More and better crops? Not even GM's most vehement supporters see it as an answer to world hunger. So just what are the claims for GM's benefits and do they really stack up?
Higher crop yields, a reduction in the use of weedkillers and insecticides, cheaper food, better food--these are the benefits GM technology is supposed to offer the world. And its supporters are quick to point to evidence that some of these benefits are starting to emerge. A recent...

Rice wars.
Rice feeds more than half the world's population, but yields of the crop have been leveling out, and 400 million are said to endure chronic hunger in rice-producing areas of Asia, Africa and South America. According to the United Nations, demand for rice is expected to rise by a...

Soil degradation assessment in mixed farming systems of southern Africa: use of nutrient balance studies for participatory degradation monitoring.
Research context In sub-Saharan Africa it is recognized increasingly that optimizing the nutrient balance on a farm is one of the most difficult agricultural management challenges faced in avoiding land degradation (Reij and Waters-Bayer 2001; Scoones 2001). As a result there are an increasing number of nutrient...

Cropping patterns in the Canadian Prairies: thirty years of change.
Introduction From the beginning of widespread agricultural settlement in the late 1800s until the early 1960s, spring wheat, barley, oat and tame hay accounted for most of the cropland in the Canadian Prairies. Since then there have been widespread changes in cropping patterns in the region. Maps...

The dynamics of wealth and poverty in the Transegalitarian societies of Southeast Asia.
Introduction The goal of this article is to describe a major sector of the wealth-producing systems of tribal Southeast Asia and to understand the major constraints in wealth production and accumulation. Four domains exist where wealth is generated in traditional, subsistence and agriculture-based economies: agriculture, domestic animals,...

Spider silk genes spin strong yarn.
Researchers in Germany have inserted spider genes into potatoes and tobacco plants so that they produce large quantities of silk proteins in their tissues. The researchers hope that the silk proteins produced by the plants will be able to be made into strong threads on an industrial...

Treeline Responses to Physiographic and Climatic Variation, Alaska Range. (Environmental Science & Ecology).
Treeline Responses to Physiographic and Climatic Variation, Alaska Range. Harold Zald, University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment, Dana Building, 430 E University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1115 Field data were collected on treeline dynamics of Picea gluca (Moench) Voss on the North Slope of...

2004 guide to consultants.
This Guide to Consultants is presented as a service to people interested in agricultural/biological engineering assistance. This listing is not an offer or advertisement to provide engineering services in any state or jurisdiction where the professional engineer or professional engineering firm is not registered/licensed. All information was provided by...

Guide to consultants 2003.
This Guide to Consultants is presented as a service to people interested in agricultural/biological engineering assistance. This listing is not an offer or advertisement to provide engineering services in any state or jurisdiction where the professional engineer or professional engineering firm is not registered/licensed. All information was provided by...

How to Help Small Farmers in Bangladesh.
How to Help Small Farmers in Bangladesh. By HUGH BRAMMER Dhaka: University Press, 2002, 592 pp. Tk. 1500.00. ISBN 984 05 1618 3 This collected volume on agriculture in Bangladesh contains 29 chapters, most of which were published as papers or manuals in the 1970s...