Federal Government to partner groups assisting start-up entrepreneurs.

FG to partner groups assisting start-up entrepreneurs. The Acting President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo expressed the readiness of the Federal Government to work with groups assisting Nigerian start-up entrepreneurs. Osinbajo said this in Abuja when he visited the “Civic Innovation Lab”, a non-profit organization with offices and facilities set up to support Nigerians in implementing business ideas that they have innovated. The visit of the Acting President came on a day the Federal Executive Council approved a new “National Science, Technology and Innovation Roadmap”, designed to kick-start the engine of innovation and start-up in Nigeria. The acting president maintained that the Buhari administration was a government elected to serve and would do so by giving “support wherever possible to groups or organizations that are assisting fellow citizens to realize their dreams of owning their own businesses“. more

Nigeria: Customs, rice farmers sign MoU to curb smuggling.

In a bid to stop smuggling of rice and importation of substandard rice to Nigeria, rice farmers and customs sign an MoU. The Nigeria Customs Service and the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to stop rice smuggling through land border into the country. Alhaji Aminu Goronyo, President Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) who confirmed the development said even though the importation of rice through the land borders was banned since April 2016 with an extension to the restriction of rice into the Nigerian market from the Export Processing Zones (EPZ), smugglers still engaged in the unwholesome act. He warned Nigerians against the consumption of foreign rice, saying that most of the imported rice was stale and only meant for animal and fish feeds. He said result of test by NAFDAC through some samples of some of the rice seizures had ascertained that smuggled rice through the land borders was unfit for human consumption. more

Nigeria to launch yams export to Europe, US and China.

Nigeria to launch yams export to Europe, US, China, accounts for 61% of global production. Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, has confirmed that the Federal Government will on Thursday (today) launch the exportation of yams to Europe, United States of America and China. The minister said according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Nigeria accounts for 61% of the total output of yams in the world the rest is shared between some countries in the West Africa and the West Indies. He assured that yam exportation will not increase hunger in the land, rather yam exportation is an economic opportunity The minister stated that not all the yams produced here are consumed as most of it is lost to wastage's because of poor technologies in preservation,thus there are plans to install to solar coolers in yam markets and yam producing areas to keep the temperature at 14 degrees Celsius, not frozen but to keep it at that temperature so that it can be good all year round and can last up to two to three years in the containers. more

Action video games boost reading skills of children with dyslexia .

Action video games boost reading skills of children with dyslexia . A study appearing in the Cell Press journal Biology shows that time spent playing action video games can actually make dyslexic children read better. In fact, 12 hours of video game play did more for reading skills than is normally achieved with a year of spontaneous reading development or demanding traditional reading treatments. The action video games enhance many aspects of visual attention, mainly improving the extraction of information from the environment.The findings come as further support for the notion that visual attention deficits are at the root of dyslexia, a condition that makes reading extremely difficult for one out of every ten children. more

How smartphones reduces brain power.

How smartphones reduces brain power. The rave of the moment now is a smartphone and as the name implies its smart indeed,taking over so many functions at home and on the farms. The smartphone has become a platform for many smart solutions,linking sensors, robots and other agritech components together,the smartness of these phones seem to be robbing the owners of their smartness(cognitive) abilities according to a new research. A new study from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin shows that your cognitive capacity is significantly reduced when your smartphone is within reach . Researchers conducted experiments with nearly 800 smartphone users in an attempt to measure, for the first time, how well people can complete tasks when they have their smartphones nearby even when they're not using them. In one experiment, the researchers asked study participants to sit at a computer and take a series of tests that required full concentration in order to score well. The tests were geared to measure participants' available cognitive capacity -- that is, the brain's ability to hold and process data at any given time. Before beginning, participants were randomly instructed to place their smartphones either on the desk face down, in their pocket or personal bag, or in another room. All participants were instructed to turn their phones to silent. The researchers found that participants with their phones in another room significantly outperformed those with their phones on the desk, and they also slightly outperformed those participants who had kept their phones in a pocket or bag. The findings suggest that the mere presence of one's smartphone reduces available cognitive capacity and impairs cognitive functioning, even though people feel they're giving their full attention and focus to the task at hand. source

How to tackle iron and zinc deficiencies with a better variety of bread.

How to tackle iron and zinc deficiencies with a better variety of bread. Farmers and nutritionists have been working hand-in-hand to tackle iron and zinc deficiencies with bio fortification of crops to provide essential nutrients. The World Health Organization reports that anemia affects more than 30 percent of the world's population, and many cases are due to iron deficiency and many of the same people are also affected by zinc deficiencies. These conditions can lead to impaired growth, neurological problems and even early death. These deficiencies are common in developing countries and really devastating in children, the strategy involves fertilizing crops with the micronutrients,but the challenge was no one has figured out whether these added nutrients end up in food products made with the fortified crops or not. A new research reported in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry has shown that that this type of biofortification can boost micronutrients in bread, but other factors are also important. The researchers found that fertilizing an old variety of wheat crop increased its flour's concentration of zinc by more than 78 percent. Iron levels remained about the same regardless of whether varieties were biofortified; however, the old variety in the study had higher concentrations of the micronutrient than the modern variety. The analysis also showed that milling grains, regardless of whether they came from biofortified crops, into whole wheat flour versus white flour resulted in higher levels of iron, zinc and other health-promoting compounds, including antioxidants. Additionally, the process of bread-making slightly changed iron and zinc concentrations, but greatly boosted their bioavailability by 77 and 70 percent, respectively. The researchers say their findings demonstrate that biofortification, milling technique and baking should all factor into strategies for enhancing bread with iron and zinc for fighting deficiencies.

Artificial intelligence and detection of lameness in dairy cattle.

Artificial intelligence and detection of lameness in dairy cattle will change dairy farming. An early detection method for cow lameness (hoof disease), a major disease of dairy cattle, has now been developed from images of cow gait with an accuracy of 99 percent or higher by applying human gait analysis. This technique allows early detection of lameness from cow gait, which was previously difficult. It is hoped that a revolution in dairy farming can be achieved through detailed observation by AI-powered image analysis. Dairy farmers are busy with routines such as cleaning cowsheds, milking, and feeding, so it's very difficult to determine the condition of cows. If this continues, they will remain too busy to ensure the quantity and quality of milk and dairy products. A group of researchers led by Professor YAGI Yasushi at the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, together with Professor NAKADA Ken at Rakuno Gakuen University, developed a technique for monitoring health of dairy cattle with high frequency and accuracy in the farmers' stead by using a camera and AI with the aim of realizing a smart cowhouse. Methods for finding lameness by detecting back arch had been studied, but that method was effective in detecting moderate to severe lameness. The researchers established a method for the early detection of lameness from cow gait images with an accuracy of 99% or higher by using their own human gait analysis technique. Specifically, this group waterproofed and dustproofed Microsoft Kinect, a camera-based sensor capable of measuring distance to an object, and set it in a cowshed at Rakuno Gakuen University. Based on the large number of cow gait images taken by this sensor, this group characterized cow gaits, detecting cows with lameness through machine learning. more