3 key ingredients to achieve food security in Africa.

African farmers face one of the greatest balancing acts of the 21st century – feeding a rapidly expanding population without causing irreparable damage to the environment they rely on. It’s a monumental ask. Africa’s population set to surge to 2.4 billion by 2050 the continent will inevitably continue to see rapidly rising demand for food. Pushing up supply to meet demand is no easy feat and the challenge is compounded by climate change. But “50years ago, commentators said it would be impossible to feed the population we have now. Yet between everybody working up and down the supply chain those naysayers have been proved wrong,” said Tim Smith, group quality director at Tesco and Farm Africa’s latest board member. The stakes have never been so high. Africa needs a clear roadmap on how to achieve long-term, sustainable food security. GROWING MORE – AND BETTER more

Holistic dog care.

Holistic dog health combines several traditional and alternative therapies to treat ailing dogs into a single approach with the focus on what's most important. Holistic Dog Health MedicineHolistic dog health is often confused with homeopathic dog health. Homeopathic remedies are all about stimulating the body's natural healing response with the use of plants, minerals, animal substances and other natural treatments. Veterinarians that practice holistic dog health look at the canine's overall health – not just a few symptoms – and use both traditional and alternative treatments. If you choose to treat your pet holistically, he may be prescribed an herbal remedy or a prescription drug. He may receive massage therapy or need to have lab work done. In short, holistic dog health looks for the best and healthiest way to treat a dog without choosing to be on the traditional or alternative side of the fence. The holistic approach to dog’s health takes every aspect of the dog into account – food and nutrition, lifestyle, activity level, supplements, medicine, and treatments. All these must work together to support the dog’s well-being. Holistic veterinary medicine is currently a trending topic, and pet food companies are quick to utilize opportunities. more

The World Health Organisation draws up list of drug-resistant bacteria..

The World Health Organization has drawn up a list of the drug-resistant bacteria that pose the biggest threat to human health.Top of the list are gram-negative bugs, such as E. coli, which can cause lethal bloodstream infections and pneumonia in frail hospital patients. The list will be discussed ahead of this summer's G20 meeting in Germany.The aim is to focus the minds of governments on finding new antibiotics to fight hard-to-treat infections. Experts have repeatedly warned that we are on the cusp of a "post-antibiotic era", where some infections will be untreatable with existing drugs.Common infections could then spread and kill.Dr Marie-Paule Kieny from the WHO said antibiotic resistance was reaching "alarming proportions" and yet the drug pipeline was "practically dry". "We are fast running out of treatment options. If we leave it to market forces alone, the new antibiotics we most urgently need are not going to be developed in time." The WHO says there is a danger that pharmaceutical companies will develop only treatments that are easier and more profitable to make - the low-hanging fruit.The focus should be on clinical need instead, says the WHO. Tuberculosis was not included on the list because the search for new treatments for this infection is already being prioritized. Experts drew up the list by looking at the current level of drug resistance, global death rates, prevalence of the infections in communities and the burden the diseases cause on health systems. One of the infections at the top is a bacterium called Klebsiella that has recently developed resistance to a powerful class of antibiotics called carbapenems. The US recently reported the fatal case of a woman who caught this infection which could not be treated with any of 26 different antibiotics available to her doctors. The list; CRITICAL . 1) Acinetobacter baumannii (carbapenem-resistant) - can cause serious chest and blood infections 2)Pseudomonas aeruginosa (carbapenem-resistant) - can cause serious chest and blood infections 3) Enterobacteriaceae, including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus (carbapenem-resistant, ESBL-producing strains) - can cause serious chest, blood and urine infections HIGH PRIORITY 1)Enterococcus faecium (vancomycin-resistant) - can cause serious wound and blood infections 2)Staphylococcus aureus (methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate and resistant) - can cause serious chest, blood, urine and wound infections 3)Helicobacter pylori (clarithromycin-resistant) - infection linked to stomach ulcers 4)Campylobacter spp. (fluoroquinolone-resistant) - can cause diarrhoeal disease and bloodstream infections 5)Salmonellae (fluoroquinolone-resistant) - can cause diarrhoeal disease and blood poisoning 6)Neisseria gonorrhoeae (cephalosporin-resistant, fluoroquinolone-resistant) - a sexually transmitted infection that can cause infertility and, rarely, can spread to the blood and joints. more

Reducing Post-Harvest Loss in the Nigerian Tomato Value Chain.

The business of tomato production and marketing in Nigeria is extremely dynamic. The YieldWise program, a Rockefeller Foundation initiative, focuses on tomatoes, a ubiquitous regional crop that farmers have been cultivating for years in spite of volatile markets and unpredictable returns on investment. As with most perishable vegetables, tomato production faces consistent market instability. This has led to an average annual post-harvest loss of up to 45 percent. It is well known among stakeholders in the value chain that tomato is a commodity that historically could either drive a farmer into poverty or provide a path out of it depending on market dynamics, weather, or pests and diseases. It is in recognition of the importance of this crop and the potential impact that loss reduction could have on farmers’ livelihoods that PYXERA Global supports the YieldWise initiative and works with local and international partners to reduce post-harvest loss in the tomato value chain.more

Zero energy cooling chamber extends fruits and vegetables shelf-life.

