Pneumococcal vaccine works even in HIV patients
Trials of a vaccine against the most common cause of pneumonia and meningitis — both leading causes of death in HIV sufferers in Africa — have proved so successful that scientists say it could be a major breakthrough in combating the diseases.
The new vaccine protects against Streptococcus pneumoniae which causes pneumonia and, when it invades the bloodstream and brain, causes septicaemia and meningitis.
Adults in the United Kingdom and the United States are given a polysaccharide vaccine but, because it does not work well in HIV-infected adults, it is not recommended in Africa.
The new conjugate vaccine was tested using nearly 500 HIV-infected adults who had recovered from a bout of pneumococcal disease. Three quarters of the patients remained free from the disease, according to the researchers at the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme, based at the University of Malawi College of Medicine.
The vaccine worked even when the number of CD4 cells in a patient's blood — an indicator of immune strength — was less than 200, the level that indicates AIDS.
Unlike the polysaccharide vaccine the new conjugate vaccine contains a protein that helps the body’s immune system recognise the pneumococcus bacteria, said Neil French, of the Liverpool School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in the United Kingdom, lead author of the study.
"The general view on the use of any vaccine in HIV is that low CD4 counts make the vaccine useless. We've shown that conjugate technology overcomes the profound immune deficiency at these low counts. This gives hope for the possible use of conjugate technology in other vaccines targeting important HIV associated bacterial infections, most notably non-typhoidal Salmonella," he said.
"If conjugate vaccines are found to confer protection against invasive pneumococcal disease, this will be a major breakthrough, to reduce the morbidity and mortality of HIV infected persons from pneumococcal disease," said French.
Jeremiah Chakaya, a chest specialist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute welcomed the vaccine but said it will only be a breakthrough when the price — US$40 — is brought down.
"If the cost of the conjugate vaccine is about US$40 per dose, then it is going to be very difficult for most African governments to purchase it, and even if they do, then the people who need it will have to buy it at a very high price. This would make the vaccine a preserve of the few rich people in the countries."
http://www.scidev.net/
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WEST AFRICA: Rice versus vegetables
Rice may still be a symbol of food security across Africa, [http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88564] but the cereal does little to boost nutrition, unlike vegetables, according to the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).
Vegetables should have their place in the fields and at the table alongside cereals commonly grown in arid countries, vegetable breeding expert Sanjeet Kumar with ICRISAT and the Taiwan-based AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (formerly known as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) told IRIN.
"While rice and other cereals can cut hunger, vegetables bolster nutritional security and take up less land to grow."
"Rice is a poor source of essential vitamins and minerals, either because these compounds are not present in rice, especially when it is polished [white], or they cannot be absorbed by humans," UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) nutrition specialist Roland Kupka told IRIN. "Diets that are primarily based on polished rice may thus lead to deficiencies in iron, zinc, vitamin A, and thiamine [B1] deficiency, which in turn impair growth, immunity, and mental development among children."
Mineral and vitamin-packed foods include fruit, vegetables and animal products like eggs or fish, said Kupka.
UNICEF estimates 40 percent of under-five children in the arid Sahel are chronically malnourished because they lack the vitamins and minerals needed to bolster their immune systems and mental skills. Another estimated 300,000 die every year from malnutrition.
While health workers may have scales, armbands and yardsticks to measure acute malnutrition (when children are underweight for their height), they are less likely to have microscopes to analyse blood work to measure micronutrient deficiencies.
When asked whether rice overshadows more nutritious agriculture sectors, the director of Africa Rice Centre, Papa Abdoulaye Seck, told IRIN that rice cultivation can subsidize these other crops.
"Rice is a strategic commodity. We can do business with rice. Imagine if the US$2 billion dollars [2006 estimate] that Africa spends on rice imports every year were reinvested in the agricultural sector - do you think Africa would now have 265 million starving people?" asked Seck, referring to an estimate from UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Seck said farmers in Africa have a comparative advantage in growing rice. "We want to develop rice instead of [only] vegetable gardening, because Asia, the largest producer of rice, will not be able to continue doing so. In Asia, there is arable land, but less water. While in Africa, we have enormous potential."
