Nepali farm develops disease, heat resistant tomato
Kathmandu, Nepal (AHN) – A Nepali farm specializing in producing organic vegetables has exclusively developed nine varieties of tomatoes it says are easily tolerant to disease and heat.
The tomatoes, named Srijana (“creation”), will be available in local markets of Kathmandu within a year, according to the proprietor, Bishnu Marahatta.
The owner of Gorkha Seed Company has been cultivating other vegetables in which he hopes to develop varieties with similar resistances. The research has taken place on a four-acre farm in Kathmandu. “The varieties we have developed are bacteria-resistant and withstand hot climate,” he added. “We will soon name those varieties.”
The farm has been extensively engaged in research for four years and has been producing and selling organic vegetables in the city’s markets, although not yet in commercial quantities.
“Now we have been also conducting research on new varieties of green-bow radish, Jyapu cauliflower and cucumber which are yielding encouraging results,” he claimed.
The farm also been able to increase the production capacity of each tomato plant, which could set a record. The new varieties can yield 30 kg per plant. The research is currently being undertaken at plots in Nakkhu of Lalitpur, in the Kathmandu Valley.
Typically, farmers growing the new varieties can easily produce at least 10 kg per plant even under adverse climatic conditions, with each tomato weighing up to 80 grams. Even if the temperature is as high as 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), they can be easily grown, a senior scientist at the company, Dr. Kedar Budhathoki, recently told the BBC.
“We are planning to export seeds of these varieties to India and Bangladesh where the climate is hot and the possibility of bacteria attack is high,” the owner, Marahatta, said. Seeds of hybrid tomatoes are selling for Rs 80,000 (US $1,200) to Rs 90,000 ( US $,350) per kilogram in the domestic market.
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Red-Berry Day in Gaza, as Farm Products Leave for Europe
Gaza, Palestinian Territory (TML) – Um Hajjar Al-Ghalayini, 46 years old, owns half an acre of sandy Gaza land that produces two tons of strawberries every season. Since her husband died two years ago, the crop is the sole means of support for her nine children, mother-in-law and widowed sister, so every one of the bright red berries counts.
Last year, she had no choice but to sell her produce to the local market. That filled the Gaza markets with fruits and vegetables to the benefit of consumers, but for growers like Um Hajjar it was a disaster. Her earnings dropped by more than half and the family had a tough year economically. This week, as Israel took another step in easing its economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, Um Hajjar delivered her strawberries to the Kerem Shalom checkpoint on the Israel-Gaza border, their first leg of a journey to the more profitable markets in Europe.
“Now I can say that things are getting back to normal, if not on the right track,” she told The Media Line.
Exports of strawberries and flowers from the Gaza Strip to European markets began on Sunday, as part of a wide-ranging project coordinated by the Israeli army and local farmers and funded by the Dutch government. The current undertaking involves some 2.5 tons of strawberries and some 2,000 flowers, but Israel plans expanded facilities at Kerem Shalom and stepped-up security measures that will enable exports to grow more next year.
All told, about 700 tons of strawberries and 30 million carnations will be exported from Gaza by the time the season ends – in February for strawberries and May for flowers — Yousef Shaath, the project manager of the Dutch-funded Agricultural Relief Committee in Gaza, told The Media Line.
Strawberries are just one part of a gradual easing of the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza, a Mediterranean enclave of just 360 square kilometers (138 square miles), in 2007 after the Islamic militant group Hamas seized control. Israel used the siege to pressure Hamas, which unlike the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) that rules in the West Bank, is sworn to Israel’s destruction and rejects peace talks.
While Israel and Hamas are still at loggerheads, Jerusalem has loosened some aspects of the blockade since nine people were killed last May when commandoes raided a ship trying to break the siege. As a result, Gaza’s economy will probably grow 8% this year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
While human rights advocates have focused on the pain caused by Israel’s blocking most imports, Gaza’s tiny economy has suffered by the ban on nearly all exports as well. According to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, Gaza’s exports plunged from $41 million in 2005 to $30,000 in 2006 and $20,000 in 2007. In 2008, virtually nothing left the Strip.
