Agriculture

Hope for the humble cabbage - biological pest management programs (diamond back moth)

Deidre Charleston Plants, herbivores and carnivores are connected through an intricate array of chemical linkages. The plant kingdom is by far the most efficient producer of chemical compounds, synthesising many products that are used in defence against herbivore attack. Extracts prepared from plants have a variety of properties including insecticidal, such as toxicity to nematodes, mites and other agricultural pests. They also have antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties against pathogens. Many farmers in developing countries do not have the resources to purchase and apply...

GM - why the frenzy? Interview with Val Giddings

Janice Limson It all began with determining the structure of DNA in the 1960s. Since then our knowledge of DNA and understanding of genetics has provided scientists with a powerful tool to address world needs in a way that was never possible before. While advances in the pharmaceutical biotech industry receive worthy attention it is the area of food or agricultural biotechnology which has enraged and impassioned and been debated like no other scientific advance before. "Why" we asked Dr Val Giddings, Vice President for Food and Agriculture of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in...

Agave - Gems in the Karoo

by Garth Cambray The science behind making alcohol is an interesting one. Science is what has allowed us to make alcohol from some of the most bizarre and unusual life forms on our planet. As one drives through the dry but beautiful Karoo near Graaf-Reinet in South Africa you will see stands of a dark blue-grey leafed plant, which farmers often call the American aloe, and which are all members of the Agave family. It is hard to imagine looking at this plant that it could be used to produce alcohol, but that is precisely what the owners of Agave Distillers are doing.

Decades of cassava research bear fruit

Keane Shore For his pathbreaking research on cassava, Dr Nagib Nassar, a professor at the Universidade de Brasília, has been nominated for this year’s World Food Prize. The prize, worth $250,000 and considered by some to be the international development equivalent of the Nobel Prize, will be awarded October 24, 2002.

Artificial cows effectively combat tsetse flies

Marilynn Larkin Contributing Editor The Lancet Tsetse flies that infect cattle with nagana (animal trypanosomosis) have been "all but eradicated from Zimbabwe's farming areas" with the use of "artificial cows," says David Hall of the University of Greenwich, UK.

Cassava - a new image	Genes from green pepper rescue Africa's banana from deadly wilt disease
Making Kenyan maize safe from deadly aflatoxins	Acacia tree's promise to revive African soils
Biopesticide puts invasive locust under control	Putting an evolutionary perspective on biological invasions
Controlling witchweed through biocontrol	Common plant could bring wealth
New Hope for Improved Food Safety in Sub-Saharan Africa	First all-African produced genetically engineered maize is resistant to maize streak virus
African bees – a solution to North Americas bee problems?	Green muscle test beats locusts
Rosedale organic citrus farm - Organic Biotechnology in Action.	Corn grain mould used as pesticide
Environmentally friendly weapon against locusts proves effective	New study debunks misconceptions about biotech crop research in Africa

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