‘Nature’ takes a hard look at the ‘messy middle ground’ — the ‘difficult adolescence’ — of GM crops

Posted on 2 May 2013 by Susan MacMillan • 3 Comments

Cover of a special issue of ‘Nature’ on GMOs, 2 May 2013. The leading British science journal Nature has published a special issue on GM crops: Promise and reality (2 May 2013). This hub of updated science-based information on GM crops includes feature news stories, commentaries, a podcast and more. ‘Foreign genes were successfully introduced into … Continue reading »

Africa / Biodiversity / Fodder / Forages / ILRI / PA / PLE / Seeds

New funding agreement to help maintain world’s genebanks–and save plant genetic diversity

Posted on 1 Feb 2013 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium, is given a tour of the ILRI Forage Genebank, located in Addis Ababa, by its manager, Alexandra Jorge, in January 2013 (photo credit: ILRI\Zerihun Sewunet). The Global Crop Diversity Trust and the CGIAR Consortium have announced a new agreement which will bring financial stability to 11 international genebanks of … Continue reading »

Canada / CRP4 / East Africa / Epidemiology / Event report / Farming Systems / Food security / Geodata / ICT / Livestock / Poultry / Seeds / Uganda

New consortium to investigate environmental changes spreading diseases between animals and people in Africa

Posted on 21 Mar 2012 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

Malawi crop-and-livestock farmer (photo credit: ILRI/Susan MacMillan). One of the drivers of disease in Africa, a continent with a particularly heavy disease burden, are environmental changes that help to spread infectious pathogens between animals (both wild and domestic) and people. That is why the start of a new research program, in which the International Livestock … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / Biodiversity / Ethiopia / Film and video / Forages / PA / PLE / Seeds

ILRI Genebank preserves forages to help farmers produce more food

Posted on 7 Nov 2011 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

For the November 2011 ‘liveSTOCK Exchange’ event at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Alexandra Jorge, who has taken over from Jean Hanson as manager of ILRI’s Genebank, reflects on ILRI’s forage research and the importance of the forage seeds genebank hosted at the ILRI campus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. ‘I joined ILRI in Ethiopia … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Biodiversity / Indigenous Breeds / PA / Seeds

‘Farms are not museums’–Cary Fowler

Posted on 27 May 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

In the forage genebank on the Addis Ababa campus of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Cary Fowler, executive director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust (left), and Jean Hanson (middle), a geneticist who headed ILRI forage diversity work for two decades and now consults for ILRI, and a member of ILRI’s forage diversity team … Continue reading »

Biotechnology / East Africa / Kenya / PA / Seeds

Small-scale Kenyan farmer argues for letting Kenyans grow GM crops

Posted on 8 Apr 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Gilbert arap Bor, a small-scale farmer and member of the Truth about Trade & Technology Global Farmer Network, makes an argument in the Daily Nation (Kenya) for letting farmers here grow genetically modified crops. ‘The season of Lent is upon us–the time of year when Christians around the world prepare for Easter through prayer, charity, and … Continue reading »

Africa / Asia / Biodiversity / Climate Change / Ethiopia / Fodder / Forages / ILRI / Latin America / PA / PLE / Seeds

ILRI forage germplasm stored in Addis genebank travels to the Arctic’s Svalbard Global Seed Vault

Posted on 2 Mar 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

‘The Svalbard Global Seed Vault celebrated its third anniversary with the arrival of seeds for rare lima beans, blight-resistant cantaloupe, and progenitors of antioxidant-rich red tomatoes from Peru and the Galapagos Islands. The arrival of these collections, including many drought- and flood-resistant varieties, comes at a time when natural and man-made risks to agriculture have … Continue reading »

Biodiversity / Europe / ILRI / PA / PLE / Russia / Seeds

Living genebank in St Petersburg to be bulldozed for real estate profits just 60 years after Russian plant scientists starved to death rather than eat their seed collections

Posted on 8 Aug 2010 by Susan MacMillan • 2 Comments

A Kenyan woman visits an exhibit on the importance of conserving Africa’s native livestock and forage resources. The livestock exhibit, along with other exhibits on the importance of conserving Africa’s food crop resources, was part of an event held in Nairobi at the National Museum to celebrate International Biodiversity Day on 22 May 2010. (Photo … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Biotechnology / PA / Seeds

Monsanto bet early – and successfully – on biotechnology

Posted on 3 Jul 2010 by Susan MacMillan • 1 Comment

‘Few companies spin financial growth out of crop growth better than Monsanto. By making an early, successful R&D-heavy bet on biotechnology, Monsanto transformed itself from an agricultural-chemicals company in an increasingly commoditized sector into a cutting-edge seed-and-biotech firm. Because its rivals are still catching up to its prowess in creating biotech traits — the software … Continue reading »

Agriculture / Insurance / Seeds

Security for shillings

Posted on 12 Mar 2010 by Dorine Adhoch • Leave a comment

ONE of the things holding back agriculture in developing countries is the unwillingness of farmers with small plots of land to invest in better seed and fertiliser. Only half of Kenyan farmers buy improved seed or spend money on other inputs. Many use poor-quality seed kept from previous harvests. That is understandable when drought or … Continue reading »

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Category Archives: Seeds