The United Arab Emirates (UAE) flagship carrier, Emirates Airline, has launched a joint project with U.S. Crop One Holdings, to build the world’s largest vertical farming facility. The facility would be near Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport, Emirates said in a statement on Tuesday, June 26, 2018. “Emirates Flight Catering (EKFC), the flight catering division of Emirates, and Crop One, a leading global vertical farm operator, will co-invest $40 million in the large project,’’ the statement said. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Emirates, said the massive investment “aligns with the UAE’s drive for…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says it plans to assist more than one million people in the Northeast to grow between six and eight months’ worth of food in the 2018 rainy season. Mr Suffyan Koroma, the FAO representative in Nigeria said this on Wednesday in Maiduguri in his message at the launch of the organisation’s rainy season programme. Koroma said an estimated 149, 730 households are expected to benefit from the programme whose overall objective is to ensure restoration of livelihood, particularly in agriculture for a full recovery in the sub region. He said the launch has become…
A group of researchers from Kenya, Tanzania and Spain have joined forces to develop a breed of cassava which would be more resistant to the destructive effects of climate change. The cooperative project, funded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is targeted at achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and will have researchers from various agricultural research institutes in the three countries, including the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) in Kenya, Mikocheni Agricultural Research Institute (MARI) in Tanzania, and the Basque Institute for Research and Development in Agriculture (NEIKER) in Spain. Professor Elijah Ateka…
By Kristen Hovet Contracting HIV is no longer the death sentence that it was in the 1980s and early 90s. The first cases of AIDS in the United States were reported in 1981, and since then the antiretroviral drugs used to treat HIV have come a long way in both safety and efficacy. HIV-positive individuals who take antiretroviral medications are estimated to have a life expectancy close to the national average, provided they take the medications as prescribed. Without adequate treatment, however, an individual with HIV can be expected to survive an average of about 10 years. Recent medical advances, however,…
In developing countries, the food system employs the majority of people in self and wage employment both on and off the farm. Globally, 65% of poor working adults relied on agriculture for their livelihoods in 2016. According to 2017 data, farming generates about 68 percent of rural income in Africa, and about half of rural income in South Asia. Changes in diets, rising consumer demand and urbanization are creating opportunities in the broader food system—including in manufacturing, marketing, transportation and food preparation. In Africa, food systems accounted for nearly 50 percent of economic activity in 2013 and could create a trillion-dollar food market—and even more jobs–…
Detecting light away from eyes can trigger animals’ color changes By SUSAN MILIUS Octopus skin can detect light and respond to it — no eyes or brain required. Tests of fresh skin samples from California two-spot octopuses (Octopus bimaculoides) show this ability clearly for the first time in any cephalopod, says Todd Oakley of the University of California, Santa Barbara. White or blue light prompts the pale skin’s tiny quick-change color organs, or chromatophores, to expand, creating waves of yellows and browns. The octopus tests, along with another research team’s new studies of two kinds of cuttlefishes and a squid,…
Despite its potential to battle disease and hunger, genetically engineered food is still controversial By Ian Tucker Pigs Last week, scientists from the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute announced they had deleted the section of DNA that leaves pigs vulnerable to porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome, which is estimated to cost European farmers £1.5bn a year in loss of livestock and decreased productivity. Genetically modified animals are banned from the EU food chain, but since this is a new and different technique it’s possible they’ll be appearing in bacon sandwiches in a few years. A genetically modified mosquito emerges from its pupa. Photograph:…
The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has been awarded a $24.6 million grant by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the commercialisation of insect-resistant and drought-tolerant maize in Sub-Saharan Africa. A statement issued by AATF said the fund complements the ongoing $5 million commitment by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to the project. According to it, the new maize had been enhanced through biotechnology to improve drought tolerance as well as resist insect attacks. “The new maize hybrids (branded as TELA® maize) have been enhanced through biotechnology to improve their drought tolerance and ability to resist attacks by insects. …
ByStuart Smyth The Global Cassava Partnerships for the 21st Century (GCP21) has called for urgent regional approach to halt the spread of cassava mosaic disease (CMD) that is threatening cassava production in Southeast Asia—a region that accounts for about 55 million tons of cassava and host billions of dollars in cassava investment. CIAT and national partners through extensive field surveys and stakeholder interaction in the region have confirmed that CMD was officially present in 6 provinces of Cambodia and 2 provinces of southern Vietnam. In a communique issued today, Dr Claude Fauquet, immediate past Director for the GCP21, said the proposal…
ByStuart Smyth In mid-June 2018, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) reported that a few GM wheat plants had been detected in southern Alberta, amounting to no more than a handful of seeds. Using Canada’s science-based risk assessment system, the CFIA clearly stated, “[t]here is also no evidence that this wheat has entered the food or animal feed system, nor is it present anywhere else in the environment. Health Canada and the CFIA have performed risk assessments of this finding, and have concluded that it does not pose a food safety, animal feed, or environmental risk.” END OF STORY, RIGHT? Nothing…