Eagles trained to drop drones .

Dutch police are employing eagles to take down illegal drones following successful trials.The force has become the first in the world to recruit birds to tackle the increasing number of drones invading the Dutch skies. It's a low-tech solution to a hi-tech problem,police spokesman Dennis Janus said, the birds are not in any danger. The animal rights group raise concerns,but have been assured that the birds are not exposed to any danger. A number of tests have been conducted since January and police seem confident about the programme. The eagles will now be deployed whenever drones are believed to be posing a threat to the public or flying close to airports or sensitive areas. The eagles see the drones as prey and intercept them as they are flying, before landing where they feel safe with the drone still in their claws, about 100 officers will be trained to work with the eagles. After successful trials, Dutch police bought four sea eagle chicks. They are now five months old. As the police wait for their birds to mature, they will be using eagles supplied by a specialist company, Guard From Above.more

PepperPay’s robot photographer replaces cashiers.

Machine vision technology will let any smartphone or tablet recognize objects so we don’t have to rely on humans or barcode scanners,PepperPay brings machine vision to the checkout process. This is how PepperPay works ; just hold up the item you want to buy in front of a robot wielding a PepperPay-equipped device that can take a picture of it and instantly recognize what it is. The transaction is then completed at purchase checkout and escape the store without standing in a long line. Checkout automation holds big opportunities for reducing overhead costs of brick-and-mortar businesses and increasing customer satisfaction. More grocery stores are offering self-checkout, but barcode scanning is clumsy for untrained users. Replacing that process with simply holding up an item and taking a photo of it could speed up checkout and vastly reduce the need for specialized hardware.

Diagnose your plant’s health with your smartphone camera and Plantbot.

A team of a bunch of plant nuts decided to build Plantbot,to help people figure out whether their plants are healthy and what they need to do to make them better. This is how the plant bot works: You take or upload a photo of a plant, and using some machine learning tools available online and it’ll tell you whether or not your plant is healthy and what might be wrong with it. The process takes a few seconds, and then if users have additional questions, they can query them a chat interface in the app. There are a couple common problems that the app can diagnose such as what a differently colored leaf might signal ,that there’s not enough nitrogen in the soil, and brown tips on the leaves may mean there are too many nutrients in the soil, This handles the issue of quickly answering questions that most plant owners might have.The team feeds in photos themselves with some common problems, and then matches it against the photos that are coming in, so there will be some hurdles to getting enough data online and encompassing the wide array of problems. The team behind Plantbot — an international group consisting of Capeletto,more

AGRIBUSINESS: Urban agriculture and food security.

AGRIBUSINESS: Urban agriculture and food security. Urban agriculture is simply the growing of plants and the raising of animals within and around cities. The most striking feature of urban agriculture that sets it apart from from rural agriculture, is that it is integrated into the urban economic and ecological system. Urban agriculture can be aptly termed city farming or city agriculture. Urban agriculture usually takes place in locations within the cities that is intra-urban or around the city termed peri-urban areas. The capacity /intensity of activities depends on space. as the venture can be practiced within living quarters such as on a on-plot of land or on land away from the residence (off-plot), on land owned or leased and on public space such as parks, conservation areas, along roads,,sidewalks streams ,alleys or semi-public land like schools, and hospitals. AGRIBUSINESS: Urban agriculture and food security. Urban agriculture includes agricultural activities as well as related processing and marketing activities and affiliated agribusiness ventures. Read here The ever growing population has brought with it a demand for more food to ensure food security.The rapid urbanization has put pressure on the land as more structures for houses,companies and stores are competing for available land ,thus urban agriculture is the key to ensure food security. By 2020 the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America will be home to some 75% of all urban dwellers, and to eight of the anticipated nine mega-cities with populations in excess of 20 million. It is expected that by 2020, 85% of the poor in Latin America, and about 40-45% of the poor in Africa and Asia will be concentrated in towns and cities. Urban agriculture may improve both food intake by providing improved access to a cheap source of proteins and the quality of the food may improve as families involved in urban farming eat more fresh vegetables than other families.The contribution of urban agriculture to food security and healthy nutrition is an important asset to urbanization. Urban farmers produce substantial amounts of food for urban consumers aside from producting for their own consumption needs, large amounts of food are also produced for other categories of the population for sale. According to UNDP 1996; FAO 1999 , 200 million urban residents provide food for the market and 800 million urban dwellers are actively engaged in urban agriculture in one way or another. The international development research center(1998) shows that urban agriculture to a large extent complements rural agriculture and increases the efficiency of the national food system because it provides products that rural agriculture cannot supply easily such as perishable products, that require rapid delivery upon harvest. Food that can substitute for food imports and can release rural lands for export production of commodities are also added advantage of urban agriculture. Urban agriculture is as an important strategy for poverty alleviation and social integration as the participants in the project may feel enriched by the possibility of working constructively, building their community, working together and in addition producing food and other products for consumption and for sale. This is the case of former convicts that have returned to their communities to practice urban agriculture and keep youths out of drugs. see Benefits of urban agriculture is not limited to food security but encompasses the environment,as its eco-friendly.Farmers use wastewater for irrigating their farms when they lack access to other sources of water or because of its high price. The use of fresh (untreated) wastewater has the additional advantage for urban farmers because it contains a lot of nutrients. Technologies such as hydroponics , drip irrigation, zero farming substantially reduce water needs and health risks and are of value in the urban environment and can be found in many cities. Urban agriculture impact the green effect and cleaning of the city by turning derelict open spaces into green zones and maintaining buffer and reserve zones free of housing, with positive impacts on the micro-climate.