FAO estimates farmers use 17 percent of cultivable land in Africa, which leaves some 126 million hectares to plant, he said.
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Thursday, April 1, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Nigeria offers farmland to Gulf investors
Nigeria is offering to lease farmland to Gulf countries seeking food security and will allow investors to export all of their produce, the head of a private Nigerian agriculture consultancy firm said.
Gulf countries reliant on food imports have intensified efforts over the last year to buy land in developing nations ranging from Pakistan to the Sudan and Ethiopia.
"Nigeria has the terrain to provide 100 percent of the Gulf's food needs," Enbong Jimie Idiong, chief executive of Global Corp, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference in Dubai.
Global Corp is working as a consultant to the Nigerian government on ways to develop the agriculture sector, Idiong said.
Nigeria has around 71.2 million hectares of farmland, of which less that 50 percent is being used, according to data from the firm.
"We need investment to fully utilise this land and we will allow the investors to export back 100 percent of the crop and this will create employment opportunities for people in Nigeria," said Idiong.
The land could be leased for up to 30 to 40 years at a cost of around $10,000 per hectare for that period, he said.
"Because of the large size of land we can offer investors as much as they want, and there is no particular kind of crop that can't be grown in Nigeria."
For years Nigeria relied on oil production to fuel its growth, and paid little attention diversification, said Idiong.
"The oil is a curse, and all of these large oil companies are causing a lot of pollution and I think for our generation this is a time we need to pay more attention to developing agriculture."
Asked what type of guarantees could be presented to investors, a common concern for Gulf nations when considering investments in Africa, Idiong said the government would back any deals.
"Before you step in to invest one penny you will have a sovereign guarantee from the government," he said. Developing countries all over the world have been competing to attract foreign investors seeking food security to buy or lease land under attractive terms.
Last May, Pakistan offered investors 6 million acres of farmland to lease under long term agreements, but will require outsiders to share half of their crop with local growers.
So far Nigeria has not signed any deals with Gulf nations to lease farmland. "Regrettably this has to do with the attitude of our officials who are not proactive, I don't understand why Saudi and the UAE have gone to places like Pakistan and Sudan where climate and political conditions are less stable," said Idiong.
"We are just not marketing ourselves enough."
Foreign investors have acquired some 15-20 million hectares of farmland in poorer countries since 2006, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quality Underlined As World Takes Stock Of Water, Sanitation
Global attention was once again on water as stakeholders last week underlined the need to improve the quality of the vital resource.
Courtesy of the United Nations General Assembly-designated World Water Day (WWD), the world on Monday explored issues related to water quality challenges and solutions. WWD 2010, the 17th in the series, had “Clean water for a healthy world” as its theme, apparently calling attention to a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that seeks to halve the proportion of those without access to safe drinking water and sanitation in five years’ time.
The main celebrations of the WWD 2010, jointly hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) and the Government of Kenya, held at the UNEP/UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi.
To illustrate the importance of water quality for ecosystem functioning, human wellbeing and livelihoods, the three-day event featured a panel discussion on “Water quality challenges and responses” as well as site visits to Lake Victoria, Kibera/Nairobi River and the Kenyan Coast.
http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=11035
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Targeted fertiliser can double banana yield
The weight of a banana crop can soar by up to 100 per cent when moderate amounts of specific inorganic fertilisers are applied, scientists in Uganda have shown.
Some 70 million people across Africa rely on bananas for food or income, but less than five per cent of banana farmers use any fertiliser, according to Piet van Asten, a system agronomist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Uganda, who conducted the study with Lydia Wairegi, a PhD student at Uganda's Makerere University.
They set up experiments with 200 banana fields in central and southwestern Uganda.
Analysing banana leaves allowed them to assess nutrient deficiencies and then apply specific fertiliser that would supply only those nutrients.
