Northeast China’s Jilin Province is suffering from a drought which has affected 1.36 million hectares of crops, local authorities said on Wednesday. The province has received 31.4 millimeters of precipitation since mid-April when spring plowing started, down 46 per cent from average levels in more than 10 years. The city of Songyuan is the worst-hit area, with just 3.8 mm of rainfall, down 90 per cent from average levels. Higher-than-average temperatures and windy weather worsened the drought conditions in central and western Jilin, said the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters. Amid a series of measures to relieve the drought,…
Author: Abdallah el-Kurebe
Kenya plans to reform its laws in order to enhance biodiversity conservation and sustainable utilisation of national resources, a government official said on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. The Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Keriako Tobiko, said in a statement published in the Daily Nation that the country’s efforts to conserve biodiversity had not matched increasing evidence of biodiversity loss. “The ministry of environment had formulated and reviewed laws and regulations to implement the provisions of the constitution as well as the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity,” Tobiko said. “The new legislative frameworks are geared to enhance biodiversity conservation and…
At least seven people have been killed by cholera in Tanzania’s southern highland region of Rukwa, authorities said on Tuesday. Sumbawanga District Commissioner, Halfan Haule said 166 patients are being treated in different parts of the region. Fresh cases of cholera were reported in Maenje, Milepa, Kapaenta, Mkusi, Tunko and Laela villages, Haule told a meeting of health experts on measures to strengthen surveillance against Ebola following an Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Haule attributed the cholera outbreak to drinking of unsafe water and non-use of toilets. Rukwa Regional Medical Officer Boniface Kasululu said special centres…
United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has appointed a Tanzanian as Deputy Executive Director for the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), a statement said on Tuesday. According to the statement issued by the UN Information Centre in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, Joyce Msuya replaces Ibrahim Thiaw, a Mauritanian national. “Prior to her appointment, Msuya served as the advisor to the World Bank Vice-President for East Asia and Pacific region, based in Washington, D.C.,’’ the statement said. Msuya also served as regional coordinator at the World Bank Institute covering East Asia and Pacific region, based in China. She holds a Master’s…
Howard-Yana Shapiro, Chief Agricultural Officer of Mars, writes on Farming First about how orphan crops can benefit African farmers and the wider world. Africa has thus far missed out on having its own ‘green revolution’. One reason for this is that it has no large, homogenous ecosystem, such as India’s Deccan Plateau. Any approach to boost productivity and food security must fit Africa’s myriad, small and distinct ecosystems. The term agroecology refers to using ecological processes in agriculture, and maintaining balanced and healthy ecosystems. Pursuing an agricultural revolution that makes use of African crops that are already adapted, already grown…
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has urged countries to ensure sustainable food policies and systems to safeguard the bees. FAO’s Director-General José da Silva, on Tuesday, during an official presentation on Bees in Rome challenged countries and individuals to do more to protect bees and other pollinators or risk a sharp drop in food diversity. The report made available in Abuja, noted that bees are under great threat from the combined effects of climate change, intensive agriculture, pesticides, biodiversity loss and pollution. “We cannot continue to focus on increasing production and productivity based on the widespread use of pesticides and…
More eruptions overnight from Hawaii’s Kilauea launched plumes of ash high over the Big Island, where lava from the volcano’s rifts was endangering housing districts and flowing into the ocean, authorities said on Tuesday. The U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported a predawn explosive eruption from the Kilauea summit, with an ash plume rising over 2,000 metres high. The blast from the mountaintop was the third overnight and the fourth since early Monday. The island’s civil defence agency warned of ash blowing south-west of the summit toward small communities nearby. Residents were urged to avoid driving, stay indoors and…
A suspected cholera outbreak has claimed 12 lives in Mubi North and Mubi South local government areas of Adamawa state, according to an official of the state Ministry of Health. The Head of Emergency Operation Centre and Director Public Health in the ministry, Dr Bwalki Dilli made this known to newsmen in Yola on Tuesday. Dilli said about suspected 134 cases had so far been reported from the two local government areas. “For now we are in a period of suspected cholera outbreak in two local government areas of Mubi North and Mubi South. We quickly rushed to the local…
As a way of improving its Renewable Energy effort to deemphasize dependence on the national grid, the Centre for Renewable Energy Technology (CRET) of the Federal University of Technology, Akure has developed solar-powered generators- FUTA Solar Box I and FUTA Solar Box 2. The generators of various capacities which components include Lithium Polymer Battery, Inverter, Change Controller, Socket Outlet, Fuse and Switches can power Television set, fan and a number of bulbs for a minimum of five hours at a go. Presenting the generators to the University Management led by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, the Director of CRET, Prof.…
Here’s the story of its discovery—and its limitations By Emily Underwood *Update, 18 May, 10 a.m.: Yesterday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationapproved the first in a new class of drugs designed to prevent migraines. This feature, originally published on 7 January 2016, describes the history of these drugs, the powerful relief they can bring some patients, and the limitations that still exist with them. As long as she can remember, 53-year-old Rosa Sundquist has tallied the number of days per month when her head explodes with pain. The migraines started in childhood and have gotten worse as she’s grown older. Since 2008, they have incapacitated…