Rice into biofuel and fodder

Photo credit: SciDevNet

Image credit: Abbie Trayler-Smith / Panos

• On-farm system turns rice plants into biofuel and fodder

  Speed read

  • Rice plants are wrapped in plastic bales with yeast, enzymes and bacteria
  • By using rice grown for livestock, the method avoids competing with food crops
  • But it could lead to competition for farmland, and roll out may be a challenge

  

  Rice paddies in Asia – http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2014/07/05/08/56/rice-terraces-384665_640.jpg

  EXCERPT

  A technology to create biofuel and animal feed at the same time without any off-site processing has been developed by Japanese researchers.

  The solid-state fermentation (SSF) system involves wrapping rice plants grown to feed livestock along with yeast, enzymes and bacteria into a bale covered with a plastic film, and capturing the ethanol produced by the resulting fermentation.

  This technology builds on traditional processes used by farmers around the world to create silage to feed livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep, according to a report published on 30 January in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels.

  According to Horita, the biggest challenge to implementing SSF on a larger scale is the cost of rolling out the technology. Researchers would have to present the advantages of using the system to farmers, who would also need access to power stations that can buy and use the resulting ethanol, he says.

  Read the full article: SciDevNet

Biofuel and Animal Feed from Rice

Photo credit: Google

Africa: On-Farm System Turns Rice Plants Into Biofuel and Fodder

By Aamna Mohdin

A technology to create biofuel and animal feed at the same time without any off-site processing has been developed by Japanese researchers.

The solid-state fermentation (SSF) system involves wrapping rice plants grown to feed livestock along with yeast, enzymes and bacteria into a bale covered with a plastic film, and capturing the ethanol produced by the resulting fermentation.

This technology builds on traditional processes used by farmers around the world to create silage to feed livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep, according to a report published on 30 January in the journal Biotechnology for Biofuels.

 

Read the full article: allAfrica

Pakistan : invest more in biotechnology research so that its poor could get food at an affordable price (Google / Dawn)

Read at : Google Alert – desertification

http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/29/biotech-solution-to-meet-rising-population-needs.html

`Biotech solution to meet rising population needs`

According to the report prepared by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), biotech crops are the fastest adopted crop technology in the world

KARACHI, March 28: Pakistan needs to cut defense spending and invest more in biotechnology research so that its poor could get food at an affordable price, said speakers at a press conference here on Wednesday.

The event was organised to launch a report prepared by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications on the global status of commercialised biotech/ genetically modified crops at the Latif Ebrahim Jamal National Science Information Centre, Karachi University.

The speakers highlighted the challenges Pakistan was facing and said the situation was already critical as the number of people living in absolute poverty in the country was huge and it would worsen with the population increase, freshwater shortages, desertification and a decline in fertile land.

The debate over biotech crops has become predictable (African Agriculture)

Read at :

http://www.africanagricultureblog.com/2012/02/are-biotech-crops-winning-over-farmers.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+africanagricultureblog%2FNaEx+%28African+Agriculture%29

Are biotech crops winning over farmers?

by Marc Gunther

The debate over biotech crops has become predictable.

In his 2012 annual letter from the Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, who has a near-religious faith in technology and innovation, argues that an “extremely important revolution” in plant science, i.e., genetically-engineered crops, can help farmers in poor countries by giving them access to new varieties of crops that will better resist disease and adapt to climate change.

Days later, the Center for Food Safety, a Washington watchdog group and persistent critic of Big Ag, pushed back, saying that biotech crops had failed to deliver on their promise to alleviate hunger, and that Gates would do better to support low-cost “agroecological techniques” that don’t depend on patented, genetically-engineered seeds.

The conflicting claims and supporting data are hard to sift through.

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Alternatives for industrial agriculture and biotechnology do exist (Agriterra)

Read at :

http://www.agriterra.org/en/news/57668/new-study-on-innovations-in-asia?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+agriterranews-en+%28Agriterra+News%29

New study on innovations in Asia

With support of Agriterra, the Asian Farmers’ Association for Sustainable Development together with the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy published a report on successful and out-of-the-box approaches for feeding a growing global population. Rising food prices, climate change and food riots have put agriculture high on the international agenda. Too much of the current policy debate focuses narrowly on increasing the volume of food, and assumes that industrial agriculture and biotechnology are the only options for nourishing the growing population. The new report shows that alternatives do exist.

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What an understanding of beneficial biology could do for the fruit and veggies (Facebook / Urban Garden Magazine)

Read at : Facebook – Sidmouth KAIETEUR

http://urbangardenmagazine.com/2011/02/breeding-microbes-with-compost-tea/

Breeding Microbes with Compost Tea

Unveiling the Microscopic Secrets of Connoisseur Organic Growers

“We know more about the movement of celestial bodies than we do about the soil underfoot.”
~Leonardo da Vinci

Commercial grape growers in Sonoma and Napa pay big bucks for beneficial biology consultants to come to their vineyards. And for good reason—the right blend of microbiology in their soils can significantly increase the market value of their wine by promoting more sophisticated flavors and bouquets in their grapes. When it comes to actually selling the end product, it can be the difference between producing a bottle that sells for, say, ten bucks and one that sets you back fifty or more. Just think what an understanding of beneficial biology could do for the fruit and veggies in your garden?