The business of export agricultural produce is fraught with politics, business and security issues. Before the first strawberries and carnations could be trucked into Israel, representatives of the Gazan agricultural associations met last week with an Israeli agriculture coordinator, a representative of the Israeli farm-export company Agrexco and the deputy ambassador of the Netherlands in Tel Aviv at the Erez crossing point between Gaza and Israel last week.
That is because the produce has a long and complicated route to get from fields like Um Hajjar and into a French housewife’s strawberry shortcake.
Hamas as the de facto ruler of Gaza had to approve the exports, but because Israel and the European Union don’t recognize the Islamic organization as the official government, representatives of the PA had to act as intermediaries. Indeed, at Kerem Shalom the PA will have an official presence as the produce moves over the border to Israel.
Israel will also need to deploy scanning machines that can x-ray cargo containers and ensure that terrorists or arms aren’t being smuggled out of Gaza. Israel has been wary about letting goods leave Gaza after two Palestinian teenagers infiltrated the Israeli port of Ashdod in 2004 by hiding in a shipping container. They blew themselves up, killing 10 people.
But Israel’s security needs have to be measured against the need for perishable produce and flowers to reach their final destination in Amsterdam and other points in Europe. Last year, Gaza suffered big losses when Israel delayed export permission by two months.
As well, farmers, in particular flower growers, need a host of inputs as well as packaging materials, which require Israeli approval to be imported.
The exports underway these days, however, aren’t enough for Gaza farmers, who form a major component of the Strip’s economy. About 900 acres is devoted to growing strawberries, which will yield a harvest of 1,000 tons, about 40% more than the current export quota. Gazans grow a cornucopia of other fruits and vegetables as well. Their natural market is Israel or the West Bank, but so far Israel has barred sales to those markets. Shaath said this is unfair as Israel now exports some $3400 million of produce to Palestinian areas and under the Oslo peace accord should accept Palestinian imports in return.
Nevertheless, Shaath is sanguine about next year’s export prospects. Gaza crops tend to mature earlier than competing ones, so that if the complicated chain of political and security arrangements can be preserved and developed, the Strip’s farmers will be the first on the market.
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Irish Corporate Depositors Withdraw Money
Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Despite the agreed $105 billion (70 billion pounds) bailout for Ireland, trouble continues to hound Dublin as corporate depositors panicked and withdrew their savings.
The Irish Central Bank admitted Tuesday that major international firms had been withdrawing their deposits from Ireland, which worsened the anxious mood of the market.
The chief investment officer of a major bond manager described Irish banks as bleeding deposits, recalling it was the same phenomenon that happened in Argentina and other emerging economies.
With the bailout, Ireland’s banking sector will be recapitalized, which would place the Allied Irish Banks into state control and the government majority stake in Bank of Ireland. The effect of this would be a mandated increase in capital cushions for the Irish banks from 8 to 12 percent. The move is expected to improve confidence in Ireland’s banking sector and stop the financial hemorrhage.
More than half of the bailout would be used to fund Dublin’s deficit spread over three years, while the remaining balance would be used to recapitalize banks and serve as contingency fund.
Markets are also still shaky that borrowing costs for Portugal and Spain jumped to dangerous levels over fears that European Union leaders are losing political control over the Irish crisis.
On Tuesday, yields on 10-year Portuguese bonds went up to 6.9 percent, which repeats the pattern of what happened to Greece and Ireland before these two nations were capitalized by the EU and the International Monetary Fund.
Spreads on 10-year Spanish bonds also grew to a record of 233 basis points over Bunds, which pushed the yield to 4.87 percent. With this development, Spanish Central Bank Governor Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez called on Madrid to fast track fiscal reforms to convince the market that Spain could put its house in order.
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EU Gives Ireland 24 Hours To Seek Bailout
Dublin, Ireland, United Kingdom (AHN) – Pressure is increasing for Ireland to make a decision on the offer of a financial bailout by the European Central Bank or the International Monetary Fund.
Dublin was given just 24 hours to decide if it will accept the offer to prevent the negative impact of another Irish economic crisis on the 16-nation eurozone.
