AFP)

Brussels called for "complete vigilance" Monday to stop the spread of a strain of bacteria killing olive trees in southern Italy, the European Union's second bi...

Cultivated papaya owes a lot to the ancient Maya

Mar 23, 2015 (SPX)

A genetic study of papaya sex chromosomes reveals that the hermaphrodite version of the plant, which is of most use to growers, arose as a result of human selec...