Mechanization and agribusiness.

Mechanization is an essential tool for success of agribusiness as it improves productivity and profits farmers. Farmers need to embrace the role of farm machinery if they are to be successful,but many smallscale farmers are yet to imbibe the emerging farming technologies and machinery. Factors, such as the high cost of machines and farmers’ lack of access to finance, make the machinery unaffordable for resource-poor farmers. Farmers are calling for a change, one of them is Debo Thomas, a large scale farmer in Ogbomosho, Oyo State. His community has a strong agricultural tradition – nearly two-thirds of its population are farmers. Though he uses agricultural machinery to plant and harvest crops, he is among those canvassing the introduction of cheap, easy-to-operate and easy-to-maintain tractors that can be fitted to a various innovative auxiliary equipment for planting, threshing and irrigation.continue

How to grow Africa with agribusiness.

This highlights the great potential of the agribusiness sector in Africa by drawing on experience in Africa as well as other regions. The evidence demonstrates that good policies, a conducive business environment, and strategic support from governments can help agribusiness reach its potential. Africa is now at a crossroads, from which it can take concrete steps to realize its potential or continue to lose competitiveness, missing a major opportunity for increased growth, employment, and food security. The report pursues several lines of analysis. First, it synthesizes the large body of work on agriculture and agribusiness in Africa. Second, it builds on a diagnosis of specific value chains. As part of this effort, the value chain for Africa's largest and fastest-growing food import, rice, is benchmarked in Senegal and Ghana against Thailand's rice value chain. 170 agribusiness investments by the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) in Africa and Southeast Asia are analyzed to gain perspective on the elements of success and failure. Fourth, the report synthesizes perspectives from the private sector through interviews with 23 leading agribusiness investors and a number of other key informants. more

How to grow lettuce without soil and make millions.

This is the story of how a graduate grows 10 million heads of lettuce without water. In the University of Arizona, Jenn Frymark helped develop a greenhouse for extreme weather and then spent six months at the South Pole growing food for scientific researchers. Now she grows 10 million heads of lettuce and other greens year-round, without soil, in considerably more benign conditions inside greenhouses in New York and Chicago. She said her business, Gotham Greens, has been a success since she joined partners Eric Haley and Viraj Puri in growing greens hydroponically on a rooftop in Brooklyn in 2011. She’s certainly one of the most successful graduates as it relates to business development. The center, known as CEAC, is training the next generation of farmers for an urban agriculture revolution, researching ways to improve efficiency, taste and freshness in everything from lettuce to mushrooms. Giacomelli is planning to extend it to wine grapes. Frymark said the skills she learned there are key to her business success and she still calls the center for technical advice.more

Pest control with pheromones.

Lokesh Makam is a pharmacist with more than 15 years of experience in the pharmaceutical sector. Over the years, he has held leadership roles in marketing, regulatory compliance, R&D and contract manufacturing. Makam initially manufactured and sold anti-cancer products, but upon realising that chemical pesticides in crops and food were a cause for cancer, he set to researching alternatives to control pests. This effort led to identifying, developing and converting the alternatives, called pheromones into products to control these pests. In India alone there are over 6,369 known insect species that destroy crops, resulting in a near 23.3-percent loss, at an estimated loss of $17.28 billion. Eradication of chemical pesticides requires education at the grassroot level with farmers on the harmful effects on farmers who administer the chemical pesticides, the residue of which finds its way to our plates. The use of pesticides has widespread side effect on the environment and surroundings, most critically on the farmers using them. With no efficient, sustainable and economical solution, the farmers have been treating chemical pesticides as the go-to solution for decades, ever since the industry was started.continue

The Government Purged Animal Welfare Data,But This Guy Is Publishing It.

An Arizona man who has published thousands of animal welfare documents on his website since the government purged the once-public information is pledging to keep digging up data until federal officials reverse course. Russ Kick, a 47-year-old writer and anthologist, said he immediately sprang into action last week when the U.S. Department of Agriculture suddenly pulled from its website a slew of papers regarding animal welfare at thousands of facilities across the country. Since then, he has made public again more than 10,000 documents, and thousands more are set to hit the web soon. For nearly a year, Kick has been running a website called thememoryhole2.org, where he has re-published information wiped from several agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration and Environmental Protection Agency. His only goal, he said, is to increase transparency and make important government documents more easily available.continue

Why you should eat beans.

Beans are nutritional powerhouses packed with protein, fiber, B vitamins, iron, potassium, and are low in fat.Beans contain a wide range of cancer-fighting plant chemicals, specifically, isoflavones and phytosterols which are associated with reduced cancer risk. Beans provide the body with soluble fiber, which plays an important role in controlling blood cholesterol levels. Beans will fill you up more quickly, because the rich fiber content fills your stomach and causes a slower rise in blood sugar. This will keep off hunger pangs longer and give you a steady supply of energy. Beans are diabetics super-food,because the balance of complex carbohydrates and protein provides a slow, steady source of glucose instead of the sudden surge that can occur after eating simple carbohydrates. Eat beans to stay fit,healthy and keep off excess weight.

Weight loss with cucumbers

Cucumbers are nutrient packed and can also be a route for easy weightloss. Learn how to lose weight with ease,