FARM NEWS - AFRICA DAILY

Starving goats to hit Indian pashmina production

Mar 05, 2013 (AFP)

Heavy snow has killed nearly 25,000 pashmina goats that graze high in the Indian Himalayas, threatening supplies of top-end cashmere wool used to make luxury sc...

Study provides insights into plant evolution

Mar 05, 2013 (SPX)

New research has uncovered a mechanism that regulates the reproduction of plants, providing a possible tool for engineering higher yielding crops. In a study pu...

Replacing soybean meal in pig diets

Mar 04, 2013 (SPX)

Canola, cottonseed, and sunflower products can replace soybean meal in diets fed to pigs, but they contain less protein and energy. To determine if it makes eco...

Invention opens the way to packaging that monitors food freshness

Mar 01, 2013 (SPX)

Millions of tons of food are thrown away each year because the 'best before' date has passed. But this date is always a cautious estimate, which means a lot of ...

Hong Kong cracks down on baby formula trade

Mar 01, 2013 (AFP)

A Hong Kong regulation came into force Friday barring people from crossing into mainland China with large quantities of baby formula following chronic shortages...

World agriculture suffers from loss of wild bees: study

Feb 28, 2013 (AFP)

Falling numbers of wild bees and other pollinating insects are hurting global agriculture, a study released on Thursday found. Managed populations of pollinator...

Argentine soybean yield goes below budget

Feb 28, 2013 (UPI)

Argentina's soybean yield will be much lower than expected, affecting national income projections based on exports in the coming months. The government blamed d...

Why sourdough bread resists mold

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

Sourdough bread resists mold, unlike conventionally leavened bread. Now Michael Gaenzle and colleagues of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, show why. During ...

China's smog suffocating agriculture?

Feb 26, 2013 (UPI)

China's air pollution is putting the country's agriculture sector at risk, experts say. Smog has blanketed Beijing for at least a week, and much of north and ce...

Bees attracted to contrasting colors when looking for nectar

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

Flower colors that contrast with their background are more important to foraging bees than patterns of colored veins on pale flowers according to new research, ...

Anthropologist studies cattle ranchers in Brazilian Amazon

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

For over a century, the rubber tappers of Acre, Brazil collected the valuable sap of the rubber trees from the forests of the western Amazon. As the demand for ...

Thirsty crops and hungry people: Symposium to examine realities of water security

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

You may have guzzled a half-liter bottle of water at lunchtime, but your food and clothes drank a lot more. The same half-liter that quenched your thirst also p...

Experimental vaccine offers improved protection for poultry

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

Chickens are vulnerable to a range of infectious diseases similar to those affecting humans. Fowl typhoid is a widespread and devastating illness, particularly ...

Cushion plants help other plants survive

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

Alpine cushion plants help other plants in harsh mountain environments to survive. This is shown by new research involving researchers from the University of Go...

Phosphorus starvation linked to citrus disease

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

The citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB), meaning "yellow shoot disease" in Chinese and also called citrus greening in English-speaking countries, is the most des...

Maize part of coastal Peru diet for 5,000 years

Feb 26, 2013 (SPX)

For decades, archaeologists have struggled with understanding the emergence of a distinct South American civilization during the Late Archaic period (3000-1800 ...

Wild plants are infected with many viruses and still thrive

Feb 25, 2013 (SPX)

Researchers have studied viruses as agents of disease in humans, domestic animals and plants, but a study of plant viruses in the wild may point to a more coope...

Cold-tolerant grapes expand wine country

Feb 23, 2013 (UPI)

Cold-tolerant grapes developed by University of Minnesota researchers have sparked the doubling of the number of wineries in the state in the past six years. It...

Monsanto to appeal Brazil GM seed ruling

Feb 22, 2013 (UPI)

Biotechnology giant Monsanto Co. plans to appeal a Brazilian court ruling that threatens to put at risk billions of dollars in royalty payments from Brazilian f...

Malawi's bountiful harvests and healthier children

Feb 21, 2013 (SPX)

Through research led by Michigan State University, crop yields have increased dramatically. The children of Ekwendi, Malawi, also have gained weight and are tal...