Even a modest application of a fertiliser doubled the yields from 10 to 20 tonnes per hectare per year in some areas in the study.
http://www.scidev.net/
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"Large" Rift Valley Fever outbreak in South Africa
An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF), described as "large" by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), has claimed the lives of two people and poses a significant threat to livelihoods in major farming areas.
"It is difficult to provide a comparison of this outbreak with previous ones, as it is ongoing - at the moment it is a large and significant outbreak," said Prof Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the NICD. Neighbouring Namibia has reportedly banned live animals and meat products from South Africa.
The livestock industry is the biggest agricultural sector and contributes up to 49 percent of agricultural output. "South Africa generally produces 85 percent of its meat requirements, while the remaining 15 percent is imported from Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Australia, New Zealand and Europe," the government's information website said.
RVF is a contagious viral infection transmitted to humans mainly by direct or indirect contact with the blood or organs of infected animals, especially domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and camels. The disease has been confirmed in seven of South Africa's nine provinces, and has infected 60 people.
Among animals the RVF virus is spread primarily by the bite of infected mosquitoes, mainly the Aedes species, which can acquire the virus from feeding on infected animals, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy summer rain over large parts of South Africa in the past few months has created good conditions for the RVF virus to thrive. "We are hoping for some cold weather," Blumberg said.
"There is no evidence of mosquito-transmitted human infection to date", the NICD said in a communiqué, and most human infections were the result of direct contact with infected animal tissue or fluids.
The last major outbreak of RVF in South Africa - 10,000 to 20,000 human cases - took place between 1974 and 1976 during prolonged heavy rains, according to the NICD. Small sporadic outbreaks have been recorded since then.
IRIN
Nigeria is offering to lease farmland to Gulf countries seeking food security and will allow investors to export all of their produce, the head of a private Nigerian agriculture consultancy firm said.
Gulf countries reliant on food imports have intensified efforts over the last year to buy land in developing nations ranging from Pakistan to the Sudan and Ethiopia.
"Nigeria has the terrain to provide 100 percent of the Gulf's food needs," Enbong Jimie Idiong, chief executive of Global Corp, told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of an industry conference in Dubai.
Global Corp is working as a consultant to the Nigerian government on ways to develop the agriculture sector, Idiong said.
Nigeria has around 71.2 million hectares of farmland, of which less that 50 percent is being used, according to data from the firm.
"We need investment to fully utilise this land and we will allow the investors to export back 100 percent of the crop and this will create employment opportunities for people in Nigeria," said Idiong.
The land could be leased for up to 30 to 40 years at a cost of around $10,000 per hectare for that period, he said.
"Because of the large size of land we can offer investors as much as they want, and there is no particular kind of crop that can't be grown in Nigeria."
For years Nigeria relied on oil production to fuel its growth, and paid little attention diversification, said Idiong.
"The oil is a curse, and all of these large oil companies are causing a lot of pollution and I think for our generation this is a time we need to pay more attention to developing agriculture."
Asked what type of guarantees could be presented to investors, a common concern for Gulf nations when considering investments in Africa, Idiong said the government would back any deals.
"Before you step in to invest one penny you will have a sovereign guarantee from the government," he said. Developing countries all over the world have been competing to attract foreign investors seeking food security to buy or lease land under attractive terms.
Last May, Pakistan offered investors 6 million acres of farmland to lease under long term agreements, but will require outsiders to share half of their crop with local growers.
So far Nigeria has not signed any deals with Gulf nations to lease farmland. "Regrettably this has to do with the attitude of our officials who are not proactive, I don't understand why Saudi and the UAE have gone to places like Pakistan and Sudan where climate and political conditions are less stable," said Idiong.
"We are just not marketing ourselves enough."
Foreign investors have acquired some 15-20 million hectares of farmland in poorer countries since 2006, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quality Underlined As World Takes Stock Of Water, Sanitation
Global attention was once again on water as stakeholders last week underlined the need to improve the quality of the vital resource.