Zero energy Cooling chamber extends fruits and vegetables shelf-life.Small-scale farmers can increase shelf-life of fruits and vegetables for up to nine days by storing their produce in simple non-energy reliant cooling chambers. A zero energy Cool chamber does not demand any form of power to run, making it appropriate for off-the grid farmers.The structure, which is build by locally available material, relies on the principle of evaporative Cooling. Materials required include bricks, river-bed sand, bamboo and water. Two parallel brick walls are constructed in form of a rectangle above the ground. Sand is filled into the cavity between the two walls. A standard small-scale unit can be constructed with measurements of 165 cm by 115 cm floor. Erect a cavity of 67.5 cm high-leaving an inter-space of 7.5cm. Drench the river-bed-sand- filled cavity with water. Make a cover lid of bamboo with straws of grass. Evaporative cooling occurs when air, which is not saturated with water, passes over a wet place. This cools the sand-bed of the cooling chamber.As water evaporates from the bed, it causes a cooling effect. Faster rates of evaporation lead to greater cooling. Cooling in the produce happens because water consumes energy to change to gaseous state. This means energy that could have facilitated metabolism in the fruits or vegetables is used up.Cooling chambers can reduce temperature to between 10 degree Celsius and 15 degrees Celsius. And humidity would be kept well above 90 per cent. Low humidity air sucks a lot of water from the system. Increased humidity causes drop in temperatures due to low metabolism in the foods because of inactivity of enzymes. Active enzymes cause more ripening and deterioration of the skin of fruits. continue

Onions stop tomato aphids attack.

In cutting down pesticide application and the accruing costs in production, one farmer succeeded in vending off the pests by growing onions around his greenhouse tomatoes in the last season. Lari Sub-county farmer Nathan Kimeu was implementing an idea he learnt from the Internet that onions’ smell can repel some crop pests like aphids. “I found out that some crops are good biological controls of pests, which attack common commercial foods such as chillies, capsicum, Kales, cabbage, tomatoes, among others. I also leant that greenhouse rotation with non-victim crops like coriander can break the lifecycle of the enemies,” he said. In May 2016, he grew onions in the periphery of his 8m by 30m greenhouse, which had tomatoes as the main crop. Indeed on close scrutiny of the tomatoes on the outermost lanes- those neighbouring the onion soldiers- were free from the aphid attack for the entire season. Aphids are pest that drill into the leaves of crops. They suck the sap with the nutrients, causing severe produce losses due to unhealthy crops.The leaves curl to the because of the heavy infestation from the underside. This condition reduces the surface area for photosynthesis, the food making process in plants.Because of the extraction of the nutrient-rich sap, some leaves turn yellow due to malnourishment, which also reduces photosynthesis resulting from the absence of the green pigment. This negatively affects the overall production.Application of chemicals in the control of the pests is not only expensive as is required interval interventions. But the onions are a one-time cost that defends the crop until the end of the season and still be sold alongside the main crop, Kimeu said. “Organic farming is gaining fame as food-related diseases rise. I am starting small and with such positive results, I hope to go organic to meet the small but healthy eating market,” he said. The Kiambu County farmer intends to grow the ‘soldiers’ along the rows of the tomatoes in 2017 to boost the defense while reducing the cost of production. Although he cannot quantify the money saved from the biological control of the pests, the farmer says his main pesticides application was specific on other pest such as white flies and mites.source

Farmers use tractor smoke as fertilizer.

Arusha farmers are teaching their Kenyan counterparts a revolutionary technology that helps turn harmful farming machinery smoke into soil fertilizer having introduced to them last year and recorded increased yields of upto 15 percent as the novel idea hopes to assist farmers markedly cut carbon emissions. The technology dubbed The Bioagtive Emmissions Technology already being used in Canada and parts of America, ensures that instead of letting out exhaust fumes and smokes from tractors and other farm machinery go where they are going to be destructive, the fumes are tapped and channeled into the soil where the fumes become fertilizers. The Bio-Agtive method involves cooling the tractor exhaust emissions then injecting the condensed gas into the air cart or directly into the soil while sowing or cultivating. When seeding with Bio-Agtive Emissions Technology (BAET), the cooled exhaust emissions are directed first into the air cart. It exposes the seed to humidity and oxidized elements from the emissions. While, the chemistry is fairly involved, the results, according to those involved in the project, are plants that create their own nitrate, develop better root systems and have much less reliance on fertilizer. “Soil acidity is also reduced due to the action of carbon dioxide in acidic soils,” said Gary Lewis whose company N/C Quest licenses the Bio-Agtive system. Kenyan farmers on an exchange programme to Arusha witnessed first hand how the Arusha farmers have perfected the art of mechanized agriculture, farming using machines, and how they ensure that any fumes or toxics that may harm the environment are put to good use. “The most interesting thing about this venture apart from using all the aspects of the machines including smoke, is the fact that it reduces farmers' over reliance on fertilizer and that to me is a huge lesson because that is one of the biggest problems,”said Cyrus Kimutai a wheat farmer in Eldoret who was in the exchange programme.source