Diseases Wreak Havoc in Cassava Fields in Africa

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NAIROBI, KENYA – In Africa, demand for the cassava plant has grown significantly over the years. The continent produces 60 percent of the crop in the world. But the crop is drastically declining in East and Central Africa due to diseases that reduce production.

More than 160 million people in east, central and southern Africa depend on cassava as a stable food and a source of income.

Production of the crop has significantly dropped due to the cassava mosaic and cassava brown streak diseases.

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO], the brown streak disease is worse since it affects the root of the crop. These two diseases are creating havoc in Africas agricultural lands.

Improvements necessary

The acting head of the FAO in eastern and central Africa, Luca Alinovi, said the agency has invested to improve the situation in the African fields, but it is not getting better.

Doing right or wrong on cassava has a huge impact on the food security of the people in this region, has such a relevance in our daily lives that we tend to forget it because it appeared in a kind of technical discussion. And I want to bring to your attention that, although it is a technical issue it requires knowledge and requires research, said Alinovi.

The head of the European Union Rural Development and Agriculture program in Kenya, Dominique Davoux, said that over the years the cassava diseases have evolved, and there is need to invest in research to fight the diseases.

We supported the cassava initially, there has been [a] stop in the support, the research slugged [lagged] behind, and the disease reinvented itself [and] propagated again. We have to re-address the issue, said Davoux.

The FAO says a minimum of $100 million is needed to support clean farm production, disease surveillance and research, and market and micro-finance development across the cassava production chain.

Experts warn failure to do so means the cassava disease likely will reach Nigeria, the biggest producer of cassava in Africa.

Urban Governance and Infrastructure – Part 11

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Elets – A platform for disseminating creative ideas on ICT

Elets Technomedia is a technology media and research company that focuses on ICT in government, education, healthcare, agriculture and rural development sectors. Our mandate is to provide effective information on latest development in different ICT tools, techniques and their applications across our verticals through premier print publications, online portals and premier events, seminars, conferences and summits. Elets has created a name for itself as a technology media and research vendor of choice.

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To strengthen and facilitate knowledge sharing platforms engaging with partners across the globe through International conferences to provide cross-cultural grounding to stakeholders and participants To provide stakeholders with a platform to share models of best practice, knowledge and experience on a range of issues in the domain of ICT in Governance, Education, Health, security, Urban and Rural Development To mobilise the communities towards creating a digitally informed knowledge society based on shared understanding

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Elets provides an unmatched versatility for working with multiple partners and consultants to mutually share knowledge. With a vision to provide effective information on latest development in different ICT tools, techniques and their applications across various verticals with focused reference to governance, education and health, we

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Is Composting The Future Of Landfill Diversion

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As there’s pressure from society regarding organic waste collection and the production of greenhouse gases mixed with targets of landfill diversion, a few are really trying to observe the manner in which they’ll attain their objectives. Generally, composting tasks are the greatest fix for creating landfill diversion initiatives, yet unless a local composting place exists already for getting the organic waste, not many can pay to construct a new place. A composting project takes a long time from idea to implementation. Before you can make an intelligent decision there are many things you should know.

Along with the beginning costs of a composting operation, earning community acceptance is critical. If locals complain about the smell, noise, more vermin, traffic, and fire risk, the task may be over prior to ever getting out of the committee.
Expenses include transportation, new procedure implementation, collection, quality control, consultation, tests, and more. After operating for a year, most find themselves over-budget.

It is another story in the Memphis area. A new in-vessel vertical composting unit has been designed by Agra Cycle. (VCU for short) named the Vee-Stack. While primarily operating within the UK and Australia, VCU’s has an over 30 years global presence, and is known for its extremely high composting standards. They have found ways to make the manufacturing process less expensive than those made overseas.
The Vee-Stack will help corporations and municipalities meet landfill diversion goals, provide greenhouse gas reduction, organic waste composting, and sustainable recycling and agricultural processes that provide carbon credits.Public Relations is where the key is. The PR for an environmentally sound, sustainable recycling project are enormous and timely. Composting is a bi-partisan activity which everyone can lend support to; and, it creates a better sense of community awareness. Those citizens who come forward without any motivations for improving the soil and cleaning the environment creates pride.

According to Agra-Cycle, “There are two keys to operational success using a Vee-Stack. The first is with the organic waste processing: there must be a balanced proportion of carbon and nitrogen. Then the pH values must be adjusted, followed by precise moisture control, and finally loading into the Vee-Stack. Agra-Cycle takes care of a big headache for the customer.

The second part happens with the normal draft induction process. Air enters the Vee-Stack from the bottom which greatly enhances the composting process in the chamber. If you know what a chimney fire is then you get a good concept of how the Vee-Stack operates. When thermal patterns increase in the stack, microbes which do well at greater temps become alive. In most cases this is referred to as the Stoichomatic range. For traditional composting techniques, these thermal ranges pose a fire threat and must be avoided no matter what, yet with in vessel building these temperatures are harnessed for process promotion. The fear of fire is eliminated from this process due to the high moisture content. The microbes eat all the smelly gases and hydrogen sulfides that create problems with other methods of composting. The machine basically functions as it’s personal bio filtration system. The Vee Stack is totally self contained; and, it even gathers and recycles leechate back into the system so that it can be composted, also.

