The winter weather window that is costing rapeseed growers millions

UK rapeseed growers are losing up to a quarter of their crop yield each year because of temperature rises during an early-winter weather window.

Editorial -Population control as a means of ensuring food security

There is a need to control the Nigerian population (which is growing in geometrical proportion) most especially for the purpose of ensuring food security now and in the future.

How absentee farmers killed Agric Bank--Findings

* FG begins recapitalization

Investigations have revealed that the government had to recapitalize the Bank of Agriculture (BOA) because non-farmers posing as farmers in connivance with the officials of the bank defrauded the organisation by presenting fake identity cards, unregistered Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards and other documents which enabled them to escape repayment of loans collected from the bank.

IAR cropping/REFIL: stakeholders want integration of research, extension into agribusiness

Stakeholders have advocated integration of research innovations, with efficient transfer of improved technologies, to farmers as a way to attaining acceptable global acceptability through best agricultural practices that would guaranty standard and markets with no rejection.

The secrets of secretion: Isolating eucalyptus genes for oils, biofuel

What is the genetic basis for eucalyptus trees to produce that fragrant oil many of us associate with trips to the spa? Carsten Külheim, associate professor in Michigan Technological University's School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science, has spent the past 10 years of his career studying eucalyptus. They are diverse, fast-growing species that includes scrubby bushes and 300-foot-tall flowering trees -- mostly indigenous to Australia, but also New Guinea and Indonesia.

Agric policy: Farmers/ herdsmen clashes, cassava, extension top priority

*Technical department memo step down

·        *AFAN vows to monitor implementation

·        *Stakeholders demand Fadama AF, IFAD continuity

The National Council on Agriculture and Rural Development (NCARD), the apex policy maker in the sector has approved a proposal seeking implementation and provision of facilities for herdsmen towards encouraging ranching to forestall incessant clashes occasioned by cattle being moved about in the country, even as national productivity of cassava was also approved along with a memo on national policy on extension for its strategic role in technologies transfer to farmers nationwide.

Field experiment finds a simple change that could boost agricultural productivity by 60 percent

Raising tenants' share in crop-sharing contracts between landlords and tenants in developing countries can boost agricultural output, by providing tenants with the right incentive to raise agriculture productivity. Bocconi University's Selim Gulesci and colleagues came to this conclusion making use of a field experiment in Uganda.

New strain of canine distemper in wild animals in NH, VT (Virus highly contagious to domesticated dogs)

The new strain of canine distemper virus was found in two gray foxes similar to these foxes.

A distinct strain of canine distemper virus, which is a widespread virus of importance to wildlife and domesticated dogs, has been identified in wild animals in New Hampshire and Vermont, according to pathologists with the New Hampshire Veterinary Diagnostic Lab at the University of New Hampshire. No virus in this distinct subgroup of canine distemper virus has yet been reported in a domesticated dog.

Discovery of RNA transfer through royal jelly could aid development of honey bee vaccines

Researchers have discovered that honey bees are able to share immunity with other bees and to their offspring in a hive by transmitting RNA 'vaccines' through royal jelly and worker jelly. The jelly is the bee equivalent of mother's milk: a secretion used to provide nutrition to worker and queen bee larvae.

Close relatives can coexist: two flower species show us how

Scientists have discovered how two closely-related species of Asiatic dayflower can coexist in the wild despite their competitive relationship.