Feeding Africa
The News Review:
- Feeding Africa
- Enjoy Apple Day in glorious locations. By Rae Spencer-Jones
- Eriksson’s sympathy for McClaren over inflated English expectation…
- Organic gardening: Seed-saving
- Solar race to start in Darwin on Sunday
- Fujitsu Joins the SMB Storage Parade
Feeding Africa
International Herald Tribune – Oct 19, 2007
Some studies estimate that agricultural production on the continent needs to increase more than fivefold between now and 2050 if Africa is to match global per capita mean consumption level. But while these record price rises pose serious threats to food security, they may well present an opportunity for African agriculture, which has suffered in the past from a constant erosion of agricultural commodity prices on world markets. With imported products becoming increasingly expensive, the price of home-grown African products will become more competitive. The continent's towns will have to look closer to local, national and regional markets for their supplies. Will Africa's rural areas be able to supply this growing demand? The African agriculture sector has a greater potential for development than any other of the world's farming systems. The continent possesses plentiful water resources, and, like Latin America, it has the added advantage of having substantial supplies of both land and labor. Since African agriculture is still very lightly mechanized, uses little fertilizer and suffers from seriously inadequate agronomic research, the scope for increasing productivity remains considerable.
Enjoy Apple Day in glorious locations. By Rae Spencer-Jones
Telegraph.co.uk – Oct 19, 2007
Open 1-5pm Sat & Sun, Oct 6-Oct 28. EcoTech Centre, Norfolk This heritage orchard was planted just eight years ago and has unusual varieties of apples, pears and plums as well as quince and medlar trees. The shop sells home-grown produce (01760 726100;.
Eriksson’s sympathy for McClaren over inflated English expectation…
Belfast Telegraph – Oct 19, 2007
"They didn’t deserve to lose – at least a draw," is his reading of Wednesday night. For some, the prospect of considering the arrival of Birmingham City, as Eriksson will tomorrow, might seem a bit tame. But not when your blend of foreign imports and home-grown talent is re-assembling after an international break which reduced one rather farcical City training session last week to three players and four coaches. "That’s a part of life," Eriksson said. So speaks a man deliberating not about England, but about whether his talismanic midfielder Elano should play against Birmingham, when he will only have arrived back this morning from Rio de Janeiro after scoring in Brazil’s 5-0 rout of Ecuador. So will England send McClaren on his way, just as they had Eriksson? Another awkward question. "I hope not," Eriksson said.
Organic gardening: Seed-saving
Telegraph.co.uk – Oct 19, 2007
So passing over seed catalogues and the luxury of their foil-packed products in favour of “home-grown” is a move in the right direction. This follows the tradition of thousands of years: gardeners and farmers have always saved and sown their own seed. And now that varieties of vegetables and flowers are disappearing at a terrifying rate, we need to learn seed-saving skills as never before. I have spent many hours poring over yellowing newspaper on the kitchen table, separating lettuce seed from chaff, tiny beetles and other detritus. It is highly satisfying and great fun.
Solar race to start in Darwin on Sunday
The Age – Oct 19, 2007
Three time winners Nuon Solar Team – which holds the race recordat 29 hours and 11 minutes – heads up the list of entries thisyear. The Dutch team is favoured to win again, but chasing it all theway to Adelaide will be the Victorian-based team from the AuroraVehicle Association. The home-grown success won the race in 1999 and then finishedsecond to Nuon in the last three events. Another old-hand to hit the road will be a vintage solar carnamed Christine, which came second in the inaugural 1987 race. She’ll be burning rubber alongside Trev, The University of SouthAustralia’s pint-sized two-seater. “Trev is taking part in this year’s WSC to see how he performsat speed over long distances, and to demonstrate how an attractive,practical and energy efficient vehicle can also be reliable,” saidPeter Pudney, a senior research fellow in the Centre for Industrialand Applied Mathematics.
Fujitsu Joins the SMB Storage Parade
eWeek – Oct 19, 2007
Fujitsu found that upfront costs, power consumption, high availability and flexibility are the most important IT concerns of SME’s that are struggling with tight budgets, Dave Egan, Fujitsu’s senior vice president of storage, told eWEEK. The basic Eternus 2000 features 2TB of storage and offers a fully redundant design, three-tiered