Vietnamese farmers trial new Ilyra smartphone control system.

Vietnamese farmers trial new Ilyra smartphone control system.Doctor Duong Trong Hai, Director of the Institute of Science and Technology has introduced the Ilyra agriculture ecosystem along with his associates which enables anyone to cultivate vegetables using the VietGap process. Using the automatic Ilyra system, farmers don’t have to go to the garden but can still control the farming experience via their smartphone or computer. All the watering, fertilizing, spraying, or harvesting processes are programmed. This allows anyone even those who don’t have any farming technique to cultivate. Doctor Duong Trong Hai said that in addition to automation, the system also enables origin tracing. “The system is useful for farmers and big agricultural producers because it enables growers to make their cultivation process transparent. The public or agencies can collect accurate information about products from the system,” said Doctor Hai.

Israel: Growing crops with underground heating and cooling

Israel: Growing crops with underground heating and cooling.Fresh, local strawberries in the middle of winter – that’s the vision of agtech Roots Sustainable Agricultural Technologies which is raising $5 million in an initial public offering. Roots sells an underground heating and cooling system for crops that increases yields and allows crops to be grown out of season. Water flows through underground pipes, heating or cooling the soil in a crop’s root zone by as much as 10 degrees. Developed in Israel, co-founders Sharon Devir and Boaz Wachtel have tested the technology in some of the world’s harshest conditions to deliver consistent produce no matter the time of year.

Bamboo shoots may offer prebiotic potential..

Bamboo shoots may offer prebiotic potential. Newly identified polysaccharides from bamboo shoots have the potential to be used as functional ingredients by industry, say researchers.

Egg shell powder a ‘novel’ treatment against inflammatory bowel disease.

Egg shell powder a ‘novel’ treatment against inflammatory bowel disease.Fine powder made from eggshell membrane showed positive effects against inflammatory bowel disease, according to in vitro and in vivo studies.

Asia's rising cases of IBD make it a truly 'global disease'.

Asia's rising cases of IBD make it a truly 'global disease' Asia's developing nations are facing increasing rates of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), similar to those witnessed in the West over the last century.

Pig health: all you need to know about pigs.

Find out all there is to know about pig health using Pig Progress’ unique Pig Health Tool. This tool was created with the assistance of: Dr David Taylor, Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Glasgow University, Scotland, United Kingdom

Pig behaviour linked to sanitary conditions and diets.

Pig behaviour linked to sanitary conditions and diets. There is a connection between damaging behaviour in pigs, sanitary conditions and diet formulations. How exactly, was presented by Dutch researchers recently. The researchers, attached to Wageningen University, the Netherlands and De Heus Animal Nutrition, published their outcomes recently in an article in Plos One. Reducing crude protein levels in pigs. The scientists described that the tendency to reduce crude protein levels in pig diets to increase protein efficiency may also increase the occurrence of damaging behaviours such as ear and tail biting. This, they said, is particularly for pigs kept under sub-optimal health conditions. The researchers studied 576 tail-docked growing-finishing entire male pigs in 64 pens, subjected to low vs. high sanitary conditions, and fed a normal crude protein diet vs a low crude protein diet (80% of normal crude protein diet) ad libitum, with a basal amino acid profile or supplemented amino acid profile with extra threonine, tryptophan and methionine. Vaccination and antibiotics for pigs The high sanitary condition pigs were vaccinated in the first 9 weeks of life and received antibiotics at arrival of experimental farm at 10 weeks, after which they were kept in a disinfected part of the farm with a strict hygiene protocol. The low sanitary condition pigs were kept on the same farm in non-disinfected pens to which manure from another pig farm was introduced fortnightly.