Pre-cooked beans saving the forest .

Pre-cooked beans could turn down heat on Africa's dwindling forests as a factory in Uganda’s capital, Kampala, engage workers who steam-cook beans in big metal containers, before cooling and packaging them for sale. The beans can be reheated in 15 minutes or less, requiring far less firewood than the two to three hours it would take to cook them from scratch. This public-private initiative, being tested in Uganda and Kenya with funding from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, also aims to increase bean consumption, improve diets, and create a more profitable market for bean farmers. According to Joab Ouma of Lasting Solutions, a Ugandan company that is involved in preparing the beans, rural people usually use firewood for cooking, while charcoal is the main fuel in urban areas. Those fuels are a direct cause of deforestation, yet until now the poorest consumers “had no choice” but to use them,.Ouma said that, with the pre-cooked beans, the time needed to cook meals is greatly reduced, lowering the use of charcoal and firewood - and potentially easing the pressure on forests. In western Kenya, Siprosa Ajwang, 62, from Homa Bay County, said the new beans saved her time she used to spend in the bush gathering firewood. “I used to stay away three hours looking for enough wood to cook beans, but now it is easy because I need just a small bundle,” said the farmer who is taking part in the pilot project to grow and market-test the pre-cooked beans.more

Rare bird flu strain infects cats.

A rare strain of the avian influenza virus has infected 45 cats in Manhattan and there are concerns that the virus may have spread to recently adopted felines.The virus is thought to pose a low risk to humans but health officials are concerned that it could have infected additional cats that have already been adopted from Animal Care Center’s Manhattan shelter. "Although this strain of the avian flu has only resulted in mild to moderate illness in some cats located in one shelter, we have begun to test staff and people in close contact with the cats out of an abundance of caution," said First Deputy Health Commissioner Dr. Oxiris Barbot. "We will continue to actively monitor all people involved and adapt our response accordingly." One older infected cat, who had underlying health problems, died, officials said. The Health Department and ACC are working on a quarantine facility to house the cats while the Manhattan shelter is disinfected. They urge anyone who adopted Manhattan shelter cats in the past month to call the Health Department for care instructions and to keep their cat separated from other animals if they show signs of persistent cough, lip smacking, runny nose, and fever. Officials are also advising these pet owners to call the Health Department if they develop fever with a sore throat, fever with a cough, or red, inflamed eyes.The outbreak marks the first time the virus - H7N2 has been detected and transmitted among domestic cats. It is unknown how the cats contracted the virus.The shelter has tested 20 dogs and none have contracted this virus. Testing of other animals, including rabbits and guinea pigs, is ongoing. According to the Health Department, there have been only two documented human cases of this type of avian influenza and both patients recovered.culled from http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rare-bird-flu-strain-infects-45-cats-single-manhattan-shelter-article-1.2912367.

Food systems: Cutting food waste using technology.

Globally, food waste is rising to 50 percent as developing nations struggle with spoilage while developed nations simply toss edible food away. The crux of the matter actually is that by 2050 there will be about 9billion people to feed,thus pushing for more food production. 

 According to data,much food is produced but waste from farms to stores and from stores to tables are actually responsible for food insecurity with malnutrition and famine as outcomes in developing nations. 

 Data analysis has shown that curbing waste will provide the extra food for the growing population,if a quarter of what is wasted now is salvaged then we are halfway through to feeding the projected population. Food preservation,storage and handling are the key points of interest as all waste stems from one of these or a combination depending on the country involved. 

Cutting food waste using technology can come in several forms such as cooling,chilling, vacuum sealing and drying. Refrigerators are in the market that tell when food is going bad,there are giant vats of organic waste using the same process as the human stomach to make energy(biogas)and apps that help you shop more efficiently. 

 There are apps that help shoppers plan meals better to avoid overbuying perishable items, or calculate the shelf life of different groceries. In the home, smart fridges now give consumers even more information about their food. 

These fridges, pioneered by LG and Samsung, help keep track of your perishables, alert you when something is about to spoil and use Internet connectivity to help devise recipes. The consumers as of today still have to input all the items you buy in the fridge but the next-generation smart fridge will automatically scan its own contents. 

