Swiss give green light to modified corn

Switzerland has fallen into line with the majority of European Union members and approved the import of genetically altered corn as a foodstuff or as animal feed. The decision follows approvals from the EU and US where more than 1 million hectares of Novartis Bt corn have been planted.

The genetically engineered corn has built-in protection against insects such as the corn borer and Novartis argues that it is more environmentally friendly since it reduces the need for pesticides. However, Novartis has not yet applied for approval of Bt corn for cultivation in Switzerland.

Although opinion polls have shown most Swiss consumers are sceptical about genetically modified foodstuffs, Swiss pharmaceutical companies welcome the government's decision. The debate will continue at Switzerland's referendum on genetic engineering later this year.

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China's grain imports - set to rise

Rapid economic growth in China will drive up grain imports from 9m tonnes to 24m tonnes in 2005 according to Jikun Huang, Director of the Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy.

"China will neither empty the world grain markets, nor become a major grain exporter," he told a farming conference in Oxford, England. "Instead it is probable that China will become a more important player in world grain markets as an importer in the coming decades." Increased consumption would be largely in the form of feedgrain for animals.

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Ban on biotech cotton

Cotton farmers in the US must stop spraying with the herbicide bromoxynil, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ruled. As a result the variety of cotton engineered to resist the herbicide has been pulled from the market.

Bromoxynil can cause cancer and birth defects and residues have been found to exceed the new EPA's threshold levels. Last year, farmers planted 170, 000 hectares of bromoxynil-tolerant cotton and had planned to expand this to 500,000 hectares this year - about 10% of the cotton crop in the US.

The herbicide's manufacturer, Rhône-Poulenc Ag Company in North Carolina, argues that there is no new data to justify the ban. Company officials hope the ruling will be overturned by the EPA's science advisory committee in March. But environmental activists are pressing for the engineered cotton to be kept off the market.

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Rift Valley Fever costing lives and livelihoods

The outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in parts of north-eastern Kenya and adjacent areas of Somalia has claimed hundreds of human lives and widespread loss of livestock. Although experts believe the epidemic may have passed its peak in Kenya and Somalia the area continues to suffer far-reaching effects.

The emergence of the mosquito borne disease follows heavy rain and flooding in the affected area. Investigations by the Kenya Veterinary Service confirm sheep, cattle and camels have been most seriously affected. The disease causes fever, abortion, jaundice and death predominantly in young animals and a fall in milk yield in dairy cattle.

Farmers in the Rift Valley area are having to contend with other diseases brought on by the environmental conditions. Large populations of mosquitoes have meant an increase in the many diseases that they carry. Foot rot appears to be widespread as a consequence of long immersion of the feet in water and mud. It is also feared that favourable conditions for tse-tse fly multiplication could be provided as the land dries out and infections rates could increase.

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Screwworm epidemic threatens livestock in Iraq

An outbreak of the livestock pest the Old World Screwworm has reached epidemic proportions in Iraq. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warns that the pest could spread to neighbouring Near East countries unless urgent control measures are taken. Samples have been found in a diseased animal in Kuwait and the pest has also been detected in Iran. In 1989 there was an infestation of the very similar New World Screwworm in Libya, but an international effort resulted in the complete eradication of the pest by 1993.

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Reducing greenhouse gas emissions from rice fields

A five-year study of methane emissions from wetland rice fields is being conducted by IRRI in collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute of Atmospheric Environmental Research (FhG), Garmisch-Partenkirchen. The study is looking at how methane emissions are affected by various soil, water, and crop management practices.

At the same time, IRRI researchers are also examining the role of the rice field as a sink of carbon dioxide (CO₂), and the interactive effects of changes in CO₂ and temperature on rice growth and ecology. Initial experiments indicate that increased CO₂ concentrations stimulate growth of rice plants and result in increased biomass and grain production. But increased temperatures have a detrimental effect on the formation of grains and could significantly reduce or even reverse the beneficial CO₂-fertilization. These results will be verified by generating data under different water stresses and agronomic practices.

Among the outputs of the project will be the development and promotion of feasible technologies for mitigating methane emission from rice fields, and the dissemination of increase knowledge of the effects of CO₂ x temperature on rice production.

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Forage crops at TLRI

Forage breeding at the Taiwan Livestock Research Institute (TLRI) focuses on tropical forage grasses including napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum), pangola grass (Digitaria decumbens), and forage sorghum (Sorghum spp.) Several lines of hybrid napier grass with high forage yield and quality have been selected. One line with high leaf/stem ratio and forage quality suitable for cutting and grazing has been named "napier grass Taishigrass No.1".

A tall variety of napier developed at TLRI yields up to 300 metric tonnes/hectare/year and has 8-9% protein. With a short flowering period it is popular with Taiwanese livestock farmers. TLRI has crossed napier as the male parent with pearl millet as the female. "This has produced a short hybrid grass with a high leaf to stem ratio and a protein of 13-17%," says Dr Sue-Pea Shaug, "We can cut it for zero-grazing up to four times a year and use it for grazing sheep and geese."

Several countries have shown interest in the TLRI napier grasses and hybrids, notably in Latin America, including Brazil, and the Middle East and have been provided with germplasm. In addition, berseem clover (Trifolium alexandrinum), red oat (Avena byzantina), alfalfa (Medicago sativa), mulberry (Morus alba), common paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) and Joseph's coat (Acalypha caturus) are under evaluation to provide more forage species in the future.

