Farmers embracing climate smart agriculture.

Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA) is agriculture that increases productivity, resilience and adaptation, as well as contribute towards reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. 

 The overall objective therefore is food security and nutrition in the face of climate change. There must be training,education and interactive sessions especially for smallholder farmers ,the importance of building capacity at all levels cannot be overemphasized order to attain the goal of 25 million African farmers practicing climate-smart agriculture by 2025. 

 The challenge of climatic changes can be sidelined by using more resilient seeds, conservation of water, use of hybrid seeds that are ready for market earlier than the conventional seeds. Africa is affected dramatically by climatic changes of extreme weather patterns mechanisms ,hence there is the need to transform agriculture and ensure food security through adoption of innovative ways are gaining prominence fast.

 In Kenya, like most African countries, small-scale farmers who are the majority are opting for sustainable solutions. One such farmer is Albert Waweru, a retired police officer with 1.75-acre farm in Kasarani on the outskirts of Nairobi. He has 50 dairy cows that produce 290 liters of milk daily. He also rears poultry, dairy goats and has several green houses where vegetables are grown. 

 He practices smart agriculture as he harvests every drop of rainwater to counter the challenge of water, he embarked on harvesting rainwater from rooftops in his compound and store water flowing into his compound.

The water is preserved in a network of several underground concrete tanks about 12 meters deep. This ensures that he has enough water at any moment on his mixed farm, for his animals and plants as well. He has been sharing his method with other farmers to expose them to smart agriculture by way of provision of solution to water scarcity

. 44-year-old Rajiv Kumar from Sheikhpur district of Bihar is another farmer practicing smart agriculture; he does zero budget farming on his 4-acre farm. He learnt water conservation and methods to replace nutrients in the soil ,different crops are grown at the same time and cow dung and cow urine were used as fertilizers. 

This kept the cost of farming at a minimum with the farmer only investing in water and seeds. Rajiv dug pits every 30 feet, filled it with water, and sowed different types of flowers and fruits around it. This helped increase the ground water flow. As plants need moisture, and not water, cultivating near a pit of water provided better irrigation and prevented water wastage. He does not use chemical pesticides, he sows a Neem plant every 30 feet to keep pests away. see

The World’s smallest drone is voice controlled, and it fits in a pocket.

The World’s Smallest Drone is Voice Controlled, And it Can Fit in Your Pocket, Amazon just received a patent for the smallest drone ever. The miniaturized, unmanned, aerial vehicle (UAV) is designed to assist users in a number of ways — from recovery of lost persons and items, to providing assistance to policemen and firefighters. It’s Amazon’s first venture into a drone product for consumers not just for delivery. The drone’s features make it an all-around personal assistant, equipped with voice-control and Alexa (Amazon’s AI-equipped voice assistant). Accordingly, it can respond to voice commands such as “follow me” and “hover,” allowing for varied uses. Amazon also plans to make the drone quite small – small enough to fit in your pocket or to dock on a police officer’s radio.Using RFID-search capabilities and facial recognition software, the drone can help locate lost persons or even your elusive car keys. The UAV can receive a “find Timmy” command, which can include the “search” routine, and possibly an “identify Timmy” subroutine to locate a person identified as “Timmy.” In some examples, Timmy can have an RFID tag sewn into his clothes or a bar code printed on his shirt to facilitate identification. more

The Use of Drones in Agriculture.

The future of agriculture lies with drones and precision agriculture. The use of drones in agriculture not only makes production effective but its relatively cheaper and accurate as on-site assessments are possible. The rising population that requires more food must actually be hinged on better agricultural practices. 

Drones have found uses in various industries such as courier,medical, security and most of all food industry. The function of these drones varies from surveillance, mapping zones and actually engaging in some field practices,thus saving labor costs. The various ways that drones can be utilized to ensure food security are outlined here; 

  

The use of drones in agriculture.

 The advantages are enormous, see,thinking about these benefits one will think that laws regulating drones' operation will not be strait jacketed so that frustration will not discourage users. Drones are more easily serviceable and significantly cheaper than small piloted planes or satellites. 

 The route to food security is lined by various innovations and to truly succeed in the achievement of #zerohunger #endhunger #endpoverty, we have to embrace smart agricultural practices of which the use of drones must be fully embraced. Agriculture leads the market for commercial drone usage, and it is expected to generate millions in revenue in 2025. 

 Adaptable regulations will make it easier for farmers to use drones to check fields for disease, spray fertilizer, or watch over livestock. see 

 The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently streamlined the registration process for commercially used drones, putting new rules in place for the protection and regulation of users of the unmanned aircrafts. 

These procedures are expected to benefit both farmers and the drone industry, as agriculture already leads the market for commercial drones and is expected to generate $350 million in drone revenue in 2025.

Climate- smart agriculture.#Cop22.