Courtesy of the United Nations General Assembly-designated World Water Day (WWD), the world on Monday explored issues related to water quality challenges and solutions. WWD 2010, the 17th in the series, had “Clean water for a healthy world” as its theme, apparently calling attention to a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) that seeks to halve the proportion of those without access to safe drinking water and sanitation in five years’ time.
The main celebrations of the WWD 2010, jointly hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board on Water and Sanitation (UNSGAB) and the Government of Kenya, held at the UNEP/UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi.
To illustrate the importance of water quality for ecosystem functioning, human wellbeing and livelihoods, the three-day event featured a panel discussion on “Water quality challenges and responses” as well as site visits to Lake Victoria, Kibera/Nairobi River and the Kenyan Coast.
http://www.independentngonline.com/DailyIndependent/Article.aspx?id=11035
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Targeted fertiliser can double banana yield
The weight of a banana crop can soar by up to 100 per cent when moderate amounts of specific inorganic fertilisers are applied, scientists in Uganda have shown.
Some 70 million people across Africa rely on bananas for food or income, but less than five per cent of banana farmers use any fertiliser, according to Piet van Asten, a system agronomist at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), in Uganda, who conducted the study with Lydia Wairegi, a PhD student at Uganda's Makerere University.
They set up experiments with 200 banana fields in central and southwestern Uganda.
Analysing banana leaves allowed them to assess nutrient deficiencies and then apply specific fertiliser that would supply only those nutrients.
Even a modest application of a fertiliser doubled the yields from 10 to 20 tonnes per hectare per year in some areas in the study.
http://www.scidev.net/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Large" Rift Valley Fever outbreak in South Africa
An outbreak of Rift Valley Fever (RVF), described as "large" by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), has claimed the lives of two people and poses a significant threat to livelihoods in major farming areas.
"It is difficult to provide a comparison of this outbreak with previous ones, as it is ongoing - at the moment it is a large and significant outbreak," said Prof Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the NICD. Neighbouring Namibia has reportedly banned live animals and meat products from South Africa.
The livestock industry is the biggest agricultural sector and contributes up to 49 percent of agricultural output. "South Africa generally produces 85 percent of its meat requirements, while the remaining 15 percent is imported from Namibia, Botswana, Swaziland, Australia, New Zealand and Europe," the government's information website said.
RVF is a contagious viral infection transmitted to humans mainly by direct or indirect contact with the blood or organs of infected animals, especially domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats and camels. The disease has been confirmed in seven of South Africa's nine provinces, and has infected 60 people.
Among animals the RVF virus is spread primarily by the bite of infected mosquitoes, mainly the Aedes species, which can acquire the virus from feeding on infected animals, according to the World Health Organization.
Heavy summer rain over large parts of South Africa in the past few months has created good conditions for the RVF virus to thrive. "We are hoping for some cold weather," Blumberg said.
"There is no evidence of mosquito-transmitted human infection to date", the NICD said in a communiqué, and most human infections were the result of direct contact with infected animal tissue or fluids.
The last major outbreak of RVF in South Africa - 10,000 to 20,000 human cases - took place between 1974 and 1976 during prolonged heavy rains, according to the NICD. Small sporadic outbreaks have been recorded since then.
IRIN
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Nigeria: Climate Change - Ijaw Alleges Threat to Lives
THE Ijaw Monitoring Group has said the sudden change in the weather condition across the country has led to strange diseases in the Niger Delta, causing untold hardship and claiming lives of hundreds of residents in the region
In a statement signed by Comrade Andrew Elijah, Chief of Staff to the Coordinator of IMG, the group lamented that both the Federal Government and the governors of Niger Delta were not showing serious concern about the loss of lives in various hospitals, clinics, traditional healing homes and health centres because of lack of knowledge of the strange weather condition by health workers.
