Sharing the Ascension Experience
New measures aim to boost agricultureLUSAKA – President Levy Mwanawasa has announced measures aimed at turning agriculture into one of the main drivers of Zambia’s economy. The fall in copper prices, Zambia’s main source of foreign currency, has made the country focus on economic diversification. Among the measures announced by Mwanawasa include sourcing “cheap foreign … Read more
Kabul, Afghanistan – Few things symbolize the success of American agriculture like the big, white bags of wheat, stamped “USA,” that sit beside cloth-covered bowls of bread dough in a mud-walled United Nations bakery. American farmers produce so much food that a lot of it is given away to prop up U.S. commodity prices. It … Read more
With the Autumn harvest now complete across the country, Viet Nam looks set to record bumper food production figures this year, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Huy Ngo said. 36.7 million tonnes of grain were produced in 2003, including 34.2 million tonnes of unhusked rice. The country has regained its position as the … Read more
Nasa’s scientist cooks have a lot on their plate catering to rigours of dining in spaceMs Vickie Kloeris would have liked nothing more than to suffer the traditional anxieties of Thanksgiving: Would the turkey be moist? Would the in-laws get along? But it was hard to concentrate on such mundane matters when you had things … Read more
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has done more than any cataclysmic weather event to starve ZimbabweansA major new report from the Untied Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation says that the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world was increasing, even though there was sufficient food for everyone. The UN report said that though war, … Read more
Walking the Walk Before Talking the TalkTo put the numbers in perspective, Wisconsin ranks third in the nation in the number of certified organic farms and fourth in the nation in acreage of organic cropland. Wisconsin ranks No. 1 in organic milk cows with 22 percent of the nation’s organic milk cows. The state is … Read more
In the summer of 2001, Andres Barahona, a senior agricultural economics major at Texas A&M, traveled to Bali, Indonesia, for an internship and started a fresh fruit processing business with a group of Indonesians. By the end of the trip he could converse in Bahasa Indonesia, the country’s official language. He said the experience opened … Read more
Bangladesh has gained resilience in terms of food production and food security and self-sufficiency in food grainThe Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) comprises few institutions of repute that were aimed to help developing countries face their challenges towards food production and food security. Initially, before CGIAR stepped in, there were one or two … Read more
When mautam struck Mizoram last during 1959, the unofficial figure for the death toll was between 10,000 and 15,000A bamboo shoot flowers only once during its lifetime, after which the plant dies. Gregarious flowering – when large clumps of the plant spread over a vast area bloom simultaneously – occurs every 48 years or so, … Read more
It was recently disclosed that Nigeria spends about N280 billion or the equivalent of $2 billion annually on the importation of basic food items like sugar, rice, wheat, milk and vegetable oil. It is also on record that, Nigeria is the 4th largest importer of wheat from the United States of America, about 1,842 metric … Read more