Cause of death in children with cerebral malaria.

A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that scientists have discovered what causes death in children with cerebral malaria, the deadliest form of malaria infection. The research team found that the brain becomes so swollen that it is forced out through the bottom of the skull and compresses the brain stem. This pressure causes the children to stop breathing and die. Malaria kills a child every minute, although there are increased efforts targeting malaria elimination and eradication which has had some effect on malaria infection and illness. The death rates from malaria are still too high and urgent intervention proposed.

Corn,milk protein and precision medicine for children.

Medicines for children can be a challenge when taste and texture is concerned,this has prompted professor Om Perumal at South Dakota State University, and co-founder , chief scientific officer of Tranzderm Solutions, to adapt his corn protein-based drug delivery method to oral pediatric formulations. The theory behind this is to encapsulate drugs in corn protein nanoparticles and then cover them milk protein to make children’s medications better tasting and safer. The patented drug delivery system uses zein, a protein found in dried distillers grain, a co-product of ethanol production, to encapsulate the medication. The nanoparticles are approximately 500 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

Precision medicine.

The concept of precision public health is relatively new. Of course, the precision medicine movement has taken off in the past few years, especially with the implementation of the precision medicine initiative in the US. If the goal of precision medicine is to deliver the right health intervention to the right person at the right time, the ultimate goal of precision public health is to develop and implement health interventions that can benefit the right populations at the right time. While implicit in the precision medicine concept is the use of genomic, behavioral, and environmental data in developing new and targeted interventions, more often than not, the discourse is about developing new drugs for treating cancer and other diseases. There is much less emphasis on joining biological with social/environmental determinants of health to develop and implement precision approaches to keep individuals and communities healthy. more

Dangote to launch 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme.

Dangote to launch 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme. Dangote Rice, a subsidiary of Dangote Group, is set to launch in Sokoto, Sokoto state its multi-million naira 25,000 hectares of rice outgrower scheme with a prospect of hundreds of thousand of employment opportunities for the rural communities inhabitants. The President of the Group, Aliko Dangote, disclosed at the weekend that the Company will on Wednesday flag off with a pilot project of 500ha by Gonroyo Dam in Goronyo community. Gonroyo Dam is the second largest in the country, after Kainji Dam. continue

Mobile finance holds potential for agribusiness.

Mobile finance holds great potential for promoting financial inclusion in agribusiness especially with mobile phones increasingly becoming affordable, Dr Berty Annan, the Country Manager, Agribusiness Systems International (ASI) has said. She explained that access to finance was a major challenge in the agricultural sector; and that it was expensive to build bank branches in rural areas coupled with difficulty in convincing the ‘unbanked’ to use formal banks.more

Uganda makes strides with biofortified crops.

Nsereko’s farm sits on 360 acres of land. On it is a ranch and gardens of watermelon and coffee, the things he has traditionally kept there.In 2015, however, Nsereko decided to start to grow beans on a large scale, but not the ordinary beans. These are called biofortified beans. Through crossbreeding, scientists at the National Crop Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Namulonge have increased the iron content in them. “Crosses are made between preferred varieties that have low iron content with another variety with high iron content but that may not have the characteristics that farmers and the market want,” says Dr Stanley Nkalubo, a bean breeder and Team Leader for Legumes Research at NaCRRI. Nsereko’s beans – named NARO1, NARO2 and NARO3 – the names mainly emphasize that the beans are from the National Agriculture Research Organisation (NARO). The NARO bean two is the best as it is high yielding. The idea of biologically adding iron in beans is to help communities like ours, which are not into processed and packed foods, and so much into eating beans, access iron in good quantities. NaCRRI, a seed breeder; Nsereko, a seed multiplier; and CEDO, a seed distributor, are in a chain of individuals and organisations that target to feed a billion of the world’s people with biofortified foods by 2030. By the end of 2015, more than 100 biofortified varieties across 10 crops had been released in 30 countries, according to Howarth Bouis, the man who founded HarvesPlus 14 years ago and winner of the 2016 World Food Prize for his pioneering work in biofortified foods.In Uganda farmers mainly grow iron rich beans and orange fleshed sweet potatoes enriched with Vitamin A. More

Brothers earning millions from cabbage.

Gimogo Mohamubi, 36, Difasi Webisa, 40, and Wambehde Kamilu, 45, who are residents of Kasubi Central in Bardege Division, Gulu Municipality, are commercial farmers growing mostly cabbages. Before they were farmers, the three brothers were businessmen based in Mbale dealing in agricultural produce. They regularly came to Gulu to sell onions, carrots and matooke but due to losses they occasionally encountered they decided to involve themselves directly in commercial farming. They hired one acre of land at Shs 500,000 a year and bought cabbage seeds from an agro-input shop, then prepared seed beds and added manure to the soil. After three weeks, they planted the seeds in the seed bed. When they germinated, they applied pesticides and fertilisers such as NPK. A month later, the seedlings were transplanted to the main garden. It is important to transplant in the evening when it is cooler to avoid the seedlings from being affected by heat from the sun,they ensure the garden is weed free because these compete with the vegetables for soil nutrients. It is also very important to spray the cabbages with pesticides twice a month, because insects damage the cabbages when they eat the leaves. The crops are watered every morning and evenings during dry season because cabbages needs water to grow. Cabbages take about three months from when they are planted in the main garden to harvest. Currently, they earn about Shs12m from the cabbages and harvest twice a year,continue