A Banana-Killing Fungus Has Reached Latin America. Does This Spell the End for Bananas?

Bad news for banana lovers: A fungus that's particularly adept at killing the fruit has finally reached Latin America — a major supplier of the world's bananas — as scientists long feared it would.

Climate change could shrink oyster habitat in California

Ocean acidification is bad news for shellfish, as it makes it harder for them to form their calcium-based shells. But climate change could also have multiple other impacts that make California bays less hospitable to shelled organisms like oysters, which are a key part of the food web.

Ancient feces reveal how 'marsh diet' left Bronze Age Fen folk infected with parasites

New research published today in the journal Parasitology shows how the prehistoric inhabitants of a settlement in the freshwater marshes of eastern England were infected by intestinal worms caught from foraging for food in the lakes and waterways around their homes.

Discovery could pave the way for disease-resistant rice crops

Researchers have uncovered an unusual protein activity in rice that can be exploited to give crops an edge in the evolutionary arms race against rice blast disease, a major threat to rice production around the world.

Green chemists find a way to turn cashew nut shells into sunscreen

A team of international scientists has found an environmentally friendly way of producing potential sunscreens by using cashew nut shells, a waste material.

ICO, others ask for coffee policy

FMITI promises rebirth

The visiting Executive Director, International Coffee Organization (ICO), Mr. Jose Sette has joined other stakeholders in Nigeria to demand for national policy on coffee that will galvanise the neglected crop towards wealth and more economic empowerment of farmers just as  the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) immediately promised to call for a rebirth conference in order to reposition the crop to more economy viability.

CORAF, NASC others ponder on low quality inputs for farmers

 The West and Central Africa Council for Agriculture Research and Development (CORAF), National Agricultural Seeds Council (NASC) and relevant stakeholders in the agricultural sector have expressed deep concern on how to step up the quality of inputs being given to farmers at accessesable and affordable prices saying this was the only way to avert imminent food shortage in view of the geometric population growth in the West African region.      

Compost key to sequestering carbon in the soil

By moving beyond the surface level and literally digging deep, scientists at the University of California, Davis, found that compost is a key to storing carbon in semi-arid cropland soils, a strategy for offsetting CO2 emissions.

Asian longhorned beetle larvae eat plant tissues that their parents cannot

Despite the buzz in recent years about other invasive insects that pose an even larger threat to agriculture and trees -- such as the spotted lanternfly, the stink bug and the emerald ash borer -- Penn State researchers have continued to study another damaging pest, the Asian longhorned beetle.

images speak @ the National workshop for analyzing Agri-input supply chains in West Africa and Sahel sub-region

 
images speak @ the National workshop for analyzing Agri-input supply chains in West Africa and Sahel sub-region... see more images below.