How agroforestry schemes can improve food security in developing countries

By Caspar van Vark
The Guardian - Agroforesty - the integration of trees and shrubs with crops and livestock systems – has strong potential in addressing problems of food insecurity in developing countries. Done well, it allows producers to make the best use of their land, can boost field crop yields, diversify income, and increase resilience to climate change.

To date, the uptake of agroforestry has been constrained partly because it has lacked a natural ‘home’ in policy space, but that may be changing thanks to a growing body of evidence of what it can achieve, and how to make it work. The FAO last month published a guide to advancing agroforestry on the policy agenda with case studies of best practice, and is due to hold a conference on forests and food security and nutrition in May.

Click here to access the complete article at The Guardian
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Could Wood Feed the World?

By Charles Q. Choi
Science - The main ingredient of wood, cellulose, is one of the most abundant organic compounds on Earth and a dream source of renewable fuel. Now, bioengineers suggest that it could feed the hungry as well. In a new study, researchers have found a way to turn cellulose into starch, the most common carbohydrate in the human diet.

A Rescue Mission for Amphibians at the Brink of Extinction

Richard Stone

Science - Brian Gratwicke reaches into a terrarium with a gloved hand and gently nudges a tiny froglet onto a U.S. quarter. Smaller than George Washington’s head, the 5-day-old Limosa harlequin frog, its slick skin sporting green and black chevrons, squats calmly as Gratwicke snaps photos. The little tyke is a celebrity. When Gratwicke, a conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute in Washington, D.C., and his team first captured a few of the endangered toads in 2009, he says: “We couldn’t keep them alive for even 2 days.” The toads had been taken in jungle in central Panama thought to be free of chytrid fungus, which has been mowing down amphibians worldwide. But the captives had been infected in the wild and succumbed in Gamboa. The team found healthy individuals on subsequent forays. “We came this close to losing the species,” Gratwicke says, holding his thumb and index finger a hair’s width apart. …. >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: Sciene 22nd March, 2013
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Research study on bioethanol weighs alternatives for second generation biofuels

By Fernando Cunha
Agência FAPESP – Recent discoveries about plants that may be considered alternative and complementary to the production of second generation ethanol obtained from biomass were reported during the Japan-Brazil Symposium on Research Collaboration.
Organized jointly by FAPESP and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), the event was held at Rikkyo University March 15-61, with support from the Embassy of Brazil in Tokyo.

Snap! How Carnivorous Plants Capture Prey

By Elizabeth Norton
Science – When an insect blunders into the sticky tentacles of the carnivorous sundew plant, the leaf curls up into a kind of outer stomach in which the plant digests its catch. This is no mere reflex but a complex chemical system of capturing and devouring live prey, a new study suggests.

Why Bacteria Commit Suicide

By Traci Watson
Science - Suicide is an evolutionary puzzle. Why should an organism kill itself when it could be having offspring? Now, researchers have shown that in bacteria, suicide can be worthwhile—and has no major downside. Scientists compared two strains of Escherichia coli bacteria, one that self-destructs when infected with a lethal virus and one that doesn’t.

Transgenic eucalyptus yields 20% more than conventional

Biomassa & Agroenergia - In appearance, the small planting of 2.2 hectares of eucalyptus trees on a farm in the municipality of Angatuba (SP), is nothing unusual. But differences exist and these trees are cells that received the insertion of a gene of another species, Arabidopsis thaliana, a plant model widely used in genetic experiments. With the change, they become capable of producing 20% more wood in relation to Eucalyptus counterparts.
A small forest of eucalyptus growing GM is one of four experimental plantings of this tree made by genetically modified FuturaGene,

Brazil develops global climate change model

By Elton Alisson
Agência FAPESP – Few countries today play a leading role in scientific advances in climate modeling. Most of these countries – the United States, for example – are in the Northern Hemisphere. Australia was the only country in the Southern Hemisphere with this capacity. However, after developing its own climate models for 30 years, the country abandoned its efforts in the area, opting to import and help to improve a model developed by the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Great Britain.

Now, Brazil has filled the void left by Australia, joining the select group of countries capable of developing a model, validating it and simulating global climate changes.

Click here to access the complete article
Source and Photo: Agência FAPESP, 20th March, 2013
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General information – Brazilian Agriculture, Bioenergy and Labex Korea activities

By Gilberto Silber Schmidt

Labex Korea prepared this page to disclose to their readers information of the Labex Korea activities, as well as technological advances of the Brazilian Agriculture and bioenergy production. The information takes the form of articles, documents and presentations (PDF) which can be accessed freely.

 

Click here to access the complete list of documents published since Labex Korea’s opening.

 

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SGB and Embrapa formalize strategic partnership in research to develop jatropha in Brazil

Biomassa & Bioenergia – GBS, Inc. (SG Biofuels) and Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation) entered into a strategic research agreement to promote the development of jatropha as an alternative source of renewable energy in Brazil. Headquartered in San Diego, USA, GBS is an energy crop company that provides high-performance solutions for the markets of renewable energy, biomass and chemicals. It is a leader in its segment and offers the largest and most diverse library of genetic material of Jatropha in the world. The company has been working on this development for five years, combining platforms breeding and genomics.
“By aggregating our efforts for initiatives of an institution of the Brazilian Government