COVID-style gene surveillance to fight wheat fungus

See PDF] First reported in Brazil in 1985, wheat blast disease spreads through infected seeds, crop residues and spores that can travel long distances in the air. "Wheat is a staple food for 35 per cent of the world's population, so a disease that threatens pandemic potential could cause serious food security implications,” she told SciDev.Net. "Thanks to the prompt and public release of genomic data by the international scientific community through the OpenWheatBlast initiative, we were able to detect, track, and characterise the fungal lineage responsible for recent wheat blast outbreaks,” said lead author Sergio Latorre Ochoa from University College London.

Recent Advancements and Challenges of AIoT Application in Smart Agriculture: A Review.

As the most popular technologies of the 21st century, artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) are the most effective paradigms that have played a vital role in transforming the agricultural industry during the pandemic. The convergence of AI and IoT has sparked a recent wave of interest in artificial intelligence of things (AIoT). An IoT system provides data flow to AI techniques for data integration and interpretation as well as for the performance of automatic image analysis and data prediction. The adoption of AIoT technology significantly transforms the traditional agriculture scenario by addressing numerous challenges, including pest management and post-harvest management issues. Although AIoT is an essential driving force for smart agriculture, there are still some barriers that must be overcome. In this paper, a systematic literature review of AIoT is presented to highlight the current progress, its applications, and its advantages. The AIoT concept, from smart devices in IoT systems to the adoption of AI techniques, is discussed. The increasing trend in article publication regarding to AIoT topics is presented based on a database search process. Lastly, the challenges to the adoption of AIoT technology in modern agriculture are also discussed.

Influence of blend proportion and baking conditions on the quality attributes of wheat, orange-fleshed sweet potato and pumpkin composite flour dough and bread: optimization of processing factors

Orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) and pumpkin fruit are underutilized crops with great potential for the production of high-quality bread with health-enhancing properties. However, the incorporation of nonconventional flour in bread formula may influence the dough and bread quality properties. This study investigated the effect of partial substitution of wheat flour with OFSP (10–50%) and pumpkin flour (10–40%), baking temperature (150–200 °C) and baking time (15–25 min) on the quality properties of the composite dough and bread using response surface methodology (RSM). Dough rheological, bread physical and textural properties were analyzed, modelled and optimized using RSM. Satisfactory regression models were developed for the dough and bread quality attributes (R2 > 0.98). The dough development time, crust redness, hardness, and chewiness values increased while optimum water absorption of dough, specific volume, lightness, springiness, and resilience of bread decreased significantly (p < 0.05) with increasing incorporation of OFSP and pumpkin flour in the bread formula. Additionally, the specific volume, crust redness, crumb hardness, and chewiness of the composite bread increased significantly (p < 0.05) with increasing baking temperature from 150 to 180 °C but reduced at higher baking temperatures (≥ 190 °C). The staling rate declined with increased OFSP and pumpkin flour whereas increasing the baking temperature and time increased the bread staling rate. The optimized formula for the composite bread was 78.5% wheat flour, 11.5% OFSP flour, 10.0% pumpkin flour, and baking conditions of 160 °C for 20 min. The result of the study has potential applications in the bakery industry for the development of functional bread.

Contract Owner’s Best Commanding for Sweet Potato Farming Based on the Theory of Planned Behavior

The purpose of this study is to examine and compare different psychological and sociodemographic factors for contracting sweet potato production for farmers with different statuses based upon the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Sustainable production provides contract owners with a sufficient amount of both food crops and a source of bioethanol clean energy. The impact of such factors on potential farmers based on the TPB for a particular contract type is estimated with the data collected in three major sweet potato production cities/counties in Taiwan through the probit model and multinomial logit model. The average size of the surveyed farms is 1.64 ha. The results consistently show that the factors of attitude toward the advantages of contract farming, subjective norms regarding contract farming, perceived contract farming control, and behavior intention have very significant impacts on the selection of contract farming types for professional farmers and brokers. These results indicate that the contract owners will gain the greatest advantage through commanding any factor in TBP for these two groups of farmers, as they have an incentive to manage the sources of sweet potatoes at the best conditions before they have the agreement with the contract owners, either as the supply of bioethanol energy raw materials, supply of food crops, or supply of food processing materials.

