Grain traits traced to 'dark matter' of rice genome

Domesticated rice has fatter seed grains with higher starch content than its wild rice relatives -- the result of many generations of preferential seed sorting and sowing. But even though rice was the first crop to be fully sequenced, scientists have only documented a few of the genetic changes that made rice into a staple food for more than half the world's population.

Fungi could reduce reliance on fertilizers

Introducing fungi to wheat boosted their uptake of key nutrients and could lead to new, 'climate smart' varieties of crops, according to a new study.

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Sunflower: FG promises repositioning for larger market

The Federal Government (FG) of Nigeria has said she is ready to make the value chains of sunflower productivity more robust through effective policy with availability of subsidized inputs support to farmers for more competitiveness in the international market. This was disclosed by the officer in charge of Sunflower desk, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) Mr. Sunday Obasi during his presentation at the one day sensitization programme organized by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) in Abuja recently.

Strategies of a honey bee virus

The Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus is a pathogen that affects honey bees and has been linked to Colony Collapse Disorder, a key factor in decimating the bee population. Researchers have now analyzed in detail how the virus hijacks the cellular protein production machinery and misuses it for its own purposes. The research, published in The EMBO Journal, is an important step towards the development of strategies to fight the Colony Collapse Disorder.

54 farmers benefit in Ogun State broilers empowerment, 46 get loans

The Ogun State government has empowered fifty four (54) poultry farmers with a total of 54,000 day old chicks that are projected to give a dividend of N130, 000.00 per head after forty two days of proper feeding as 46 people out of these numbers have been given loan of Nine hundred thousand also. This was contained in a press release made available to us.

New portable DNA sequencer quickly and accurately diagnoses wheat viruses

Blasts cause significant loses in wheat crops. Recently Bangladesh was devastated by an invasion of South American races of wheat blast fungus, which occurred for the first time in the country in 2016. The disease spread to an estimated 15,000 hectares (16% of cultivated wheat area in the country) and resulted in yield losses as high as 100%.

Organic seeds: Practitioners challenge researchers

Practitioners  of organic agriculture in Nigeria has charged the research institutes in the country to intensify on generation of more organic seeds for farmers in view of the high demand for organically grown foods in the international markets. This position was taken at the recently concluded roundtable business summit on organic farming held in Abuja.

Are humans changing animal genetic diversity worldwide?

Human population density and land use is causing changes in animal genetic diversity, according to researchers at McGill University.