Teff  and biopiracy are two words that are now pairing side by side in modern agricultural terms. The reason is that teff (also tef), the ancient Ethiopian grain, has undergone various commercialization changes without appropriate authorization. There are now many crosses of teff, and it is hard to differentiate between the indigenous grain from the upstarts. Genetic improvement of teff has...

The Doha International Horticultural Expo in Qatar began its nearly 6-month run on October 2, 2023. Event organizers predict the attendance of 3 million people from across the globe before the March 28, 2024 ending date. The Expo is taking place at Al Bidda Park, a vast ground on the Arabian Gulf that covers 1.7 million square meters. The park’s attractive botanical farm will also bring...

Japan’s mackerel season is yet to start on two key contested islands. Russia holds the Kunashiri island, a source of horse mackerel and Habomai, a source of octopus. Each year, the two countries engage bilaterally on fishermen safety on the islands, but this year Russia ignored the talks. The annual launch of the lucrative mackerel season on Kunashiri, which was to...

Out of a competitive sweet potato year, the United States is back in the black as North Carolina’s sweet potato harvest begins. North Carolina sweet potato farmers are digging up the crop in slow spurts due to boggy conditions. In the wake of a very hot summer, chilly weather and rains have set in this fall and made harvesting hard but promising....

US President Joe Biden responded to a climate agitator by telling him to keep quiet during an interruption to his speech in Arizona. The president was commemorating the late Republican senator, John McCain, who died in August, 2018. Biden told the heckler to ‘shush up,’ a term that news media, including the BBC, has picked up as a pun. The president...

The ripe jujube fruits in Zhuji’s jujube forest in Shadong Province of China look showy, scarlet and inviting this September. So consecrated by the local cultures have jujube forests become, that the government has enshrined them as agricultural tourism sites. And it is not just the fruits that bring prosperity to the hamlets. Rather, picturesque oriental design houses tower over the fruit trees....

Agricultural economists in the U.S. have billed beef cattle prices as performing positively of all commodities in a shrinking agricultural economy, popular as Ag economy.  In a survey led by the University of Missouri, Ag economists concluded that beef cattle prices would be the highest in 2024 while those for dairy would be the lowest. The bullish price outlook for beef cattle over dairy cattle...

Portugal has been eyeing the growing pear market in Thailand and is now negotiating a potentially lucrative export deal. The Directorate General for Food and Veterinary (DGAV) reported on September 25, 2023 that a delegation from Bangkok toured pear orchards in Western Portugal for four days and negotiations on an export deal is now underway. During the tour, the official Thai delegation...

Scientists in Uganda have developed a new fish smoking kiln for fish preservation. The kit will potentially save hundreds of fish farmers from cancer-related traditional smoking methods. Women, who are at the heart of smoked fish business in the East African country, will now get off inadequate local ovens and switch over to the new factory level kilns. Unlike its 1970s cement predecessor,...

Long, scaly, heavy and youthful-looking she may look, but new DNA results show that Methuselah is a century old (±9). The lungfish which lives in Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, could be the oldest living fish in any pond, globally.  In spite of her unique longevity status, Methuselah still shows no signs of age. DNA evidence makes her the oldest among 231 lungfish from Fiji and Queensland,...