The Rice Compact of the African Development Bank-funded project on Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) is paving the way for rice transformation in sub-Saharan Africa by promoting locally-adapted high-yielding hybrid rice varieties developed by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice).One such trailblazer is AR051H, which is the first hybrid rice variety released by the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research (ISRA) in Senegal under the name ISRIZ-9 in 2017. With high yield potential of 11-13 t/ha, long slender grains and good milling quality, ISRIZ-9, is aromatic, a trait that is highly appreciated by Senegalese consumers.As a result of heterosis (hybrid vigor),…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The co-sponsors of the Ebola therapeutics trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have announced advances that will bring patients a better chance of survival. Two out of the four drugs being tested are more effective in treating Ebola. Moving forward, these are the only drugs that future patients will be treated with. Details of the changes are available in this WHO/NIAID/INRB release.This WHO initiative is the first-ever multi-drug randomized control trial aimed at evaluating the safety and efficacy of four drugs used for treatment of Ebola patients. Initially developed as a multi-outbreak, multi-country study, PALM (“Together save lives”)…
President Muhammadu Buhari has assented to the National Biosafety Management Agency (Amendment) Act, 2019, with a view to preventing any adverse effect to human health and environment in the country. The Senior Special Assistant to the President on the National Assembly (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, confirmed this development in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday. Enang said the bill amended the National Biosafety Management Agency Act No. 20, 2015 to enlarge the scope of application of the Act by including the emerging aspects of modern biotechnology and biosecurity in the country. The amended bill seeks to cover gene drive, gene…
By Jon Cohen If Gao Caixia were a farmer, she might be spread a little thin. Down the hall from her office at a branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) here in Beijing, seeds from a strain of unusually soft rice and a variety of wheat with especially fat grains and resistance to a common fungus sprout in a tissue culture room. A short stroll away, wild tomato plants far hardier than domestic varieties but bearing the same sweet fruit crowd a greenhouse, along with herbicide-resistant corn and potatoes that are slow to brown when cut. In other…
A Nigerian PhD scholar with the University of Ilorin, Misitura Lawal-Arowona, under the supervision of Prof. Joshua Obaleye, has promised to tackle the menace of tuberculosis (TB), both in African countries as well as India. According to a report published in the Sunday Times of India, under a sandwich fellowship at Faculty of Science of The Maharaja Sayajirao University’ of Baroda, India, Misitura Lawal-Arowona, who works as a lecturer at Nigeria’s Kebbi State University has successfully developed metal attached anti-TB drug. This has improved the efficiency of the anti-TB drugs compared to normal drugs that are consumed globally. Nigeria is…
At last, solution has come the way of victims of snake bite as the African Centre of Excellence in Phytomedicine Research and Development, University of Jos in collaboration with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP on Wednesday unveiled the first indigenous and world first Anti—Snake vaccine called COVIP-Plus in Abuja The presentation took place at a national forum on promotion of Anti-Snake Venom (COVIP-Plus) for commercialization organised by NOTAP and ACEPRD held at Kanem Suit, Utako, Abuja. Snake bite is one of the most neglected public health issues that need critical interventions and the current treatment of…
University of Cape Town (UCT) researchers have collected clear evidence – over a 23 year period between 1976 and 1999 – that climate change is shrinking animals’ body sizes.
Fear, trust, and the likelihood of exposure are three leading factors that influence whether people are willing to be vaccinated against a virulent disease, according to a new study in the journal Heliyon, published by Elsevier. Following the highly-publicized 2014 outbreak of Ebola in Africa and anticipating the possibility of a future Ebola outbreak in the United States, a 2014 CNN/ORC poll asked a random sample of 1,018 adults if they would take an anti-Ebola vaccination if and when it became available. About half of the participants reported that they would, while half expressed hesitation or refusal, even if vaccination services for Ebola…
Healthcare in low- and middle-income countries is poorly prepared for the increasing number of people with high blood pressure, with more than two-thirds of people affected going without treatment – a new study reveals.Researchers studied health data for one million people in the Global South, discovering that less than half of those affected are diagnosed with high blood pressure or hypertension. Of these patients, only 30% are treated and only 10% have the disease under control.The research team analysed the healthcare of hypertension in 44 countries. Using a cascade of care approach, which looked at the numbers of people with…
The Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), in close collaboration with national partners, has launched a high-potential project in which research will be put into effective use to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Africa by promoting a range of sustainable intensification and diversification innovations for rice-based systems, while reducing their environmental footprint.The project titled ‘Sustainable and Diversified Rice-based Farming Systems’ is conducted under the ‘Putting Research into Use for Nutrition, Sustainable Agriculture and Resilience (PRUNSAR)’ program co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).PRUNSAR works through CGIAR Research Programs to achieve results that impact…