Disease-free planting material to improve the production and marketing of sweet potato (New Agriculturist)

Read at :

http://www.new-ag.info/en/news/newsitem.php?a=2055

Biotechnology boosts sweet potato in Zimbabwe

Scientists at the University of Zimbabwe have developed disease-free planting material to improve the production and marketing of sweet potato, an increasingly important food crop. Each year, smallholder farmers in Zimbabwe lose up to 90 per cent of their sweet potato crop to pests and diseases. Using a biotechnology application known as meristem tip culture, scientists have given sweet potato farming a boost by eliminating the threats of viral infections and pest infestations. The clean planting material can be propagated, ensuring that one farmer can sell healthy vines to others.

The clean planting material, developed after two years of research, has been tested by more than 500 smallholder farmers in the Domboshava area, near Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. “Our research has helped promote sweet potatoes not only to increase food security and nutrition but to boost household incomes too,” says Rose Tafadzwa Masekesa, a researcher at the University of Zimbabwe’s Faculty of Agriculture. “On a bad harvest, a farmer can get 6 tonnes of sweet potatoes per hectare but with meristem culture farmers can realise up to 20 tonnes per hectare under irrigation.”

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The role of biotechnologies in the transformation of African economies (ATDForum)

Read at :

http://www.atdforum.org/spip.php?article424

Conference in Addis Ababa: Preparing the African youth for innovation in agriculture

By Webmaster

This conference attempts to address the role of biotechnologies in the transformation of African economies. For the past two decades, biotechnology has been at the centre of global conversations in public policy, yet as with the Green Revolution, biotechnology has so far failed to take root in Africa. Many obstacles stand in the way but if the will exists to invest in human resources and in infrastructure, then AU member states, too, will reap the benefits from biotechnologies.

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Bioengineers Develop Bacterial Strain to Increase Ethanol Biofuel Production

Read at :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101209201940.htm

ScienceDaily (Dec. 10, 2010) — A team of bioengineers in the United States has modified a strain of bacteria to increase its ability to produce ethanol. The research, published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering, reveals how adaptation and metabolic engineering can be combined for strain improvement, a positive development for the biofuel industry.

The team focused their research on Zymomonas mobilis, a bacterium noted for its bio-ethanol producing potential. However, the team believed that ethanol production could be increased through improvement of xylose fermentation.

“Zymomonas mobilis is a superb ethanol producer with productivity exceeding yeast strains by several fold,” said lead author Rachel Chen from the Georgia Institute of Technology. “In this study we sought to improve ethanol production by enhancing the ability of Z. mobilis to use and ferment xylose. Fermenting xylose at high concentration could in turn increase ethanol concentration, resulting in much improved productivity.”

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Save the wild relatives of essential food crops to protect global food supplies (ASNS News)

Read at :

http://africasciencenews.org/asns/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2631&Itemid=1

Norway Pledges $50m To The Campaign To Collect, Use Endangered Wild Relatives

Written by Henry Neondo

Norway is providing US$50 million towards the search to systematically find, gather, catalogue, use, and save the wild relatives of wheat, rice, beans, potato, barley, lentils, chickpea, and other essential food crops, in order to help protect global food supplies against the imminent threat of climate change, and strengthen future food security.

These wild plants contain essential traits that could be bred into crops to make them more hardy and versatile in the face of dramatically different climates expected in the coming years.

Necessity to develop a new system of food production: urban biofarming (City Farmer News / SciDev)

Read at :

http://www.cityfarmer.info/2010/12/05/farming-in-cities-could-help-feed-the-world/

Farming in cities could help feed the world

Linked by Michael Levenston

With traditional food production under threat from climate change, we should switch from agriculture to cell culture, says Lucía Atehortúa.

Lucía Atehortúa
Science and Development Network
2 December 2010 |

Excerpt:

If climate change begins to limit the global production of food and energy crops, it will be necessary to develop a new system of food production.

Imagine agriculture in small spaces, using high-tech tools such as photo-bioreactors, generating clean products 24 hours a day, every day, regardless of external climatic factors. Imagine that this would be free of pathogens and agrochemicals, independent of the seasons, and with the possibility of growing genetically modified crops without interacting with the environment or affecting existing biodiversity.

This is ‘urban biofarming’, a kind of high-tech agriculture primarily developed for big cities.

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Hundreds of sweeping, multi-genome patents in a bid to control the world’s plant biomass (Food Freedom)

Read at :

http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/gene-giants-stockpile-patents-on-climate-ready-crops-in-bid-to-become-biomassters/

Gene Giants Stockpile Patents on ‘Climate-Ready’ Crops in Bid to Become ‘Biomassters’

By ETC Group

Nagoya, Japan — Under the guise of developing “climate-ready” crops, the world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations are filing hundreds of sweeping, multi-genome patents in a bid to control the world’s plant biomass, according to a report released by ETC Group today.

A handful of multinational corporations are pressuring governments to allow what could become the broadest and most dangerous patent claims in history, warns the group at the United Nations’ Convention on Biodiversity in Nagoya, Japan (18-29 October 2010).

“The Gene Giants are stockpiling patents that threaten to put a choke-hold on the world’s biomass and our future food supply,” warns Silvia Ribeiro of ETC Group. “The breadth of many patent claims on climate ready crop genes is staggering. In many cases, a single patent or patent application claims ownership of engineered gene sequences that could be deployed in virtually all major crops – as well as the processed food and feed products derived from them,” explains Ribeiro.

ETC Group identifies over 262 patent families, subsuming 1663 patent documents published worldwide (both applications and issued patents) that make specific claims on environmental stress tolerance in plants (such as drought, heat, flood, cold, salt tolerance). DuPont, Monsanto, BASF, Bayer, Syngenta and their biotech partners account for three-quarters (77%) of the patent families identified. Just three companies – DuPont, BASF, Monsanto – account for over two-thirds of the total. Public sector researchers hold only 10%.

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