Agric & Biotech

The Federal Government says that it will demarcate 6,000km cattle routes across the country in 2017. Alhaji Mahmud Bello, the National Coordinator, Grazing Stock Routes, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Mararaba Dajin, Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of Bauchi State. Bello said: “We are going to provide ...

Nigeria is the largest producer of cassava in the world with a production of about 54 million tons, but its yield per hectare of cassava roots is about eight tons, less than half of the realisable yields of more than 20 tons per hectare Seed sector professionals have said that businesses selling improved varieties and high quality cassava stems for ...

The task of ensuring that science responds to popular needs of society should be the major challenge that scientists have to overcome. While that task is met regularly, the issue of presenting science in a way that citizens can easily grasp can be daunting. Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), the ecological think tank, hosted media practitioners in Benin City ...

As a means of supporting the call for economic diversification through agriculture in order to ensure food security, generate employment and increase foreign exchange earnings for the nation, the Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an Abuja-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), Food for All Initiative (FFAI), for the ...

Burkina Faso’s cotton companies and growers seem to have settled their long dispute with Monsanto Seed Company over their revenue losses allegedly caused by the introduction of genetically modified (GM) cotton. Among the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso, which began the nationwide introduction of cotton containing Monsanto’s Bollgard II trait in 2008 to fight against pests, is Africa’s top cotton ...

President Macky Sall of Senegal has thrown his weight behind the adoption of agricultural biotechnology in the country. He made the declaration during the 2017 Annual Session of the Senegal National Scientific and Technical Academy (ANSTS‎) on the situation, implications and perspectives of genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) in the country. At a session chaired by him, President Sall made it clear that ...

Logging that happens today and potential future rainfall reductions in the Amazon could push the region into a vicious dieback circle. If dry seasons intensify with human-caused climate change, the risk for self-amplified forest loss would increase even more, an international team of scientists finds. If however there is a great variety of tree species in a forest patch, according ...

The Ogun State Government has called on “Baales” and other community leaders in the three senatorial districts to partner government in tackling nefarious activities of illegal loggers in the state-owned forest reserves. Commissioner for Forestry, Kolawole Lawal, made the call recently during an interactive session with the State Council of Baales in the ministry’s conference room, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, the sate ...

Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF, in his welcome words) at the Media Training on Biosafety (themed: “Promoting Biosafety in Nigeria”) held in Benin City, Edo State on Friday, March 24 2017, laments that the many myths around modern agricultural biotechnology are being peddled regularly by the industry promoting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their team ...

Scientists are demanding that the impact of trees on water cycles and climate be given a closer look as, according to them, effects of trees on climate through rainfall and cooling may be more important than their well-studied capacity of storing carbon Forests and trees are said to play a major role on water cycles and cooler temperatures, contributing to ...