Pet protector.

The effect of ticks and fleas on pets is not a small issue and the pet and pet owners are seeking protection. Now pets and super pet owners can heave a sigh of relief with their pet protector. This metal tag keeps your flurry friends tick,fleas,mosquitoes free for 4-years. A simple one time investment will save you a lot of money,several trips to your groomer and most importantly save your pet's life. Pet Protector repels ticks and fleas from your pet, – the Pet Protector Disc is 96.97% effective and 100% safe for your pets, your family and your environment. This non-invasive, natural defense system requires more time to begin functioning than chemical anti-parasite products. After attaching the disc, 7 to 20 days are needed for the protective field to form, depending on the size and weight of the animal. It is important to understand that Scalar waves do not kill existing ticks and fleas on the animal, but rather act as a preventative, hence before attaching the Pet Protector Disc to your pet’s collar, it is important to completely remove ticks and fleas from the pet also fumigation of premises and kennels is necessary. Pet Protector’s Scalar waves does not have any negative effect on the health of your dog or cat as this product can even be used freely on sheep or horses and other living beings. Therefore, there is no limit regarding the age of the animal, its size or limited by any medical conditions,even safe in pregnant animals. Its save,cheap and easy to use.This will be very handy for horses,because of the deadly mosquito-borne diseases that are often fatal. Buy now

Strategic deworming in cows and the impact on reproductive status.

A strategic parasite control program in cattle is very important,but the emphasis on the dairy herd is very crucial. Farmers,herdsmen know the value of strategic worming programme as its success plays a large role in healthy reproduction, which ultimately leads to more milk production. A strategic deworming program allows a growing heifer to decrease parasite burdens and helps her focus on the really on feeding, disease prevention and growing to an appropriate breeding weight which will be a scaffold for future reproductive potentials. Animals kept on pasture need to be properly accessed, many farmers tend to mix pasture rearing in their production phase so as to reduce the cost of grains without reducing targeted daily weight gain. Parasite control is key to success of production as pasture must be managed for forage quality and limitation to parasite exposure. When animals are well fed with balanced ration ,this nutritional stability aids the immune system to fight off any disease. Animals succumb to infections basically because of stress,and stressors are of various types and forms. When the immune system is free from having to fight worms ,it can help it focus on fighting off other pathogens that might drag heifers down. The impact of stress is increased when worms are present. When the heifer is parasite-free ,there is a chance to recover from stressful times that occur in the young heifer’s development. Parasite control helps curb anorexia. The declining appetite that can occur with intestinal worm infections often leads to more days on feed to get to breeding, with less gain per day. If the heifer can gain weight sooner with the help of good parasite control, she will breed sooner and, as a result, calve sooner. An efficient rearing programme can essentially change the trajectory of her reproductive cycles for the rest of her life. Happy cows give more milk and hence more profit for the farmer,achievable with a strategic parasite control program. These programme allows the cow to improve her body condition for calving as well as sustain productive milk output. When a cow is in a better body condition, she has the ability to sustain her own life, but also that of a calf inside her. A better body condition allows her to begin ovulating and cycling sooner resulting in early conception. A cow that starts production early can maintain her spot at front-line of the milking parlor instead of being forced to propped up for the rest of her life to meet the standard.

Dogs,dog-lovers and the brown dog tick control .

Ticks,ticks,ticks and more ticks. These creatures are not only a nuisance to dogs but dog-lover and owners as well. Brown Dog ticks can damage or irritate a dog's skin and they cause a fever, anorexia or anemia. The race to make the dogs tick-free is an unending one with resistance of the ticks to common chemical preparations as the major factor. The ticks are eradicated usually with 3 approaches; 1)spraying the dogs with acaricides and 2) fumigation of premises and 3) the use of tick repellent collars. The Brown Dog Ticks can drive doglovers, dog owners and their pets to extreme measures,such as getting rid of their dogs, throwing many possessions away or even moving ─ to control the ticks, which breed indoors and hide in places that are practically impossible to reach. Dog owners,dog-lovers and pest control companies know pesticides that contain permethrin will not control the Brown Dog Tick,rather the chemical fipronil works in most situations. Dog owners , dog lovers and veterinarians should watch for waning of the chemical some months after application. The common signs of waning effect of the fipronil is that the ticks appear to be alive and swelling within months after treatment. This is the major reason the application is done 2 times in 3 months for better coverage. The Brown Dog Tick normally hides in nooks and crannies of the house where you'd never find them, and they spend about 90-95 percent of their time away from the dog. dog-owners and doglovers can use pesticides to control the ticks. Brown Dog ticks can complete their lifecycle inside people's homes, unlike most ticks, which spend most of their lifetime outside. A female Brown Dog Tick can lay up to 5,000 eggs in its lifetime and this population in a home, will spell doom .The elimination of places where ticks live and breed is the one of the best practices for tick control. Homes with unhygienic practices and disposition will be a very good breeding site,thus ensure you rid your home of dirt, waste and unnecessary clutter. A home with functional interiors and well spaced environment where chemicals can easily be applied will be a better prototype to keep ticks out.