Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Poultry International - India launches poultry development scheme
Monday, 29 June 2009
FCT gets technical committee on agricultural programme
The Coordinator of the National Fadama Development Programme (NFDP), Bukar Tijani, on Tuesday in Abuja urged farmers to target their agricultural production at meeting the needs of consumers. He made the call while inaugurating a technical committee to supervise the implementation of the programme, signalling the approval of the work plan and budget of the various Fadama Community Associations (FCAs).
Destructive beetle stopped from entering Minnesota
Work by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists in International Falls and Detroit helped find a small yet destructive beetle stowing away in a shipment from China. The agency says this week the khapra beetle was found in a rail container carrying tile. Last month, agriculture specialists in Minnesota became suspicious that the container might be infested with pests. So, they sent the container to Michigan for further inspection and the beetle was found. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Ron Smith tells the Detroit Free Press the beetle now is on display at an agency laboratory. The khapra beetle damages grain and cereal products, seeds, cottonseed meal, nut meats, dried fruits and other products
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Focus on water efficiency and crown rot at BCG expo - Stock & Land
Saturday, 20 June 2009
The power of video to trigger innovation: rice processing in central Benin Espérance Zossou, Paul Van Mele, Simplice D. Vodouhe and Jonas Wanvoeke
Understanding how to stimulate innovation among farmers and processors is crucial for attaining sustainable agriculture. To explore how farmer-to-farmer learning videos and training workshops changed women's rice processing practices, we interviewed 200 women and 17 women's groups in 20 villages in central Benin, including four villages which had received no intervention at all. Video on improved rice parboiling (a process whereby paddy is pre-cooked by steam without touching the water) had reached three times more women (74%) than hands-on training workshops organized by local NGOs and contributed to more equitable knowledge sharing within communities. In the villages where the NGOs had shown the video, 24% of the women started to use the improved parboiler equipment individually and 56% collectively within their group, compared to none in the control villages. About 92% of the women who attended both video and workshops developed creative solutions based on the idea of pre-cooking paddy with steam, compared to 72% for those who learned only through video. Fewer women innovated after learning through workshops only (19%) and after being informed by their peers (15%). Video watching also made women pay attention to reducing the loss of steam and to use local resources innovatively to conserve energy. More than 90% of the women who watched the video improved the quality of their parboiled rice, for example, by removing dirt, washing rice several times and drying rice on tarpaulins. Workshops stimulated innovations less than video did. Farmer-to-farmer video has great potential to enhance sustainable agriculture by encouraging local innovations.
Improving CGIAR Effectiveness through Knowledge Sharing (KS) A project of the ICT-KM Program of the CGIAR Final Technical Report Simone Staiger-Rivas, Project Leader, Institutional Knowledge Sharing
The Institutional Knowledge Sharing (IKS) project has completed its second phase (January 2007 to April 2009) to improve the CGIAR’s effectiveness. It promoted collaborative learning and innovation. It also supported effective use of KS approaches and tools throughout the CGIAR and its R&D partnerships. The project assumes that knowledge-sharing (KS) principles, attitudes, and skills can support organizational development; that these would help build internal capacity so that staff can work more effectively towards their institutional missions and sustain their organizations over the long term. These assumptions led the project to work at three different CGIAR levels: system, centre, and community.
SCB launches HIV education website
A GLOBAL online campaign and website http://www.vir. us has been launched by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) as part of its commitment to raise awareness and provide education about HIV and AIDS.
The global social media campaign centres on an interactive, informative website with entertaining animated web-learning modules.
The campaign concept is based on the bank’s preventative intervention strategy.
“As there is no cure or vaccine for HIV, the only way to tackle the virus is to prevent new HIV infections either by stopping people getting the virus in the first place, or preventing people who are HIV+ from passing it on.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
Diamond markets showing signs of life - Topix
BNR " Radio Bulgaria " Bulgaria - EU
By end-June the EC should finally decide whether it will unfreeze funds under the pre-accession agricultural programme SAPARD worth EUR 76 million blocked on grounds of embezzlement.