The group further said: "Since the manifestation of changes in climate, the IMG has sent field workers to Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Edo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Ondo states to monitor health centres and the results received from our men on the field showed that an average of 200 persons across the region died of lungs, kidney and other related problems ," adding that doctors and health workers in the area were not experienced enough to handle emergencies of the moment.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/
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Mozambique: Drought and Floods Bring Food Shortages
Extensive flooding along the rivers of central and southern Mozambique during March, in tandem with persistent drought in other parts of the same areas, have left 465,000 people in need of food assistance, but aid agencies warn that they do not have the resources to help.
"We have a very big problem now," said Lola Castro, Country Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), who told IRIN that her organization could assist only around 175,000 and that by "the end of April the [WFP] pipeline will have dried up".
In contrast, the latest food security outlook for Mozambique, released by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network on 26 March, noted that "456,000 people will need food assistance from April 2010 to March 2011".
In February the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that in the centre and south of the country 605,000 hectares of planted land were lost to drought - equivalent to 30 percent of the total land planted in the affected areas - representing a national loss of 13 percent of maize and 11 percent of cereal production
IRIN
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poor internet links mar Africa's satellite data access
A landmark decision to allow free access to key earth observation data has failed to impact Africa sufficiently because of poor internet connections, say researchers.
The US Geological Survey took the decision to allow free access to Landsat Earth observation satellite data in January 2008 – a deal that opened up nearly 40 years of images, or 'scenes'. The data can be used to monitor changes to the land, such as the effects of climate change on crops, or urbanisation.
But a review of Africa's uptake of the data, published online as a letter to Remote Sensing Letters last month (23 February), has found the lack of internet connectivity between the United States and Africa to be a "fundamental and serious" obstacle.
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/poor-internet-links-mar-africa-s-satellite-data-access.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE Ijaw Monitoring Group has said the sudden change in the weather condition across the country has led to strange diseases in the Niger Delta, causing untold hardship and claiming lives of hundreds of residents in the region
In a statement signed by Comrade Andrew Elijah, Chief of Staff to the Coordinator of IMG, the group lamented that both the Federal Government and the governors of Niger Delta were not showing serious concern about the loss of lives in various hospitals, clinics, traditional healing homes and health centres because of lack of knowledge of the strange weather condition by health workers.
The group further said: "Since the manifestation of changes in climate, the IMG has sent field workers to Bayelsa, Delta, Rivers, Edo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom and Ondo states to monitor health centres and the results received from our men on the field showed that an average of 200 persons across the region died of lungs, kidney and other related problems ," adding that doctors and health workers in the area were not experienced enough to handle emergencies of the moment.
http://www.vanguardngr.com/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mozambique: Drought and Floods Bring Food Shortages
Extensive flooding along the rivers of central and southern Mozambique during March, in tandem with persistent drought in other parts of the same areas, have left 465,000 people in need of food assistance, but aid agencies warn that they do not have the resources to help.
"We have a very big problem now," said Lola Castro, Country Director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), who told IRIN that her organization could assist only around 175,000 and that by "the end of April the [WFP] pipeline will have dried up".
In contrast, the latest food security outlook for Mozambique, released by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network on 26 March, noted that "456,000 people will need food assistance from April 2010 to March 2011".
In February the Ministry of Agriculture estimated that in the centre and south of the country 605,000 hectares of planted land were lost to drought - equivalent to 30 percent of the total land planted in the affected areas - representing a national loss of 13 percent of maize and 11 percent of cereal production
IRIN
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poor internet links mar Africa's satellite data access
A landmark decision to allow free access to key earth observation data has failed to impact Africa sufficiently because of poor internet connections, say researchers.
The US Geological Survey took the decision to allow free access to Landsat Earth observation satellite data in January 2008 – a deal that opened up nearly 40 years of images, or 'scenes'. The data can be used to monitor changes to the land, such as the effects of climate change on crops, or urbanisation.
