An expert in charge of Apiculture at Audu Bako College of Agriculture in Kano State, Dauda Abbas has said that Nigeria has the potential of producing 20 million litres of honey annually. Speaking at a three-day training on poultry, fisheries and bee-keeping organised for members of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Monday in Katsina, he disclosed that Nigeria presently produce two million litres of honey. ‘‘The current production of honey liquid in Nigeria is two million but the expected production is 20 million. We have the potential to produce that because majority of bee species in Africa reside in…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has emphasised that its investment in promoting local farming was yielding results as production of made-in-Nigeria fertiliser had reached 2.22 million metric tonnes. The Managing Director of the Authority, Mr Uche Orji in an interview on Monday in Abuja said among NSIA’s investment priority was to make fertiliser affordable to farmers, all year round. “Prior to December 2016, Nigeria’s stock of blended Fertiliser was shipped into the country as fully finished products, even though Urea and Limestone, which constitute roughly two-thirds of the component of each bag are available locally. Knowing this, President Muhammadu Buhari…
A cheap, safe and effective method of dealing with harmful algal blooms is on the verge of being introduced following successful field and lab tests. Moves to adopt use of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an effective treatment against toxic algae are already underway following the results of new research by a team from the John Innes Centre and the University of East Anglia (UEA.) Successful trials last summer showed that H2O2 was effective against the golden algae, Prymnesium parvum. This is responsible for millions of fish kills worldwide each year and a threat to the £550m economy of the Broads National Park where trials…
An environmental group, “Let’s Do It Nigeria” said it had developed a mobile app to help track trash points and illegal dumpsite across the country. Disclosing this in an interview on Sunday in Lagos, the Marketing and Public Relations Manager of the group, Gafar Olorunleke said the mobile app was developed as part of efforts to help in the effective management of waste as well as realize the group’s dream of a waste-free environment. “Let’s Do It Nigeria is not about cleaning up alone, we also unite organisations and stakeholders over various sectors of the economy to achieve a common goal…
A combined team of researchers from the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), University of Osun and Afe Babalola University have successfully devised a system of cleaning underground water contaminated by petroleum hydrocarbon caused by seepage from oil pipeline. The project was unveiled at the Lagos Sheraton hotel during a one day workshop held on Tuesday March 27, 2018. The leader of the team of Experts, who is a professor of Geotechnical and Geo-environmental Engineering at FUTA, Samuel Ola said that the method, which pilot project was undertaken to clean water wells contaminated by oil spillage from pipelines of the Nigerian…
https://youtu.be/xTsdKhNiVBo
Some Ugandan officials are optimistic that the nation’s biotechnology biosafety bill will soon pass, saying that President Museveni’s concerns have been addressed. “The president expressed concern on seven out of 44 clauses in the biosafety bill,” noted Kafeero Sekitoleko, chairman of Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee. “These have since been addressed and we’re ready to report back (to Parliament). I want to leave Uganda with a biosafety law by end of my term in May (2018).” After years of wrangling, Parliament passed the bill in October 2017. But President Museveni referred it to back to lawmakers in December, citing various…
The Doctors Without Borders otherwise known as the Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) on Friday said it had scaled up its activities to control cholera outbreak in Bauchi. MSF’s Field Communication Manager, Maro Verli in a statement released in Maiduguri said that the organisation was collaborating with the Bauchi State Ministry of Health to contain spread of the disease. According to MSF, a 70-bed capacity Cholera Treatment Centre had been set up at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Teaching Hospital, Bauchi, which would be upgraded to 100-bed capacity to enhance treatment of the disease. “MSF teams and hospital of Bauchi have received a…
The National Professional Officer of World Health Organisation (WHO) in Nigeria, Dr Michael Jose has decried the alleged sale of free Tuberculosis (TB) drugs to patients in Rivers state. He raised the concern in an interview in Port Harcourt on Thursday observing that it was an inhuman act for free drugs to be sold to the same patients that needed it. Jose stressed that TB drugs were donated by WHO meant to be given free to the patients, adding that it was wicked and callous for anybody charged with the responsibility of dispensing the drugs to sell them for his selfish…
A few weeks ago, like thousands of other scientists around the globe have done before, I stood up in front of a public audience and “defended” my PhD thesis to a jury of senior scientists. The PhD defense is probably the single-most significant milestone in a career in science. It’s part examination and part ritual – PhD defenses in the Netherlands, for instance, feature a robed jury and a master of ceremonies with a ceremonial mace. In my university in Switzerland, tradition dictates that PhD students get whimsical “hats” made by fellow researchers which are donned just as the results (hopefully…