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The sweet smell of success

Distinctive smelling grasses may be the solution to future control of cereal stemborers. Collaborative research between ICIPE, KARI in Kenya and IACR-Rothamsted in the UK have identified particular grasses that act as a 'repellent' to stemborers. Initial research identifying trap crops such as napier grass (Pennisetum purpureum) and sudan grass (Sorghum sudanesi) to be grown around the boundaries of fields led to the discovery of 'molasses' grass (Melinis minutiflora). This acts as a repellent, driving stemborers away from maize and sorghum crops and into the trap crops.

An additional advantage of molasses grass lies in its attraction to parasitoids which parasitize the stemborer larvae left on the crop. Initial field trials have shown that, if molasses grass is planted early enough, damage to crops can be reduced to as little as 5%. The discovery of molasses grass as an attractant to parasitoids is a breakthrough in this field as it was previously believed that only damaged cereals could attract natural enemies to parasitize the stemborers. Although trap and repellent crops have only been tested separately so far, experimental evidence has demonstrated a combined 'push-pull' effect working very well.

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Fall in Thai cassava harvest

Thailand's cassava production for the 1997-8 is expected to drop by 19% to 14.33 million tonnes . Chalaw Puangaromyo, President of the Thai Tapioca Development Institute attributed the drop to drought in NE Thailand which has hit the main cassava-planting areas. In addition, some farmers have turned away from cassava to grow crops that attract better prices.

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Deforestation in Brazil

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil reached a record of 19,000 km², an area the size of Belgium, which was destroyed in 1995. This showed a tripling in destruction since the start of the decade. Eduardo Martins, President of the Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama), a government agency, said the rise was the result of increased consumption in the Amazon region, expansion of agriculture, greater demand for wood and invasions by landless workers.

The release of the figures has been delayed while Brazil petitioned for environmental aid from the industrial states last year and attended the Kyoto Conference in December. The long-awaited research has revealed that whilst deforestation continues, a sharp fall in area destroyed had been evident since 1996. The results, however, have not convinced environmental agencies who feel that the Brazilian government has failed to keep the situation under control and continue to be concerned at the effect of foreign logging companies.

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A new generation of agrochemicals

Sirene, a new product for controlling Codling Moth in apple orchards, is one of a new generation of agrochemicals to be developed by Novartis in Switzerland. The product is a combination of a specific Codling Moth female pheromone, which attracts the male, with a chemical pesticide which kills the male on contact.

The advantage lies in the very small quantities of chemicals used: about 2 drops per tree, which is 100 times less than the amount of pesticide that would normally be applied to orchards. Additional benefits lie in the lack of residues in the fruit and the safety of the product with beneficial insects. Sirene can be used anywhere around the world where apples are grown and could play an important part in future IPM apple crop programmes.

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DNA finger-printing for forages

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) has an extensive range of research activities on napier grass, ranging from strategic research such as DNA fingerprinting to identify duplicate accessions through to field trials to determine the best accessions for different agro-ecological zones and agricultural systems.

Building on the molecular genetic expertise and facilities developed for research in animal genetics, ILRI has used DNA fingerprinting to answer some of the questions about the extent of genetic variation in its napier collection and to identify duplicate accessions. A study of napier accessions, cultivars and hybrids from ILRI's gene bank and napier cultivars commonly grown in Kenya, provided by the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, showed that DNA finger-printing can distinguish between accessions and group accessions by genetic similarity. Fingerprinting clearly separated the main group of napier accessions from a pearl millet sample, with three or the four supposed hybrids shown as genetically intermediate between the two groups. The fourth 'hybrid' was indistinguishable from the main napier group, strongly suggesting that it is pure napier, rather than a hybrid.

Three napier accessions performed well across a wide range of agro-ecological zones in a multi-locational trial organized by the African Feed Resources Network (AFRNET). The trial, started in 1992, was carried out at eight sites in Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda, covering humid, sub-humid and highland zones. Despite the wide range conditions, one accession (16798) was amongst the highest yielding lines at all eight sites. Two other accessions were amongst the highest yielders at six or more of the eight sites. Scientists in AFRNET and their colleagues in the Cattle Research Network, CARNET, are now studying these and other 'best bet' accessions in feeding trials to determine their nutritive value and ability to provide year-round feeding for crossbred dairy cattle.

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Forage legumes boost livestock and crop production

ILRI has tested over 1,000 accessions of herbaceous forage legumes, fodder trees and grasses in the West African sub-humid zone since the mid-1980s. Over the past three years, ILRI's team in sub-humid West Africa has developed a range of management systems that will help farmers get the most out of the promising herbaceous legume accessions identified. These systems included grass-legume mixtures for supplementing milking cows.

Much of this work was done in collaboration with the University of Hohenheim, Germany and was supported by funding from the German government. The work was also linked with a series of trials in West Africa of material from the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Colombia. The CIAT-related West African forages network tested some of the best accessions from South America in West Africa, finding several accessions that performed well in their new home. This reciprocates the contribution to South American livestock production of many grasses of the genus Brachiaria, many of which originated in Africa.

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