A Dutch artist is making a fashion statement by converting cow manure into eco-friendly couture.

Cow dung just found a new value, its chemically converted into clothing. Cow dung and the fashion industry,a rare but exceptional combination. A Dutch artist is making a fashion statement by utilizing chemistry to convert cow manure into eco-friendly couture. watch.

The need for open data in agriculture and nutrition to ensure food security.

New data-driven solutions in agriculture and nutrition are increasingly being seen as a way to tackle the estimated population explosion. It is estimated that the population of the world is expected to double and the increase will definitely result in more food production. The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative seeks to support global efforts to make agricultural and nutritional relevant data available, accessible, and usable worldwide. The three and a half year initiative funded by the UK Department for International Development will focus on building high-level policy support for open data in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors GODAN encourages collaboration and cooperation among existing agriculture and open data activities, and brings together stakeholders to solve global challenges. 

GODAN is about impact, it’s about finding the open data practices that work and using them to advocate for more open data in agriculture and nutrition. The initiative is using a data revolution to drive innovation in agriculture and nutrition, which ultimately means improved livelihoods for farmers, especially those in the developing world, and the ability for more people to feed themselves.more This is where telecommunication comes into play, the higher the number of farmers that are connected on a network/platform ,the more data is generated and information disseminated easily. The issue of data is key to any economy, if people,farms, markets,hospitals,stores can not be identified in terms of location,size and capacity then no meaningful planning can be set in motion and definitely no budgetary allocation to cater for that sector. Phones with easy connectivity are a vital tool for growth in agriculture. 

The possibilities are endless and its sad that most farmers in the developing countries are still not connected,the issue of disease surveillance,disease control ,animal health services and pricing of products can easily be rectified by connection of farmers on the network. 

The recent outbreak of anthrax in Yamal could have been curtailed and not escalated as it is now,where many are infected ,and a record of a child' death. The authorities have said they have to bury about 150 corpses a day, all because there was a bridge in communication, the herd man involved had to walk for 5 days to notify authorities of the disease incidence,this delay caused exposure of some many people and also consumption of infected animals. 

 Precision agriculture which is the modern farming ,also works on this premise.The data generated are sent through phones over a reliable network,most of the information generated from the farm,the animals,the soil and environment are all relayed through phones,and the corrective measures also through this platform making response time fast and production effective. 

I believe this is the time to start counting,numbers rule the world. The number of people at risk of hunger in the developing world is estimated to grow to more than a billion people by 2050,but sadly these people are not connected on any network. 

 Mobile connectivity that is expected to drive growth and development along side digital inclusion is still very low among rural communities. The 2016 Mobile Economy report for Africa, which was released by GSMA during the GSMA Mobile 360 Africa event in Dar Es Salaam, , showed that at the end of 2015, 46 per cent of the population in Africa, subscribed to mobile services, which is equivalent to more than half of a billion people. Africa’s three dominant markets are Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa, together accounted for about a third of the region’s total subscriber base.This shows there is so much to be done to ensure all facets of the economy is connected through data sharing, data analysis and networking at various levels to ensure the food security goal.

Agriculture is big business..

Agriculture is taking center stage with more and more countries ,corporations,technology industries racing to dive in and make profit from the green gold. Farming for sustenance has been greatly out matched by innovative farming methods which has proven to be a faster, cheaper and easier way of providing food . Agriculture has benefited from technology with biocrops, hydroponics, drones,precision farming and most especially urban farming. The need to utilize available space to produce food crops has stemmed the innovation in urban farming such sack farming,trough farming, vertical farming on terraces and roof tops and green house technology. This all points to the fact that land though a necessity is a scare resource and various initiatives have been put in place to access this resource. In Nigeria to further encourage more people to practice agriculture,the river basin development authority of various states have made land readily available for urban farming. The Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority which covers Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo States the authority allocates a portion of the land to farmers on a lease-based agreement,after paying the stipulated fees. The river basin development authority have irrigation systems that supply water to the farms and tractor services for plowing and cultivation at highly subsidized rates. They also provide fertilizers and seedlings are also available at subsidized rates as well,farmlands are also readily accessible and affordable accommodation for workers and security of the land is also guaranteed. The federal government of Nigeria in a bid to promote agriculture is set to launch a graduate agriculture scheme in 12 River Basins in the country as 50 graduates are expected to be trained per river basin in various areas of agricultural production. continue The leasing of land for agricultural purposes to foster food production is just taking prominence among the citizens,its this same policy that the Zimbabwean and South African farmers have used for years in the country for farming and breeding purposes. This system has also been harnessed in Japan to foster food production ,with traditional family farms on the wane, corporations are increasingly entering the agriculture sector, taking advantage of an updated law allowing them to lease farmland across the country. At the end of 2015, more than 2,000 companies were operating in the farm sector, a roughly five-fold increase from before the farmland law was revised in 2009, according to the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry. Among them is Morishige Bussan Co., a food wholesaler in the city of Saitama that’s growing perilla on a 6-hectare patch of hilly land in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture.continue

Youths in Agriculture,the future of work.