‘Smarter food’ needed to end global hunger by 2030

Not only can agricultural science and research help bolster the nutritional value of staple crops, but it can also produce hardier varieties that can withstand pests and disease, meaning more produce surviving to harvest and providing additional income as a buffer. Since 2013, quality potato seed, improved crop management and value chain approaches have helped more than two million smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia. [...]making the right crops available for changing climates and cultural environments, and improving the availability of resilient, adapted varieties relies on protecting a back catalogue of genetic material to safeguard different features of different crops. The economic benefits of conservation are clear: gene banks like CIP’s contributed almost three-quarters of the $1 billion generated by the Victoria potato variety alone in Uganda between 1991 and 2016, which is just one indication of the potential economic value of conservation and utilisation of genetic materials.

The next pandemic is coming — now is the time to unite

Speed read The hunt is on for Disease X COVID-19 has weakened global surveillance One Health approaches critical The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new era of disease risk as global surveillance systems reach breaking point, while rising meat consumption forces animal species together at an unprecedented rate. In the global South, demand for animal protein has more than tripled meat production over the past 50 years, with milk production nearly doubling and egg output rising more than three-fold. Scientists say stronger biosecurity measures in the global food system could help prevent future outbreaks of zoonotic diseases — those that jump from animals to people.

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) Growth and Quality as Influenced by Inorganic Fertilizer Rates in Northwestern Ethiopia

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is an important tuber crop that is highly affected by poor soil fertility and nutrient disparities. Nutrient depletion due to intensive monocropping and poor soil management practices is a serious problem in Ethiopia, including in northwestern areas. Therefore, an experiment was conducted in the East Gojjam zone of northwestern Ethiopia to evaluate the influence of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer rates on potato tuber production. Three phosphorus levels (0, 34.5, and 69 kg/ha−1) and four potassium levels (0, 100, 200, and 300 kg/ha−1) were set out in a factorial arrangement and replicated three times using a randomized complete block design. Data on growth and quality parameters, as well as plant tissue analysis results, were collected. According to the results, the main effects of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer rates statistically affected growth components. The combined effects of phosphorus and potassium fertilizers had a significant influence on quality components (tuber size distribution). Similarly, the interaction effects of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer rates gave the highest response in all nutrient use efficiency parameters. The combined application of 34.5 kg P2O5 and 200 kg K2O fertilizers resulted in the highest medium (28.32 ton/ha−1) and large-sized (20.0 ton/ha−1) tuber yields. The interaction effect of 34.5 kg P2O5 with 100 kg K2O ha−1 yielded the highest agronomic and recovery efficiency values. Hence, a combination of 34.5 kg P2O5 ha−1 and 200 kg K2O ha−1 fertilizer rates can be recommended for the optimal production of potato in the northwestern area.

Aflatoxin Contamination, Its Impact and Management Strategies: An Updated Review

Aflatoxin, a type of mycotoxin, is mostly produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. It is responsible for the loss of billions of dollars to the world economy, by contaminating different crops such as cotton, groundnut, maize, and chilies, and causing immense effects on the health of humans and animals. More than eighteen different types of aflatoxins have been reported to date, and among them, aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, and G2 are the most prevalent and lethal. Early detection of fungal infection plays a key role in the control of aflatoxin contamination. Therefore, different methods, including culture, chromatographic techniques, and molecular assays, are used to determine aflatoxin contamination in crops and food products. Many countries have set a maximum limit of aflatoxin contamination (2–20 ppb) in their food and agriculture commodities for human or animal consumption, and the use of different methods to combat this menace is essential. Fungal infection mostly takes place during the pre- and post-harvest stage of crops, and most of the methods to control aflatoxin are employed for the latter phase. Studies have shown that if correct measures are adopted during the crop development phase, aflatoxin contamination can be reduced by a significant level. Currently, the use of bio-pesticides is the intervention employed in many countries, whereby atoxigenic strains competitively reduce the burden of toxigenic strains in the field, thereby helping to mitigate this problem. This updated review on aflatoxins sheds light on the sources of contamination, and the on occurrence, impact, detection techniques, and management strategies, with a special emphasis on bio-pesticides to control aflatoxins.

