By suggesting and rearranging where and what type of crops farmers plant globally, scientists have calculated that crop production can be increased to feed an extra 825 million people. Scientists have calculated that global crop production can be increased to feed an extra 825 million people through rearranging the locations…
Researchers may have found a solution to keep tsetse flies away – a perfume collar that deters the fly with the scent of the waterbuck. A team of researchers from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), the Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources, the Centre for Development Research…
Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev) and agronomists and food scientists from the Stellenbosch University in South Africa’s Western Cape will partner on a R6 million research project on beer producing grains. Dr Nikki Else, Research and Development Manager: Agriculture Africa at AB InBev, said projects on cassava and sorghum will…
The Zambian parliamentary committee on agriculture has slammed the existing irrigation policy and weak institutional implementation structures. In a report on the importance of agriculture, the committee recommended urgent amendments to the irrigation policy and suggested that institutional structures be improved to spur on a vibrant irrigation sub-sector. “Our findings…
CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) in partnership with WorldFish have launched a research programme on fish called FISH during the Global Aquaculture Conference, currently underway in Cape Town. The programme was launched to tackle food security and nutrition, enhance livelihoods in emerging countries and also to address poor…
The international seed and agricultural products group DuPont recently opened a new technology center with the largest privately-owned insectarium in Africa, near the town of Delmas in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The company says the center will accelerate new product development across various crops for farmers and assist in helping the…
Microbial soil organisms can likely be a new, environmentally friendly weapon against crop diseases invading Africa, scientists say. In the past few years several trans-boundary pests and diseases like fall armyworm, tomato leaf miner and the tropical race 4 (TR4) banana disease, caused millions of dollars of crop damage. It…
A study conducted by the Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute (IAPRI) shows adoption rates for Conservation Agriculture (CA) in Zambia is still very low, even though the practice is highly promoted under small-scale farmers. Using data from the 2015 national representative rural household survey, the IAPRI found only 8.8% of…
American researchers in Tanzania found that factors such as poverty and the use of traditional healers could have a significant impact on the creation of antimicrobial resistant viruses, bacteria and other parasites, and on the transfer of these microbes from livestock to humans. The study found, for instance, that the…
The cheap aluminium cookware seen in African cities and villages from Cape Town to Cairo are a threat to the health and lives of millions of people. The locally-made cookware, ubiquitous throughout Africa and Asia, is manufactured from recycled scrap metal, including auto and computer parts, cans and other industrial…