The world is faced with the task of feeding the projected 9 billion populace by 2050,this must be achieved by increasing food production through smart agricultural practices withoout distrupting the ecosystem by putting more pressure on available land and other resources. The race to ensure food security must be achieved by improved agricultural practices,thus smart agricultural interventions are important.The route to smart agriculture is diverse but can be broadly categorized into the following : 1) animal husbandry practices that will reduce the green house emissions,this can be achieved by addition of some feed additives especially in cattle to reduce methane emissions. Cattle has been identified as a major culprit in the climate change. see 2) Improved methods of production through waste reduction: Waste generated in the field of production from farm to table has an effect on the climate itself. When more food loss or waste is recorded along the agricultural chain,this tends to spike the carbon print in that zone. Agritech can be employed in this area where innovative methods are used to preserve food,process excess into other value-adding products and effective handling of products to prevent waste. Waste generated can also be further processed into fertilizers or can be passed to an anaerobic digester to produce electricity. Food services can also be organized to ensure that excess food,left-overs and misshaped fruits and vegetables can be boxed and sent to regions where food is needed instead of sending the food to landfills,which will heat up our environment. A school of thought believes that what the world needs is not more food,but how to prevent waste and channel excess food to those that are in need. more The use of improved seeds,biotechnology is also an initiative that has a place in smart agriculture, instead of farming more land that is obviously not available,improved seeds can help achieve the goal of food security as the harvest will be faster which will be bigger improved versions of what we are used to. Farming more animals on smaller pastures will not be necessary as biodiversity will play a role. The use of genetically proven breeds through genetic selection and improvement,these breeds dont even need to be shipped to various countries rather good artificial insemination centers will provide the reproductive services. Smart agricultural practices that ensures better feed conversion ration in the animals will promote growth of these animals,where less feed is consumed,but greater weight gain is recorded because the feed is properly utilized. One of such practices will be alternative castration in boars with the use of IMPROVEST,see The efficiency gained by allowing boars to grow longer as intact males before IMPROVEST is administered has the potential for an incremental reduction in the carbon footprint, a study showed that if half the male pigs in the U.S. were raised using IMPROVEST, it would be like removing the CO2 equivalent of 190,000 cars for a year from roads. see

Alternative castration method for boars.

A new approach is penciled as a better alternative to castration in pigs. Boar taint is an unpleasant odor that is noticeable when cooking meat from sexually mature male pigs. This boar taint is removed by castration which is termed physical castration (PC), but concerns about animal welfare have prompted some producers to seek alternative methods. This castration alternative comes in the form of a regulated vaccine-like drug that suppresses the hormones responsible for the taint. This castration alternative is also referred to as immuno-castration or boar-taint vaccination, because it involves administering an immunological (vaccine-like) product that stimulates pigs’ immune systems to temporarily block testicular function and inhibit accumulation of androstenone and skatole, the naturally occurring compounds that cause boar taint. The castration alternative is done by way of injection, which is administered at 2 different times for effectiveness. The first dose is given at 9 weeks to prime their immune system and the other dose as they enter the finishing phase about 3 weeks to the market The benefits of this method is not only reduction of boar-taint,but stress involved in physical castration is prevented as well as risk of infection. There is also better feed conversion ratio resulting in better weight gain and reduction in aggressive social behavior associated with boars. In addition to the rapid growing rate ensures that they reach their full potential by converting feed into meat more efficiently, these treated intact males create less manure while yielding more pork.

The link between fish meal, Eimeria and necrotic enteritis in broilers .

A Link between fish meal, Eimeria and necrotic enteritis in broilers has been explored by Australian scientists as reported in veterinary microbiology online. The research is based on the already established fact that a high-protein, fish meal-supplemented starter diet along with Eimeria infection can predispose birds to clinical necrotic enteritis after Clostridium perfringens infection. The scientists thus analyzed the cecal microbiota of four groups of broilers with the use of deep pyrosequencing — a method of DNA analysis. One group was infected with Eimeria and received a control diet, another received a fish meal-supplemented diet and a third group was infected with Eimeria and in addition received fish meal. A fourth group without Eimeria did not receive fish meal and served as a control. Fish meal had a strong effect on intestinal microbiota, similar to the reported effects of C. perfringens infection. The scientists also noted major changes in the prevalence of various lactobacilli, while total, culturable Lactobacillus counts remained stable. Other microbiota such as Ruminococcaceae were affected, as determined by an increased number of operational taxonomic units — a method of defining a species based on DNA sequence results. Eimeria induced different changes in microbiota. For example, Ruminococcaceae were reduced in number, and three unknown clostridium species increased in abundance. Eimeria did not significantly influence changes in measures such as pH or formic acid, while fish-meal induced dramatic changes. The result showed that fish meal feeding and Eimeria infection induced significant changes in the gut microbiota and this predisposes birds to necrotic enteritis.

Agriculture Is Our Path Way Out Of Recession.

Nigeria’s former President Olusegun Obasanjo says agriculture is our pathway out of poverty. He remarked that agriculture is the way to get the country out of recession, hence the need for the present government to keep faith with its promise of diversifying the economy through agriculture. He made this submission at the 23th Annual Development Forum, with the theme theme ‘Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture in Nigeria: Challenges and Opportunities,’ organized by the Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO) in Abuja. The former President lamented on the increased level of hunger being experienced across the country, and stated that it was sad to note that about 65 per cent of the citizens were faced with food insecurity. Obasanjo also called on the Federal Government, as a matter of urgency to drastically reduce or ban the importation of staple food crops, as Nigeria had the potential to produce most of the agricultural products that were being imported into the country.He said that Nigeria’s currency (Naira) is suffering because the country spends more than it earns, depending more on importation, usually on goods than can be easily produced here in Nigeria. Obasanjo said that the agriculture sector is viable enough to get Nigeria out of recession and called on the government to focus on agriculture and to put more efforts to guarantee food security in the nation. more