FARM NEWS - AFRICA DAILY

Climate change will reduce crop yields sooner than we thought

Mar 19, 2014 (SPX)

A study led by the University of Leeds has shown that global warming of only 2 C will be detrimental to crops in temperate and tropical regions, with reduced yi...

Indian farmers take their lives after freak hailstorms

Mar 19, 2014 (AFP)

A string of farmers have committed suicide in western India after freak hailstorms and rains destroyed winter crops worth millions of dollars, activists and pol...

Bionic plants

Mar 19, 2014 (SPX)

Plants have many valuable functions: They provide food and fuel, release the oxygen that we breathe, and add beauty to our surroundings. Now, a team of MIT rese...

Declining ocean health threatens food security

Mar 18, 2014 (SPX)

We must protect our ocean or risk significant impact on global food security stated The Global Ocean Commission, an independent international panel of global le...

Soil microbes shift as shrubs invade remnant hill prairies

Mar 18, 2014 (SPX)

Perched high on the bluffs of the big river valleys in the Midwest are some of the last remnants of never-farmed prairie grasslands. These patches, edged by for...

EU readying invasive alien species hit-list

Mar 18, 2014 (AFP)

Killer slugs, Asian ladybirds and American muskrats will all be blacklisted under plans drawn up by Brussels to stop "invasive" species from threatening Europea...

Plant biology discovery furthers scientists' understanding of plant growth and development

Mar 18, 2014 (SPX)

Auxin, a small molecule, is a plant hormone discovered by Charles Darwin about 100 years ago. Over the years that followed it became understood to be the most i...

Nectar: A sweet reward from plants to attract pollinators

Mar 17, 2014 (SPX)

Evolution is based on diversity, and sexual reproduction is key to creating a diverse population that secures competitiveness in nature. Plants had to solve a p...

Success of new bug-fighting approach may vary from field to field

Mar 16, 2014 (SPX)

A new technique to fight crop insect pests may affect different insect populations differently, researchers report. They analyzed RNA interference (RNAi), a met...

Penn team links Africans' ability to digest milk to spread of cattle raising

Mar 16, 2014 (SPX)

Babies are born with the ability to digest lactose, the sugar found in milk, but most humans lose this ability after infancy because of declining levels of the ...

Tropical grassy ecosystems under threat

Mar 16, 2014 (SPX)

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that tropical grassy areas, which play a critical role in the world's ecology, are under threat as a result...

Vietnam coffee production hit by extreme weather: official

Mar 14, 2014 (AFP)

Extreme weather conditions are hitting coffee production in Vietnam, the world's largest exporter of low-end robusta beans used in instant coffee, an industry o...

Bordeaux gets Chinese hangover

Mar 13, 2014 (AFP)

Sales of Bordeaux wines slid by 1.4 percent last year, with exports dropping by 6 percent as Chinese drinkers cut their purchases by nearly a fifth, winemakers ...

Typhoon hits Philippine coconut oil exports

Mar 11, 2014 (AFP)

Philippine coconut oil exports fell 35 percent at the start of this year, driving up global prices, after a super typhoon destroyed millions of trees, an indust...

Typhoon-hit Philippine farmers to reap harvest: UN

Mar 10, 2014 (AFP)

Farmers in the Philippines will soon reap a harvest after using emergency seed supplies to grow crops following a devastating typhoon that struck during plantin...

Fertilizer in small doses yields higher returns for less money

Mar 10, 2014 (SPX)

Crop yields in the fragile semi-arid areas of Zimbabwe have been declining over time due to a decline in soil fertility resulting from mono-cropping, lack of fe...

Japan to halve tuna catch in Northern Pacific: reports

Mar 09, 2014 (AFP)

Japan plans to slash by half the amount of juvenile bluefin tuna taken from the Northern Pacific starting in 2015, compared to the 2002-2004 average, reports sa...

Farmstar Expert opens new horizons, incorporating UAV Data

Mar 06, 2014 (SPX)

In 2014, Airbus Defence and Space, Arvalis - Institut du vegetal and Delta Drone will explore the potential offered by image and data acquired from sensors carr...

Livestock can produce food that is better for the people and the planet

Mar 06, 2014 (SPX)

With one in seven humans undernourished, and with the challenges of population growth and climate change, the need for efficient food production has never been ...

Virtual bees help to unravel complex causes of colony decline

Mar 06, 2014 (SPX)

Scientists have created an ingenious computer model that simulates a honey bee colony over the course of several years. The BEEHAVE model, published today in th...