FARM NEWS - AFRICA DAILY

New Zealand wants answers on milk 'botulism botch-up'

Aug 29, 2013 (AFP)

New Zealand demanded answers Thursday about how a false test reading triggered a botulism scare for diary giant Fonterra that forced global product recalls, des...

Study: Ogallala Aquifer being drained by U.S. farmers

Aug 28, 2013 (UPI)

The Ogallala Aquifer, a reservoir of groundwater underlying eight western states, is being rapidly drained, Kansas State University researchers say. In a study ...

Syngenta, Bayer challenge EU bee-saving pesticide ban

Aug 27, 2013 (AFP)

Swiss agrichemical giant Syngenta and German chemicals group Bayer on Tuesday said they were taking legal action against the European Commission over its suspen...

Edible algae -- coming to a rooftop near you?

Aug 27, 2013 (AFP)

On a hotel rooftop in Bangkok, dozens of barrels of green liquid bubble under the sun -- the latest innovation in urban farming. Proponents of the edible algae ...

Part of the herd, dogs ease Namibia's cheetah-farmer conflicts

Aug 27, 2013 (AFP)

Winding through the parched Namibian farmland, Bonzo, an Anatolian shepherd dog, has a singular focus: protecting his herd of goats from lurking predators. He p...

Study: Early European hunter-gatherers got pigs from farming neighbors

Aug 27, 2013 (UPI)

Scientists say new evidence shows Northern European hunter-gatherers acquired domesticated pigs from nearby farming communities as early as 4600 B.C. The eviden...

Cattle in Burundi -- from poetry to milk yields

Aug 26, 2013 (AFP)

Men in Burundi once recited poems to their long-horned cows as they led them to pasture, before civil war decimated the prized stocks. Now the country is rebuil...

China graft crackdown hits Hong Kong's 'Dried Seafood Street'

Aug 25, 2013 (AFP)

In a narrow Hong Kong street filled with the tang of dried sea creatures, shopkeepers are blaming China's recent corruption crackdown for falling sales of expen...

One million cockroaches flee China farm: report

Aug 25, 2013 (AFP)

At least one million cockroaches have escaped a farm in China where they were being bred for use in traditional medicine, a report said. The cockroaches fled th...

How does your garden grow?

Aug 23, 2013 (SPX)

Food and biofuel crops could be grown and maintained in many places where it wasn't previously possible, such as deserts, landfills and former mining sites, tha...

Fonterra 'let country down', NZ minister says on China visit

Aug 22, 2013 (AFP)

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra had let the country down over a botulism scare, its foreign minister Murray McCully said Thursday on a visit to China to try to...

Scientists uncover the secret life of frozen soils

Aug 21, 2013 (SPX)

Contrary to popular belief, winter plays a significant role in farming. The ground beneath that seemingly peaceful blanket of snow is not idle during the long, ...

How will crops fare under climate change?

Aug 20, 2013 (SPX)

The damage scientists expect climate change to do to crop yields can differ greatly depending on which type of model was used to make those projections, accordi...

Soil biodiversity crucial to future land management and response to climate change

Aug 19, 2013 (SPX)

Research by scientists at The University of Manchester and Lancaster shows maintaining healthy soil biodiversity can play an important role in optimising land m...

New contamination scare hits N. Zealand dairy industry

Aug 19, 2013 (AFP)

A new contamination scare hit New Zealand's multi-billion dollar dairy industry on Monday after it was revealed a milk product with excessive nitrate levels had...

Researchers discover protein that helps plants tolerate drought, flooding, other stresses

Aug 19, 2013 (SPX)

A team including Dartmouth researchers has uncovered a protein that plays a vital role in how plant roots use water and nutrients, a key step in improving the p...

Even for cows, less can be more

Aug 19, 2013 (SPX)

With little research on how nutrition affects reproductive performance in dairy cows, it is generally believed that a cow needs a higher energy intake before ca...

Nepal steps up poultry cull to combat bird flu

Aug 15, 2013 (AFP)

Nepal's government on Thursday ordered health workers to cull half a million chickens to combat a major bird flu outbreak on the outskirts of the capital Kathma...

Highest winter losses in recent years for honey bees in Scotland

Aug 15, 2013 (SPX)

A survey, run by Strathclyde academics on behalf of the Scottish Beekeepers' Association, indicated 31.3 per cent of managed honey bee colonies in Scotland fail...

Fonterra executive resigns after milk scare

Aug 14, 2013 (AFP)

A top executive at dairy giant Fonterra resigned Wednesday following a botulism milk scare that sparked global recalls and tainted the New Zealand food industry...