Technology: the future of agriculture.

Invest in new technology, not bigger farms, to make profits in agribusiness. The drive to get big in agribusiness is leaking money from most ventures,experts have opined that this drive to get big or get out of agribusiness is the wrong approach. 

 Agribusiness has massive profit potential but the gains of the business is in investing in technology,to be profitable today producers still need to get bigger, but real gains come with investing seriously in agricultural technology, and not simply expansion or farm enlargement. Farmers need strategies to use technology especially precision agriculture ,use of drones,sensors and most importantly use genetic or bio-engineering techniques. 

 The goal to feed the ever increasing population has to be with smart agricultural practices,using technology to boost production, preservation and proper distribution to ensure farm produce is not lost or wasted. The use of technology to foster farms will not be limited to production but to the entire chain if profit and food security is to be achieved. 

 Agriculture with technology(agritech) is the way forward for agribusiness,farmers need to push the bar with innovative technologies which can be done individually or as a group or better still there can be a call for investors in form of partnerships. more

Don't refrigerate tomatoes for better aroma.

Don't refrigerate tomatoes for better aroma.Aroma, which is produced by a complex mixture of volatile compounds, plays an important role in consumers' perceptions of fresh fruits and vegetables. According to the researchers not only do pre and post-production practices such as time of harvest, use of plant growth regulators and storage temperature/atmosphere affect tomato aroma, common kitchen practices such as refrigeration and blanching are also detrimental.more

Vacuum cooling: Ensuring product quality and optimizing storage life.

Vacuum cooling: Ensuring product quality and optimizing storage life. Many vegetables, flowers, herbs and fruit quickly age after harvest. At harvest temperature, respiration and transpiration could be up to 25 times higher than with at optimum storage temperature. Vacuum cooling is a perfect method for this, ensuring optimal product quality, and optimizing storage or vase life. Vacuum cooling is a pre-cooling technique with an average cooling time of only 15-30 minutes. Vacuum cooling reduces: 1)The degree of respiration (and thus the risk of botrytis [in flowers] and black rot [in vegetables]). 2)Transpiration, and thus loss of fluids (maximizing your yield) 3)The production of ethylene and the sensitivity to this. 4)The development of microbes (and thus the percentage of production loss). more

How bubbles can help us treat cancer.

How bubbles can help us treat cancer.Injecting bubbles in the bloodstream is usually the cause of a medical emergency, but that's precisely what Eleanor Stride intends to do to help us fight cancer. The biomedical engineer from the University of Oxford has developed a method of delivering cancer drugs by encapsulating them inside microbubbles. This allows for a precise delivery of the drug to a target tumor, improving the efficacy of the treatment.more

Vaccine refrigerator runs on evaporation cycles.

Vaccine refrigerator runs on evaporation cycles. Coolar’s solar-powered refrigerators could improve the way vaccines are stored in developing countries.Julia Römer's refrigerators produce cold from heat. Many medicines - from asthma sprays to insulin to vaccines - must be cooled until moments before they're used. But in large parts of the world, electricity is not readily available In a conventional refrigerator, low temperatures are caused by the evaporation of a coolant. In Römer's solar-powered version, the evaporating liquid is water. Her system uses silica gel to attract water after evaporation and create a cycle: a solar panel generates heat that causes the gel to dry, then the water evaporates and is returned to circulation. The solar chiller needs almost no maintenance and is easy to dispose of since it doesn't contain any polluting substances.more

E-cigarettes poison 100 pets.

E-cigarettes poison 100 pets. Gudrun Ravetz, president of the British Veterinary Association said: "E-cigarettes may be harmful if they are ingested by your pet, as e-cigarettes and refills can easily contain sufficient quantities of nicotine to kill a small animal" A large increase of incidents involving e-cigarettes and vitamin D supplements were recorded in recent years.Some 113 pets were poisoned by e-cigarettes while 148 cases involved vitamin D tablets, figures from the Veterinary Poisons Information Service (VPIS) show - however they remain a small percentage of the overall total.more

Natural Pesticide with Chili Peppers.

How to use chilli pepper as natural pesticides. Chili peppers are very strong and insects have a very powerful sense of smell and taste. The chili works to basically fry their senses and causes them pain. They learn from their mistakes and do not bother your produce.