But a review of Africa's uptake of the data, published online as a letter to Remote Sensing Letters last month (23 February), has found the lack of internet connectivity between the United States and Africa to be a "fundamental and serious" obstacle.
http://www.scidev.net/en/news/poor-internet-links-mar-africa-s-satellite-data-access.html
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Friday, March 26, 2010
Scientists get closer to developing tools that will fast track cowpea breeding
Scientists at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Ibadan and partners in the Netherlands and the United States of America are a step closer to developing approaches/tools, through genome mapping, that will facilitate progress in the conventional development of improved cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L) varieties with traits such as drought-tolerance.
An IITA Lukas Brader Postgraduate Fellow, Eugene Agbicodo, who carried out the genetic analysis of drought-tolerance in cowpea and subsequently constructed a linkage map of the crop, identified portions on the cowpea genome where genes that have effects on drought-tolerance and resistance to bacterial blight could be located.
His findings have been hailed by breeders as part of landmarks for marker assisted selection in cowpea breeding.
A similar work was reported by researchers at the University of California , Riverside and researchers at the two institutions are comparing notes on the outcomes of their research to see areas of agreement, according to Christian Fatokun, Cowpea Breeder, who supervised the work at IITA.
“If both parties are able to find areas of agreement or concurrence, such areas of the genome would be of immense benefit when marker assisted selection is to be applied in cowpea breeding. So what will take about 10 years to accomplish could be done in three years or even less,” he said.
With about 70 per cent of world cowpea grown in the savannah region of Africa , the protein-rich legume provides not only incomes but also improves the health of its consumers. However, cowpea faces several production constraints among which are diseases, insect pests, parasitic weeds such as Striga, and drought which is becoming increasingly important in the cowpea producing zones of sub-Saharan Africa .
Agbicodo phenotyped and genotyped a set of cowpea recombinant inbred lines generated at IITA, Ibadan . Phenotyping was carried out in Ibadan and Kano while the genotyping was carried out at the University of Wageningen , The Netherlands.
Consequently, he constructed a cowpea genetic linkage map using the data obtained from genotyping and phenotyping. The linkage map showed molecular markers that defined quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with effects on drought-tolerance and resistance to bacterial blight among others.
The Lukas Brader Fellow will between 27 September and 1 October 2010 present his work at the 5th World Cowpea Research Conference holding in Dakar , Senegal .
Fatokun described the work as a milestone as scientists seek ways to fast track cowpea improvement.
According to him, he feels happy that technologies to quicken plant breeding are being developed.
An IITA Lukas Brader Postgraduate Fellow, Eugene Agbicodo, who carried out the genetic analysis of drought-tolerance in cowpea and subsequently constructed a linkage map of the crop, identified portions on the cowpea genome where genes that have effects on drought-tolerance and resistance to bacterial blight could be located.
His findings have been hailed by breeders as part of landmarks for marker assisted selection in cowpea breeding.
A similar work was reported by researchers at the University of California , Riverside and researchers at the two institutions are comparing notes on the outcomes of their research to see areas of agreement, according to Christian Fatokun, Cowpea Breeder, who supervised the work at IITA.
“If both parties are able to find areas of agreement or concurrence, such areas of the genome would be of immense benefit when marker assisted selection is to be applied in cowpea breeding. So what will take about 10 years to accomplish could be done in three years or even less,” he said.
With about 70 per cent of world cowpea grown in the savannah region of Africa , the protein-rich legume provides not only incomes but also improves the health of its consumers. However, cowpea faces several production constraints among which are diseases, insect pests, parasitic weeds such as Striga, and drought which is becoming increasingly important in the cowpea producing zones of sub-Saharan Africa .
Agbicodo phenotyped and genotyped a set of cowpea recombinant inbred lines generated at IITA, Ibadan . Phenotyping was carried out in Ibadan and Kano while the genotyping was carried out at the University of Wageningen , The Netherlands.
Consequently, he constructed a cowpea genetic linkage map using the data obtained from genotyping and phenotyping. The linkage map showed molecular markers that defined quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with effects on drought-tolerance and resistance to bacterial blight among others.
The Lukas Brader Fellow will between 27 September and 1 October 2010 present his work at the 5th World Cowpea Research Conference holding in Dakar , Senegal .
Fatokun described the work as a milestone as scientists seek ways to fast track cowpea improvement.
According to him, he feels happy that technologies to quicken plant breeding are being developed.
Tit bits
UGANDA
Suspected Ugandan smallpox likely chickenpox
Suspected cases of the previously eradicated disease smallpox in eastern Uganda appear to be chickenpox and not the acute contagious disease, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.
"It appears that the supposed cases of smallpox are actually cases of chickenpox, and that they have occurred over the past three weeks — this is not an acute event," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in a statement. "WHO has communicated this latest information to its member states."
The WHO said earlier on Thursday it was investigating reports of suspected cases of smallpox in eastern Uganda.
Smallpox can sometimes be confused with chickenpox, a worldwide infection of children that is very rarely dangerous.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36031200/ns/health-infectious_diseases/
......................................................................................................................................................................
GHANA
Smuggling hits Ghana cocoa as Nigeria's output rises
An increase in smuggling will shave about 1.4 per cent off Ghana's official cocoa purchases this season, the head of the country's marketing body, Cocobod, said on Wednesday.
The outlook in the world's second-biggest grower comes as official output figures in neighbouring No. 1 grower Cote d'Ivoire trickle along at near par with last season - the worst in at least five years.
"There is a lot of smuggling from Ghana to neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire and Togo," Cocobod Chief Executive Tony Fofie told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE62N0DM20100324
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NIGERIA
UN chief allays fear of acid rain in Nigeria
A United Nations space chief, Mr. Takao Doi, has allayed fears of acid rain accompanying the current harmattan haze accross the country.
Doi, a Chief Space Applications Officer at the UN Office for Outer Space, spoke at the Third Governing Board Meeting of the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education held in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, the hazy weather is a natural occurrence resulting from climate change. The UN chief said this would not lead to acid rain, as had been speculated.
A text message circulating through mobile networks had warned that there could be acid rain in the country between March 20 and 28.
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201003243422921
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Suspected Ugandan smallpox likely chickenpox
Suspected cases of the previously eradicated disease smallpox in eastern Uganda appear to be chickenpox and not the acute contagious disease, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday.
"It appears that the supposed cases of smallpox are actually cases of chickenpox, and that they have occurred over the past three weeks — this is not an acute event," WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in a statement. "WHO has communicated this latest information to its member states."
The WHO said earlier on Thursday it was investigating reports of suspected cases of smallpox in eastern Uganda.
Smallpox can sometimes be confused with chickenpox, a worldwide infection of children that is very rarely dangerous.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36031200/ns/health-infectious_diseases/
......................................................................................................................................................................
GHANA
Smuggling hits Ghana cocoa as Nigeria's output rises
An increase in smuggling will shave about 1.4 per cent off Ghana's official cocoa purchases this season, the head of the country's marketing body, Cocobod, said on Wednesday.
The outlook in the world's second-biggest grower comes as official output figures in neighbouring No. 1 grower Cote d'Ivoire trickle along at near par with last season - the worst in at least five years.
"There is a lot of smuggling from Ghana to neighbouring Cote d'Ivoire and Togo," Cocobod Chief Executive Tony Fofie told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry conference.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE62N0DM20100324
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NIGERIA
UN chief allays fear of acid rain in Nigeria
A United Nations space chief, Mr. Takao Doi, has allayed fears of acid rain accompanying the current harmattan haze accross the country.
Doi, a Chief Space Applications Officer at the UN Office for Outer Space, spoke at the Third Governing Board Meeting of the African Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education held in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to him, the hazy weather is a natural occurrence resulting from climate change. The UN chief said this would not lead to acid rain, as had been speculated.
A text message circulating through mobile networks had warned that there could be acid rain in the country between March 20 and 28.
http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art201003243422921
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