 Waste operators,farmers and big food retailers have been using anaerobic digesters, giant sealed containers where bacteria breaks food waste down into bio gas, a renewable energy source that comes from organic material fermenting without oxygen, to make energy from compostable food thus saving money on electricity and gas. 

 Chilling and vacuum sealing also useful to cut waste especially from farm to markets,especially where there is a good road network to shorten distance from farm to market.

Production is not the problem but handling of produce from farm to the market,take the case of tomatoes in Nigeria;we produce more than enough but about 45% is lost thus forcing importation of tomato paste to bridge the shortfall see Vacuum sealing extends shelf-live of produce,especially when combined with chilling or cooling as a storage option. 

Education of farmers on innovative farming techniques especially those that can be practiced by local farmers will go a long way to cut losses. 

 Thinking of cutting food waste to ensure food security ? then build a network of diversified farmers,with an off-takers scheme such that produce are collected onsite by processors,for onward delivery to markets as farm fresh products and as raw materials for in food processing and packaging plants. 

Telecommunications to ensure food security and food safety come in here

Goats,milk production and music.

Research and experience has shown that animals also enjoy good music,while its therapeutic to some to others it boosts their productivity. There are music compositions for some animals as well to show that music actually cuts across species and breeds as there are even preferences within species and breeds. This is a story of a farmer that has incorporated the use of classical music in his turkey production. He decided to incorporate the music to stabilize his birds, when he discovered they were uncomfortable/ restless. He started playing classical music to the poults and he discovered that it improved their health and happiness. He has now attracted more visitors to his farm, as they can hear the birds before they are visible. Expansion is the next move on the farmer's agenda because of the success of his birds.more This is how cat music evolved ;David Teie has developed music that’s designed specifically for cats. Teie has been working on “species-specific” music since 2009. He figured starting with cats would be more practical than starting with, say, elephants. The music is supposed to offer our beloved fuzzballs a comforting, enriching experience that allows us to bond more deeply with them.see This season the goats has made history as a farmer discovered that his goats produced more milk after been serenaded to music. The farmer found that his goats produced about 20 percent more milk when serenaded by the trills and lilts of Mariah Carey Studies indicate that music can indeed have an effect on milk production; the theory is that music with a consistent and precise rhythm can calm the animals in what might ordinarily be a stressful situation, and calm animals produce more milk than stressed animals. The connection between music and milk has been known since at least 2001, when a University of Leicester study tested milk production with different kinds of music. The study did not include “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” but did test out some different genres and sounds to see whether the particular type of music could have different effects. What the study found was that calm music—for example, Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”—seemed to have a positive effect on milk production, while the horrible turn-of-the-millennium club tracks selected by the researchers produced no effect at all. Christmas music, the vast majority of which is calming, slow, and gentle, might be just the genre to play to your cows, goats, sheep, camels, or whatever other animals you might happen to milk. see

Roles of Robots in Agriculture: Robotic Dairy Farms.

This is the future of agriculture,as the largest robotic dairy farm in Michigan will go online in 2017. DeLaval International, a large Swedish producer of dairy and other farming equipment, is installing 24 robotic voluntary—meaning the cows approach the stations on their own—milking machines at TDI Farms LLC of Westphalia that will be able to milk 1,500 cows. 

Roles of robots in agriculture.

The new system will be operational sometime next year (no firm date has been set yet), according to Muhieddine Labban, solution manager of automatic milking systems at DeLaval. 

 The farm is owned by the Trierweiler family. They decided to transition to a robotic milking system after seeing improved longevity and lower cull rates of cows in dairy farms using these systems. Here’s how the Voluntary Milking System machine works(VMS): the cows are free to come to the machine to be milked as they please, drawn by the feed that is dispensed during milking. 

    Robots in agriculture.

 The animals are creatures of habit, they learn this routine within a few days, says Labban in an email. The system cleans, pre-milks, dries and stimulates each teat individually using water, compressed air and a vacuum. After this preparation stage, the cows are milked via a robotic attachment that scans their underside to detect where the teats are located and checks the milk flow before releasing the suction cup at the end of the milking session. 

