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Showing posts with label world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2015

100 young scientists thinker on feeding 9.6bn people






 About100 concerned young scientists are currently looking at ways of making food available to 9.6billion people in the world and another two billion people by 2050, NaijaAgroNet reports.

This information emerged from an interactive discussion designed to mark the 65th Lindau Nobel Lauraete Meeting this year. The meeting  which witnessed a record number of 65 laureates and over 650 young scientists meeting in Germany from June 28-July 3, is meant to discuss solutions to world food problem.

Mars’ Chief Agricultural Officer, Howard-Yana Shapiro, NaijaAgroNet gathered, spoke during the discussion about the need to look beyond calories: “undernourishment is really just the tip of the iceberg. Deficiencies in nutrients like iron, vitamin B12, folate, vitamin A, affect huge numbers of people around the world and lead to physical and cognitive stunting”, in a world where an estimated 2 billion people are anaemic.

Report says that over six decades after the Green Revolution, malnutrition still stares vast majority of the world in the face; meanwhile, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, had said that almost 800 million people worldwide are undernourished. With the global population predicted to rise to between 9 and 10 billion by 2050, NaijaAgroNet learnt, the world faces an increasingly uncertain future that demands a coordinated response from all sectors and disciplines.

According to Steven Chu who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1997 and served as the US Secretary of Energy in the first Obama administration, “the food system is one of the greatest contributors to climate change and will also be one its greatest victims. But agriculture can mitigate worsening climatic stresses if sustainable practices are adopted at scale.” Chu currently teaches at Stanford University, where he is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology.

Once every year, NaijaAgroNet reports, some dozens of Nobel Laureates convene at Lindau to meet the next generation of leading scientists: undergraduates, PhD students, and post-doc researchers from all over the world. The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings foster the exchange among scientists of different generations, cultures, and disciplines. The 65th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting is dedicated to interdisciplinary scientific exchange.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Need for mountain soils conservation harped





There is now additional impetus in the effort to ensure that the world mountain soils, which are the fragile foundations of ecosystems that ultimately provide water for more than half the world's population, are preserved, reports NaijaAgroNet.

This move was enhanced with the publication of a new FAO book  which offers technical insights on the sustainable management of mountain soils, which are home to a vast array of human activities ranging from quinoa cultivation in the Andes through European ski resorts to the collection of medicinal plants in Tajikistan's "roof of the world" Pamir range.

ErmannoZanini, an expert on glaciers and natural risks and professor at the University of Turin said, the book  aims to "promote the sustainable management of mountain soils on behalf of mountain peoples - who are often marginalized, not included in decision-making processes and development programmes, and increasingly affected by soil-related disasters."

"Understanding Mountain Soils," published by FAO with the Mountain Partnership Secretariat, the Global Soil Partnership and the University of Turin, contains a host of case studies from around the world covering human, productive and geological issues, NaijaAgroNet gathered.

"Mountain soils are particularly susceptible to climate change, deforestation, unsustainable farming practices and resource extraction methods that affect their fertility, trigger land degradation, desertification and disasters such as floods and landslides, leading to poverty," FAO Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva writes in the preface to the volume.

The book, NaijaAgroNet discovered revealed the main features of mountain soil systems, their environmental, economic and social values, the threats they are facing and their cultural heritage. Case studies provided by Mountain Partnership members include how shade-grown coffee improves soil conservation, the surprising carbon storage powers of the windblown Scottish coastline, the viability of shifting cultivation in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, and unusual peat bogs in Lesotho.

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology