Category: Agric. News

A crop is a plant or plant product that can be grown and harvested for profit or subsistence. By use, crops fall into six categories: food crops, feed crops, fiber crops, oil crops, ornamental crops, and industrial crops. Every crop farmer must be aware of the specie he/she wants to cultivate, the average number of seeds, the quantity for sowing per hectare and the crop density (Number of plants per hectare). This will help the farmer understand what his or her expectations are from the crops to be planted. Below…

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Scientists have developed a bioprocess that enables conversion of acid whey, a dairy by-product, without the use of additional chemicals. Professor Lars Angenent from the Center of Applied Geosciences at the University of Tübingen and international colleagues used microbiome cultures similar to those in the human gut. The new bio-oil can be used in animal feed or, after further refinement, as a fuel for airplanes. The results of the study were published in Joule, a new premier journal from CellPress. Every liter of milk that goes into milk products, such…

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Cattle, swine and poultry contribute a hefty portion to the average American’s diet, but raising all this livestock comes at a cost to the environment: The industry produces a lot of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Just how much gas the animals release, however, is the subject of debate. Now, one group reports in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology that a new approach could shed light on how accurate current data are. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the livestock industry is the second-biggest methane emitter in the…

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Breadfruit, used as a folk remedy in pacific regions to control insects, is an effective mosquito repellent, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists have found. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and their collaborators at the University of British Columbia in Okanagan, Canada, identified three breadfruit compounds Capric, Undecanoic and Lauric acids that act as insect repellents. ARS is the chief intramural scientific research agency of USDA. In the study, chemist Charles Cantrell and his colleagues at the ARS Natural Products Utilization Research Unit (NPURU) in Oxford and the University of…

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Consumer demand and inadequate scientific information has led to overharvesting, reducing fish species and fish stocks around the world. But University of Guelph researchers have identified a possible solution. They have developed a model that allows fisheries to net enough to meet rising consumer demand while ensuring adequate income and replenishment of natural stocks. The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “We know fish are getting rarer,” said John Fryxell, a U of G integrative biology professor and lead author of the paper. Many commercial…

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