Sustainable recycling involving local companies and communities, to prevent landfills, that is our goal. The Vee Stack can be custom made according to what you need and the size requirements. We also watch over, upkeep, manage the Vee Stack and take away the finished substance. Process your organic wastes consistently and for much less than you are currently paying for disposal by using the specialized knowledge and experience provided by Agra-Cycle.About ten tons of organic waste per day can be processed by continuous use of Vee Stack. The effects increase with the addition of more units. Depending on the organic waste used, the process can take between 14-21 days to complete.
Along with the said advantages, the cost incurred in getting rid of waste comes down by about 25%. Now this is how we define sustainable. Agra-Cycles is the sole proprietor of this technology and they are very committed to the mission of implementing sustainable recycling project in their home state of Tennessee, not as a preference but as a priority. Based in Tennessee, non-profit corporation Agra-Cycle promotes agriculture which can be sustained as well as providing resources of an educational nature. Every contribution is completely tax deductible. Please contact your tax professional for the most up to date tax laws.
Copyright 2010 Greg Traver

The Most Famous Gifts In History

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History is full of great gifts, gifts that have stood the test of time and have become legendary through our history. They are the gifts that are known by name, gifts matched not only in their legendary status but also size and originality.

What would you consider to be the two greatest gifts in history? Do mythological gifts count? Do real gifts count? In terms of real gifts, there are two that come first.

Statue of Liberty

As far as gifts go, this may be the biggest in history. To mark the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the French presented this statue to the United States as a gift of friendship. The Americans built the base for the statue, while the statue itself was constructed by the French under the guidance of Frederic Bartholdi.

The trojan Horse

Some gifts seem like gifts, but are in fact, traps. That was the case during the Trojan War when the Greeks built a horse and filled it with Greek warriors before putting it in front of the gates. It was customary in ancient times for a defeated general to surrender his horse, so the symbolic gift of the horse seemed to trojans to be a notice of surrender from the Greeks. The trap worked and the Trojans were defeated because of one of the most cunning military ploys in history.

In terms of mythological or fictional gifts, you can’t beat these two:

Fire

According to Greek mythology, we can thank one god for the gift of fire – Prometheus. Prometheus, who also gave humanity writing, mathematics, agriculture, and medicine, stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humanity. For his betrayal of Zeus, Prometheus was chained to a rock where an eagle came every day to rip out his liver, which grew back every time.

The Gift of the Magi

In this book written in 1906, Jim and Della Dillingham Young are a couple in love, but who can barely afford their apartment. For Christmas, Della buys Jim a chain for his prized pocket watch given to him by his father. She pays for it by cutting off her long hair and selling it to make a wig. Unknown to her, Jim sells his pocket watch to buy her a beautiful set of combs so she can comb her long hair.

The moral in that story, written by William Porter, is that sometimes material possessions are not the greatest gift you can get, and sometimes unselfish love is the greatest of all gifts.

Get the Best Agriculture Equipment for Unique Performance

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Agriculture is one of the main activities in almost most of the countries. With such high demand of agriculture, it has become very important to use some of the extra-ordinary kinds of equipment at the same time. People are willing to use some of perfect equipment, which is sure to increase the production as well as reduce down the total effort in the same. Seeds are very important as these are the important product in agriculture. With proper grading of the seed, the quality of the seed is enhanced to a higher level. People from various parts of the world are willing for the latest technology to be used in agriculture. The seed grading equipment are such kinds of equipment, which can easily handle the grading process of the seed.

There are other kinds of products such as the digital moisture meter. This particular meter mainly checks the moisture in the environment. The exact moisture is recorded by the machine. People need to check the moisture level in the agriculture field for one reason or the other. With the help of the new digital moisture meter, it becomes very easy to record the moisture content in the air. This will further help to maintain the conditions as per the demand. With the development of technology, lots of new moisture meters are developed, which can record the moisture content without much problem. There is no much hassle involved while using these meters. They are very handy in nature and any one can easily use it.

The moisture meter as well as seed grading equipment can serve farmers in a very perfect manner for better productivity. There are many other kinds of products in the list, which can easily enhance the production as well as efficiency. The seed grading machine are now coming in automatic modes. Thus, one need not to worry much about the handling process. It is very easy to operate and the size varies as per the demand. Most of the models are very normal and, which are perfect in handling good work loads. This is also a very cost effective method in cleaning various kinds of cereal grains. The seeds are directly fed to the lower part, where it gets sucked by an aspirator. All the dust and other particles are cleaned properly and the waste products get collected in the bins. So, agricultural production can be increased to a great extent with the help of these devices.

A-GRAIN (India) is involved in the development, manufacturing and marketing Post Harvest Test Equipments and Seed Processing Machinery. We also manufacture a host of products like grain moisture testers, seed dividers, seed germinators, seed processing plants etc. To get more details visit us.