Tag: "farming" at biology news

Potato wart eyed as risk to potato production

...tion, including small garden plots and subsistence farming to extensive land areas economically dependent on commercial production of potatoes for consumption or for potato seed production. "Potato wart is much easier to prevent than it is to control," Franc said. "It is highly critical that we prevent th...

More recycling on the farm could reduce environmental problems

Growing environmental problems resulting from farming argue for a shift toward practices that use lower ...area farmed. Pearson summarizes studies of organic farming suggesting, however, that price premiums could overcome this disadvantage, and points out that socia...

Farmed salmon could become an invasive species in forest streams

Ever since the Norwegians expanded commercial farming of salmon in the 1960s, the industry has continued...ldwide, and both advocates and opponents of salmon farming have been very vocal in stating their views. I wanted to look at the hard evidence to determine the ...

New technologies coming too fast for Indian farmers

...ied crops has added another level of complexity to farming in the developing world, says a sociocultural anth...ls that the increase resulted not from traditional farming methods of testing seed for efficacy, but from a pattern of "social learning" ?farmers relying on wo...

Biodiesel won't drive down global warming

...d by rapeseed derived biodiesel (RME) occur during farming of the crop, when cropland emits nitrous oxide (N2O), otherwise known as laughing gas, that is 200-300x as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2. The results of this analysis should have big implications for policymakers. The 2003 EU Biofuels Directive a...

British cattle give TB to badgers, finds UC Davis expert

...endent Scientific Group on Cattle TB. In Britain, farming interests and badger protectionists have battled for 30 years over the merits of culling badgers to fight cattle tuberculosis, a disease which can occasionally be transmitted to people. Farming ministers are currently deciding whether culling should ...

From hot springs to rice farms, scientists reveal new insights into the secret lives of archaea

...uction on the planet. Studies have shown that rice farming contributes between 10 and 25 percent of global methane emissions, thanks in large part to methanogenic archaea, which crank out tons of methane gas when they break down organic matter in flooded rice fields. AGU panelist Ralf Conrad of the Max-Planc...

'Killer' B cells demonstrate evolutionary link between fish and mammal immune systems

...f fish immunity," Sunyer said. "In the long term, farming is a better, more environmentally sound approach to fishing, so better vaccines may make the practice more financially attractive to fisherman and less destructive to fish populations." There is little doubt that, despite the behavioral differences...

A rice future for Asia

Whether it's rice farming or rice research, very few of Asia's best and brightest young people are interested in a career in an industry that has been a foundation of the Asian way of life for generations. Few rice farmers want their children to be rice farmers, and even fewe...

Robots manipulating animal behaviour

...ET-funded projects such as Swarmbots. "We believe farming in Europe can only survive if is associated with high technology," he adds, pointing to a potential increase in competitiveness and a decrease in costs. "A robot interacting with animals, even if it is not mobile, could be used for numerous tasks, su...

Eco-friendly bug sucker

... but some exceptions were granted for the food and farming industries. "The initial hardware cost of an MSDD system is higher than methyl bromide, but the cost of chemicals is much cheaper, so that eventually it would pay for itself", Essert told Chemistry & Industry. Around $20 - $40 worth of methyl br...

Butterfly farming to help save rain forest

...000 Darwin initiative grant to develop a butterfly farming industry in Guyana that will help support 5000 peo...K pounds. The creation of a sustainable butterfly farming business would help preserve the local rain forest in two ways. Firstly the local population will ha...

Agriculture and tropical conservation: rethinking old ideas

...ry, Vandermeer and Perfecto found that the peasant farming practices encouraged by grassroots movements such as Brazil's Landless Workers Movement, Mexico's Zapatistas or the international Via Campesina actually support conservation, while the practices of extremely wealthy landowners often undermine it. The...

Salmon go veggie to save wild fish stocks

... their diet to function healthily. But as the fish farming industry expands, feeding salmon and other aquatic species with pellets containing fishmeal and oil derived from processing wild-caught marine fish is unsustainable in the long term. This is due to rising demands for these commodities for aquafeeds a...

The first baby boom

...ccurred with the advent of agriculture. "The new farming system, resulting in sedentary societies vs. forager nomadism, not only greatly increased the number of people who could be fed, but also boosted individual fertility in women to a possibly unique extent on such a scale in human history," write the a...

New organic substrate

.... These types of substrates are used in intensive farming that need containers for their development, basically for greenhouse crops. When plants are grown in small containers, the limiting factor is the oxygen that can reach the roots; thereby, a substrate much more porous than earth is needed. Normal so...

Alternatives to the use of nitrate as a fertiliser

...nitrates as a nitrogenated fertiliser in intensive farming has given rise to environmental problems such as t...fertilisers in farming. Research for sustainable farming The possibility of using animal ammonium or urea as nitrogenated sources from certain plants enabl...

Protecting endangered species helps reduce poverty

...ties gained alternative sources of income, such as farming and animal husbandries supported by WWF. In Namibia, the creation of conservancies, where communities are jointly managing their wildlife resources, has resulted in better wildlife management, increased wildlife populations, ecotourism development an...

The Amazon in 2050: Implementing the law could save a million square kilometers of rainforest

...rajectory of logging, cattle ranching, and soybean farming are linked with ecological models of forests and climate models to develop integrated simulations of the region's future. Britaldo Soares-Filho is a geographer and modeler. He has studied Amazon land-use patterns for the last 12 years, developing ...

Evidence for omega 3 fats less conclusive than we thought, say experts

...obal production trends suggest that, although fish farming is expanding rapidly, we probably do not have a sustainable supply of long chain omega 3 fats, he warns. ...

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