Status Quo of Households’ Backyard Food Gardens in South Africa: The “Drivers”

South Africa is one of the most food-secured countries at the national level but is food insecure at the household level. The disconnect in the food security at the national and at household level in the economy is a result of high food prices that most households cannot afford. One of the strategies of ameliorating food insecurity at the household level is the practice of backyard food gardens. This study identifies farmland size, land tenure system, agriculture-related assistance to households, location of residence of the household, agricultural training offered to households, and monetary grants for households for agriculture purpose as the determinants of households’ backyard food gardens in South Africa. The study used descriptive (horizontal bar chart) and inferential (Pearson’s chi-square) analyses to evaluate the household-level impacts of farmland size, land tenure system, agriculture-related assistance, location of residence, agricultural training, and monetary grants for agriculture purposes of the backyard food gardens in South Africa. The data for the study were sourced from the Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey for 2019. The findings revealed that farmland size, land tenure system, agriculture-related assistance to households, location of residence of the household, agricultural training offered to households, and monetary grants for households for agriculture purposes are significant to households’ backyard food gardens in South Africa. It is clear that agriculture-related assistance is welcomed by the households but the spread across all dwelling locations is limited;therefore, there is need to spread agriculture-related assistance to all dwelling areas in South Africa. This will increase the drive towards food production in South Africa.

Prospects of the Application of Garlic Extracts and Selenium and Silicon Compounds for Plant Protection against Herbivorous Pests: A Review

Protection of plants against herbivorous pests is an important aspect that guarantees agricultural efficiency, i.e., food provision to populations. Environmental, water and foodstuff pollution by toxic pesticides, along with climate changes, highlight the necessity to achieve intensive development of ecologically safe methods of herbivory control. This review discusses modern methods of plant protection against insect pests: the biofortification of plants with selenium, treatment of plants with bulk and nano-silicon, and utilization of garlic extracts. The peculiarities of such methods of defense are described in relation to growth stimulation as well as increasing the yield and nutritional value of products. Direct defense methods, i.e., mechanical, hormonal, through secondary metabolites and/or mineral element accumulation, and indirect defense via predator attraction are discussed. Examples of herbivorous pest control during plant growth and grain/seed storage are emphasized. A comparison of sodium selenate, silicon containing fertilizer (Siliplant) and garlic extract efficiency is analyzed on Raphanus sativus var. lobo infested with the cruciferous gall midge Contarinia nasturtii, indicating the quick annihilation of pests as a result of the foliar application of garlic extract or silicon-containing fertilizer, Siliplant.

Proposal for a Crop Protection Information System for Rural Farmers in Tanzania

Crop protection information, such as how to control emergent and outbreak crop diseases and pests, as well as the latest research, regulations, and quality control measures for pesticides and fertilizers, is important to farmers. Rural smallholder farmers in Tanzania have traditionally relied on government agricultural officers who visit them in their villages to provide this crop protection information. However, these officers are few and cannot reach all the farmers on time. This means that farmers fail to make critical farming decisions on time, which can lead to low crop productivity. In this study, we aim to provide farmers with reliable and instant crop protection information by developing a system based on the Short Message Service (SMS) and the Web. This system automatically replies to farmers’ requests for the latest crop protection information in the Swahili language through SMS on a mobile phone or a Web system. The findings reveal that our proposed system can provide farmers with crop protection information at lower cost (500 times cheaper) than the existing Tigo Kilimo system. Furthermore, our proposed system’s deep learning model is effective in understanding and processing Swahili natural language SMS queries for crop protection information with an accuracy of 96.43%. This crop protection information will help farmers make better critical farming decisions on time and improve crop productivity.

Deficit Water Irrigation in an Almond Orchard Can Reduce Pest Damage

Irrigated almond orchards in Spain are increasing in acreage, and it is pertinent to study the effect of deficit irrigation on the presence of pests, plant damage, and other arthropod communities. In an orchard examined from 2017 to 2020, arthropods and diseases were studied by visual sampling under two irrigation treatments (T1, control and T2, regulated deficit irrigation (RDI)). Univariate analysis showed no influence of irrigation on the aphid Hyalopterus amygdali (Blanchard) (Hemiptera: Aphididae) population and damage, but Tetranychus urticae Koch (Trombidiformes: Tetranychidae) damage on leaves was significantly less (50–60% reduction in damaged leaf area) in the T2 RDI treatment compared to the full irrigation T1 control in 2019 and 2020. Typhlocybinae (principal species Asymmetrasca decedens (Paoli) (Hemiptera: Cicadellidae)) population was also significantly lower under T2 RDI treatment. Chrysopidae and Phytoseiidae, important groups in the biological control of pests, were not affected by irrigation treatment. The most important diseases observed in the orchard were not, in general, affected by irrigation treatment. The multivariate principal response curves show significant differences between irrigation strategies in 2019 and 2020. In conclusion, irrigation schemes with restricted water use (such as T2 RDI) can help reduce the foliar damage of important pests and the abundance of other secondary pests in almond orchards.