Urban, home gardens could help curb food insecurity, health problems

Food deserts are an increasingly recognized problem in the United States, but a new study from the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, indicates urban and home gardens -- combined with nutrition education -- could be a path toward correcting that disadvantage.

Nodulation connected to higher resistance against powdery mildew in legumes

Scientists have long known that nodulation is important to plant health. Nodulation occurs when nodules, which form on the roots of plants (primarily legumes), form a symbiotic relationship with nitrogen-fixing bacteria that deliver nutrients to the plant.

Fertilizer is used worldwide in farming. It's used to give plants a boost, increasing yield and ultimately farmers' profits.

But, as the old adage goes: the dose makes the poison. Similar effects are seen in over-the-counter medicines. They need to take the right dose, at the right intervals, to be safe and effective. Fertilizer works the same way.

Frying oil consumption worsened colon cancer and colitis in mice, study shows

Foods fried in vegetable oil are popular worldwide, but research about the health effects of this cooking technique has been largely inconclusive and focused on healthy people.

New insights on impacts of crop trading in China

Feeding the world's growing population is one of the great challenges of the 21st century. This challenge is particularly pressing in China, which has 22% of the world's population but only 7% of the global cropland.

Association’s scribe wants Customs to intensify effort on tomato levy

The National Secretary, Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Sanni Danladi Yadakwari

The National Secretary, Tomato Growers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Sanni Danladi Yadakwari has demanded that Nigerian Custom Services (NCS) constitute an inspection committee that would monitor and scrutinize the import  activities of tomato processing companies in Nigeria towards revenue generation via levies. He disclosed this in an exclusive interview at Abuja.  

Not all meat is created equal: How diet changes can sustain world's food production

If you wanted to really mess with the world's food production, a good place to start would be in Morocco. They don't grow much here, but it is home to mines containing most of the world's known reserves of phosphate rock, the main source of the nutrient phosphorus. Most of us across the globe, most days, will eat some food grown on fields fertilized by phosphate rock from these mines.

Scientists successfully inoculate, grow crops in salt-damaged soil

A group of researchers may have found a way to reverse falling crop yields caused by increasingly salty farmlands throughout the world.

Editorial- CBN’s loan Intervention: best agronomic practices also important

We wish to commend the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s determination to ensure loan intervention to ten economically viable agricultural crops as a means of diversifying the nation’s economy from mono product to agribusiness-based industrialisation, where the entire sub-sector along the value chains of food productivity are effectively engaged and supported, with emphasis on maize, cotton, cassava, rice, tomato, livestock, palm-oil, cocoa and poultry.

New way to bump off ticks: Dry up their saliva

Saliva from a tick's bite can transmit pathogens that cause serious illnesses, such as Lyme disease, and significant agricultural losses. Current insecticides have drawbacks, so scientists have been seeking new ways to prevent these pesky arachnids from spreading pathogens. Now, researchers report that compounds they previously identified can dry up ticks' saliva by upsetting the balance of ions in the salivary gland, reducing feeding and potentially limiting pathogen transmission.