 According to DeLaval, the VMS is better for cows than traditional milking systems since it has an open structure that allows the cow to see her surroundings and to stand in a comfortable position without human management, which can be stressful for the animals. The VMS also monitors udder health and can detect potentially life-threatening mammary gland infections. The VMS increases efficiency, providing the dairy producer with the opportunity to hire fewer, but higher-caliber trained and qualified people.see

#agriculture #agribusiness #robots #roles of robots in agriculture.

Raising hens with intact beaks to produce cage-free eggs.

Egg producers serving the German market have kept the beaks of their hens intact to meet the beak trimming ban that went into effect for pullets placed after January 1, 2017.A Dutch egg producer with 25 years of cage-free experience has successfully transitioned to cage-free egg production from hens with intact beaks. The practice of trimming the beaks of laying hens, broiler and turkey breeders, and turkey meat birds goes back decades. Beak trimming was instituted as a management tool to prevent injury resulting from aggressive pecking and feather pecking. In spite of advancements such as infrared beak treatment, animal welfare activists have continued to push for an end to beak trimming. The German ban on placing beak-trimmed pullets went into effect January 1, 2017. Johan Bouwhuis’ farm, Bouwhuis Agro, houses 73,000 laying hens, all of which are cage free with beaks intact. This is how they operate; when a flock is first introduced from the pullet farm to the layer house, they use a product called PICKStein (peck stone) which is a mineral block containing calcium, magnesium, sodium and trace minerals at which the hens can peck. As the mineral block wears down, so does the sharp point of the hens’ beaks. Once the mineral blocks are worn down, they place some concrete blocks in the scratch areas of the houses for the hens to peck. By the end of the lay cycle, the concrete blocks have been pulverized by the hens. Alfalfa bales are also placed in a holder that rotates as the birds peck at and eat the alfalfa. The idea is to keep the hens occupied exploring and pecking something other than their flock mates. The trick is to keep them active and occupied while ensuring health protocols and management.

Hungary hit hard as avian flu continues to spread.

Hungary hit hard as avian flu continues to spread.Hungary has so far reported the largest number of outbreaks of HPAI caused by the H5N8 variant of the HPAI virus in poultry. In the last week alone, the ministry of agriculture has informed the OIE of 84 new outbreaks, all in domestic poultry. Over the last week, countries whose veterinary authorities have reported new cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in poultry to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) include Hungary, France, Germany and Russia. There has also been one new outbreak in the Netherlands, and HPAI viruses have been detected in chickens at a slaughterhouse in Taiwan. Focus for the latest cases are the counties of Bacs-Kiskun, Csongrad, Bekes and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok, which are in the central-southern and south-eastern regions of the country. In the latter county, the three outbreaks have been in mixed backyard flocks, but in the other areas, commercial ducks and/or geese are the species most affected. Hungary has also recorded its first HPAI outbreak in a commercial broiler flock. Intensive surveillance of poultry flocks near those known to be affected has revealed other virus-positive birds. Over the last week, the number of infected birds is almost 763,000, all of which are destined for slaughter. This brings the total losses of poultry as the result of HPAI in the country to more than 952,000 through death or destruction. With a further five new outbreaks of HPAI viruses more than belonging to the H5N81 group affecting more than 51,000 poultry over the last week, France has now reported cases at 13 locations since last month to the OIE. The agriculture ministry has confirmed a total of 19 outbreaks. The latest outbreaks are in flocks of chickens and/or ducks in the south-west of the country in the departments of Tarn and Gers. According to the OIE report, the Russian veterinary authority has confirmed that a HPAI virus of the H5 group was the cause of mortality in a flock of more than 54,000 laying hens in Astrakhan oblast. There are a total of more than 667,000 poultry at the affected farm. This new outbreak is in a region that borders the Caspian Sea as well as Kalmykia oblast, where there were two outbreaks of HPAI in backyard flocks last month. In the Netherlands, the ministry of economic affairs has confirmed a fourth outbreak of HPAI in continue