With traditional food production under threat from climate change, we should switch from agriculture to cell culture, says Lucía Atehortúa.
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.
Africa Can Be Food Self-sufficient
African nations can break dependence on food imports and produce enough to feed a growing population within a generation despite extra strains from climate change, a study said on Thursday.
Research into new crops resistant to heat, droughts or floods, better support for small-scale farmers and greater involvement by national leaders in setting policies in sectors from transport to education were needed, it said.
Coconut Uses and Benefits from Food to Building Materials
Investments in Philippine Farmers to Produce Milk Locally
Accelerated Soil Erosion Affects Crop Cultivation and Productivity
Although more than 99% of the world’s food comes from the soil, experts estimate that each year more than 10 million hectares of crop land are degraded or lost as rain and wind sweep away topsoil. An area big enough to feed Europe has been so severely degraded it cannot produce food, UN figures show.
Sago Palm Cultivation Environmental Benefits
If only Filipinos are aware of its multifarious uses, the unexploited sago (scientific name: Metroxylon sagu) has the potential to uplift economic and social conditions in the countryside, especially in the Visayas and Mindanao regions. Technologies to enhance the cultivation of the plant can lead to the development of the sago industry.
Water Shortage Threatens Food Security
Growing Pili as a Food and Resource Crop for Small Farmers
Bamboo's Versatility Good Food Source and Substitute for Timber
As trees are fast disappearing in various parts of the world and with the concern of environment growing, timber are getting scarce day by day. This is due to long period of time taken by even softwood to attain maturity. So, a substitute or if that is not possible, an alternative, has to be found. Bamboo is the answer for this.
Averting Narra's Threat of Extinction through Education and Reforestration
The Mindanao Baptist Rural Life Center (MBRLC) Foundation Inc. is campaigning for the mass production of narra to avert is extinction in the Philippine forests. With reforestation and education programmes, it believes the nitrogen-fixing tree which can grow to a height of 33 meters and a diameter of 2 meters, could easily be preserved.
Organic, Botanical Pesticides: Cheaper & Effective Pest Control
The Geneva-based World Health Organization reports three people are poisoned by pesticides every minute around the world.As a response to such health concerns, the use of botanical pesticides is now fast gaining wider acceptance among farmers. Botanical pesticides are derived from plants which have been shown to have insecticidal properties. The move from chemical to botanical pesticides is an important step in the search for a balanced, self-regulating agricultural system.
Rice Hull Reduces Fossil-based Fuels and Energy Cost
Sloping Agriculture Land Technology Solves Soil Erosion Issues
Erosion is the most pervasive form of soil degradation.Davao-based MBRLC developed the Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT), a system patterned after the famous Philippine rice terraces of Banaue. Unlike the famous rice terraces, which use physical barriers and contour ditches, SALT uses live hedgerows like Leucaena leucocephala, Flemingia macrophylla, Desmodium rensonii, Gliricidia sepium, and Indigofera anil.
All these help enrich soil and aid neighboring plants because of its foliage rivals manure in nitrogen content.The technology is simple. The hedgerows are planted in very dense double rows to serve as erosion barriers.
Rate of Deforestation in Philippines Erodes Topsoil, Kills Wildlife
While there is a drop in the rate of deforestation in the Philippines the principal causes of still remain: logging, conversion to agricultural lands and human settlements. The reduced rate is not an increase in real forest cover but merely an increase in the number of trees. Such is the bleak scenario facing the country,