A Better Berry, Thanks to Bees

Science – The next time you bite into a bright red, perfectly shaped strawberry, give a shout-out to the bees. A new study shows that pollination by the insects increases the quality and shelf life of strawberries, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in the process. Bees could be providing the same benefits for a variety of other fruits and vegetables as well.

It’s well known that pollination increases the yield of most crops. Seeds, nuts, fruit, and grain can be larger and more plentiful when insects or other animals transfer pollen between plants, in contrast to when plants pollinate themselves, a process called selfing. But quality turns out to be important, too. Teja Tscharntke, an agroecologist at the University of Göttingen in Germany, got the idea to study quality about a decade ago, while he was investigating pollination of coffee plants in Indonesia. He and his student Alexandra Klein noticed that not only was coffee yield higher with more bee species, but malformations such as unevenly shaped beans were also reduced.

Time to Back Family Farms

The Poultry Site – A dialogue towards more sustainable and resilient farming in Europe and the world was held in Brussels on Friday to ready the European legislative ahead of 2014 – ‘Year of family run agriculture’.

Speaking ahead of the conference, Gerd Sonnleitner, European Farmers Association (COPA) President, praised family farmers for their daily efforts to produce healthy food sustainably.

In an address to the United Nations earlier this month, Mr Sonnleitner, newly appointed UN special ambassador for family agriculture, said the UN should be the ‘lobby’ for sustainable agriculture.

Cornell research orchard seeks the perfect apple

By Michael Hill
MSN News – The orchards, part of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, are essentially a 50-acre lab devoted to developing apples that are tasty for consumers and hardy for farmers. The station has released 66 apple varieties over more than a century including Cortland, Macoun, and two new entries at farm markets this fall: SnapDragon and RubyFrost.

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Agriculture Dependent on Future of Global Food Demand

The Poultry Site – While billions of Euros and dollars are being spent on research to improve crop, livestock and food production, the supply of food as populations grow in size and wealth will largely be determined by the climate and land availability.

However, while the demand for food is growing and people are getting wealthier, the proportion of household incomes that is being spent on food is now less than it was 30 or 40 years ago.

A changing global population, with an emerging growing middle class and changing eating habits has seen a switch to a more meat based diet.

According to Mario Pezzini, the director of the OECD Development Centre the global middle class is expected to grow from 1.8 billion in 2009 to 3.2 billion by 2020… >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: The Poultry Site, 4th October, 2013

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To strengthen Africa’s green revolution, look to the skies

By Nick van de Giesen
The Guardian – Effective policy-making relies on availability of high quality data and nowhere is that more true than in Africa, where a ‘green revolution’ has been spoken about, waited for, but not been realised for decades. Across the continent, national governments and regional planners have never had the data to make proper decisions regarding investment in water resources infrastructure, essential to increase agricultural capacity sustainably.

The main obstacle is Africa’s extremely limited hydro-meteorological observation network. With more measurement stations, and thus better understanding of water availability, and enhanced ability to predict shifting weather patterns, the impact on African harvest predictions and food production could be transformative.

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Source and Photo: The Guardian, 22nd August, 2013
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Do crop intensification techniques hold the key to food security?

By Caspar van Vark
The Guardian – Yields achieved under the system of rice intensification (SRI) have made headlines in recent years, with one farmer in India reported to have produced a record-breaking 22.4 tonnes from one hectare of land in 2011. But why stop at rice? Farmers and NGOs have found that the same principles can be applied to other crops such as wheat and teff, where it is referred to more broadly as the system of crop intensification (SCI).

SRI is based on improved planting and growing techniques, rather than improved seed varieties and other inputs. It aims to produce more from less, using fewer seeds and less water, but carefully managing the relationship between the plant and soil. This low-input approach – and the results it can achieve – have made it popular among resource-limited farmers…. >>Continue Reading<<

Source and Photo: The Guardian, 9th September, 2013
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Indonesians cultivate food diversity

The Korea Herald – Indonesia’s heavy dependence on rice as the primary staple food has triggered the need for food diversification, but up to now it is still a work in progress.
If there is any food that deserves to be identified as the Asian food, it is rice ― people have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
“I always have rice,” said Ardi, a 39-year-old private company employee living in West Jakarta. “If I don’t have rice, I am still hungry.”
Rice is the staple food of more than 50 percent of the world’s population, including in Indonesia where per capita rice consumption is estimated at 139 kilograms per year.

Number of abandoned homes increasing in urban Japan

The Korea Herald – The number of vacant houses in urban areas has been increasing, as houses built in rapid succession during Japan’s high economic growth period have been abandoned after the death of the original owners.

Because the unoccupied houses are seen as disruptive to a neighborhood’s scenery and problematic in terms of disaster prevention, the central and some local governments have begun taking action.

A woman living in the southern part of Adachi Ward, Tokyo, where many old wooden houses are concentrated, said she worries about potential damage from the roof of a house next to hers.

Not too long ago the abandoned house’s galvanized sheet iron roof was blown off by a gust of wind and struck the side of her home. “Whenever a strong wind blows, I can’t sleep well,” she said.

A residential area in a northern part of the ward contained an abandoned apartment building until December 2011 that was called a “ghost house.” >>Continue Reading<<

Source: The Korea Herald, 13rd May, 2013.
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Agriculture Must Adapt to Survive

By Jackie Linden

ANALYSIS – FAO’s Deputy Director General has said that human survival depends on agriculture adapting to climate change and that genetic resources are vital for this adaptation. Native breeds have a role to play in a sustainable livestock industry, according to one speaker at a conference in the UK this week, and another outlined how advanced plant breeding techniques have the potential to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. There is also news of bird flu in China, South Africa and the UK.

Biotechnology: Africa and Asia need a rational debate on GM crops

By Christopher J. M. Whitty, Monty Jones, Alan Tollervey and Tim Wheeler
Nature – In Europe, scientists, politicians, industry representatives and environmentalists often present genetically modified (GM) crops either as a key part of the solution to world hunger or as a pointless but dramatic threat to health and safety. Neither position is well founded.

Recently, the often shrill debate that has unfolded in some European countries, including France and the United Kingdom, for the past 20 years has been spilling over to developing economies. The government of India, for instance, is considering banning all field trials of GM crops for the next decade — a move that could hurt large- and small-scale farmers by blocking their access to certain crop varieties that have been modified to grow better in local conditions, including types of cotton, soya bean and tomato. Meanwhile, in Kenya, where more than one-quarter of the population is malnourished, the government chose to ban the import of GM food at the end of last year but not GM crop research1. Like similar rulings made in Europe, such decisions seem to be based in part on emotional responses to the technology.

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