The clamor to get more people into agriculture is growing by the day. The diversification of various economies around the world has seen massive revamping of the agricultural sector with youths in the center stage. The eye-opening fact that the ever growing world population needs a massive input of food production to ensure food security where many nations have realized that to feed themselves they have to double-up on agriculture combined with various innovations and technology transfer from other nations to reach their goal. The inclusion of youth in agriculture through various initiatives are widespread all over the world but most predominant in African countries,who according to reports will account for a major percentage of the population growth expected. In Nigeria there are various agricultural-initiatives targeted at youths,young graduates and high school graduates,the AGRIC-YES programme is an example.The government also recently announced a graduate agric scheme which will see about 500,000 trained in various sectors of agriculture such as poultry e.t.c. The school agric project is also another initiative,where agricultural practices and processes are taught and practiced in schools,thereby equipping the students for the future while growing their interest in agriculture. The agricultural initiatives spans across the country with many state governments incorporating youths in various scheme; the Osun state government recently sent some youths to Germany for training in agriculture with the goal to expand expertise and establish a more viable agrarian economy, the Imo state government has even proposed that the workers in the state should operate a 3-day-in the office and 2-days for agriculture to further empower the workers and increase food production in the state. A recent survey shows that more young Africans are ditching office jobs for the farms,a sign that the youths themselves realize that agriculture,agribusiness and agric-investment is where the future lies. They Jamaica recently staged a youth in agriculture village with the theme My dream;agripreneurship. Read A new initiative to involve more youths in agriculture in Jamaica has be launched by Farm Up Jamaica Limited (FUJL) which has implemented a ‘Young Soldiers for Food Security’ (YSFS) programme aimed at encouraging more of the country’s youth to get involved in agriculture. Farm Up is a non-profit organisation, established in 2013 to assist local farmers in the cultivation of organic produce. It is comprised of Jamaicans living in the diaspora. Executive Director of FUJL, Neil Curtis, said YSFS is a “deliberate push” to engage the youth in farming, after realizing that the majority of the persons in the sector are over 50 years old .Students from several agriculture schools get the opportunity to gain practical farming experience by working on our organic farms every weekend, and thus helping them to consider farming as an alternative career path. He The future actually lies in agriculture as many have come to realize that no nation can survive without agriculture because its the basis of major industries such as textile,leather,food processing,arts and crafts and biogas and electricity. The race to get more people involved is not solely for food security but to engage more stakeholders so as to provide innovative solutions to the climate change by practicing agriculture with better understanding of the ecosystem.

Veterinary technician, sentenced to four-months in jail after her pit bull puppy strangled itself to death.

Veterinary technician, 23, sentenced to four-months in jail after her pit bull puppy strangled itself to death trying to free itself from lead in 94-degree heat.An Alabama woman was sentenced to 125 days in jail for causing the death of her three-month-old pit bull puppy in June. Jessica Pruette, who worked as a veterinary technician for a short time at a local veterinary office, was found guilty of cruelty to animals during a bench trial last week, according to AL.com. Robert Bryant, a Montgomery Humane Society Officer, said he responded to the 23-year-old's residence on June 1. Police received an anonymous tip about a dead puppy in a backyard. Bryant said the puppy had been left unattended on a slip lead that would get tighter around the puppy's neck as he tried to get free,the puppy's tether was found wrapped around a stick and Bryant said it appeared that the dog had strangled to death. continue

Anthrax outbreak update in Yamal.

A blame game has begun on the outbreak of anthrax on the Yamal peninsula, with a senior veterinary watchdog official alleging a huge delay in informing the public and government officials of the lethal disease. With 23 people now infected, and one dead, even health minister Veronika Skvortsova is on antibiotics after visiting patients in Salekhard, it was revealed. She is taking the medicine as a precaution because she had not been vaccinated. The main theory as to the cause of the outbreak is that a zombie infection, inactive for 75 years or more in the buried corpse of a human or a reindeer, 'awoke' in the recent Arctic heat wave. But now the deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor Nikolay Vlasov claimed the infection was first spotted five weeks before proper warnings were given. He is demanding the total vaccination of the human and cattle populations to stop the threat of spread.The senior official from the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance criticized the 'delay in diagnosis' for preventing the outbreak of anthrax. 'YANAO (Yamal) is not the poorest region. But the veterinary service is bad, very weak,' he said. 'Veterinarians learned about the outbreak of epizootic anthrax five weeks after it began. Herders were without reliable communications.'One of them had to walk for four days across the tundra to inform about the accident.' At least six of the infected people, among them children, have contracted the virulent intestinal form of the infection which has already killed a 12 year old boy. They were contaminated after eating infected meat, say specialists. In all, 90 people - including 54 children - are in hospital. 23 of these have contracted anthrax.continue

China opens terrifying glass walkway on the side of Tianmen Mountain.

The pathway is 100 metre long and 1,500 metres up a mountain.The Coiling Dragon path opened this week and has 99 turns around its path. Tourists walking on the pathway are given special protective shoes to protect the glass.The walkway has been constructed in the Zhangjiajie Tianmenshan National Park.To get to the walkway visitors can take a cable car or face a long uphill walk. continue