Finance ministers from the zone are scheduled to hold emergency meetings Tuesday night, while global financial markets are waiting for Dublin’s move to finalize negotiations with the EU.
Fund managers are urging the Irish government to accept the EU bailout offer or face harder times ahead if they delay their decision.
Even before Ireland agrees to the bailout offer, borrowing cost for Dublin has gone done following reports of the ECB financial lifeline offer. Yield on benchmark 10-year Irish bonds went down to 8.1 percent from last week’s 9 percent. Premium sought by investors to hold on to their Irish bonds over the standard German bunds or spread also decreased to 545 basis points from 652 basis points on Thursday.
Irish officials are still balking at the proposed bailout because of the probable loss of sovereignty. The fast-paced developments may possibly result in the Irish government announcing the 2011 budget a week earlier than the previous Dec. 7 schedule.
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Poor people are most hard-hit by TB, COPD and tobacco
Delhi, India (Citizen News Service) – Tobacco use, tuberculosis (TB), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are all burgeoning problems in resource poor settings. The evidence of their potentially devastating effects on global public health is increasing and they require a coordinated approach for control.
These diseases all occur in predominantly resource-poor countries. They are perpetuated by poverty and inadequate resources, was the clear mandate from the consultative workshop organized by the TB and Poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership in India (29-30 October 2010). It is expected that the scientific deliberations at the 41st Union World Conference on Lung Health in Berlin, Germany (11-15 November 2010), will address these concerns on a well-coordinated response to these epidemics.
The secretariat of the TB and poverty sub-working group of the Stop TB Partnership has now moved to India, housed at the South-East Asian office of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) since August 2010.
Statistically, there is 1 TB-related death that takes place every 18 seconds, and 1 smoking-related death every 13 seconds. The enormous public challenge posed by the combined epidemics of tobacco smoking, TB and COPD, is undoubtedly alarming. In countries like India where the TB disease burden is the highest, the situation is only grimmer with majority of tobacco use happening in form of either leaf-rolled tobacco (beedi) or chewing tobacco.
But is there a link between TB, COPD and tobacco use? Do they increase the risk of each other?
“At the beginning of 21st century we really are facing convergence of several epidemics like TB, COPD and tobacco smoking among others” had said Richard N van Zyl-Smit to CNS at the 38th Union World Conference on Lung Health in 2007. Dr Richard works with Lung Infection and Immunity Unit, Division of Pulmonology and UCT Lung Institute, Department of Medicine, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
“Tobacco smoking is unquestionably the primary risk factor for COPD. The importance of “total burden of inhaled particles” (occupational, household, environmental) is increasing” said Richard.
“Smokers have two fold higher risk of developing active TB disease” shared Dr Madhukar Pai from McGill University and Montreal Chest Institute in Canada. Dr Pai was referring to three meta-analysis studies from 2007/2008. “Tobacco smokers have 2 times more risk of dieing of TB” added Dr Pai, referring to the data from India. India has enormous tobacco use and COPD rates, and also the highest TB burden in the world.
There are studies to show that passive smoking escalates risk of developing active TB disease by three times.
Tobacco smoke increases the risk of pneumonia, influenza, menningococcal meningitis, among others. Evidence is accumulating that smoking is a risk factor for TB.
At least 15 more studies have been published since the three major meta-analyses in 2007/2008. All studies report a positive association between tuberculosis and tobacco smoking. Studies also show that current male smokers have a higher risk for active TB disease than former smokers. In a study conducted in India, 900 non-medical staff monitored 1.1 million people for 3 years for cause of death taking place in this population. TB was the biggest cause of death reported in this study in India, and 66% of those who died of TB during the study, were active smokers.
Mortality rates, particularly from Asian countries suggest that there is an urgent need to target TB patients for smoking cessation interventions.
The second edition of the International Standards of Tuberculosis Care (ISTC), which is an official component of the WHO Stop TB Strategy also mentions tobacco smoking cessation among other measures to improve TB treatment outcomes. The ISTC standard 17 says: “This plan should include assessment of and referrals for treatment of other illnesses with particular attention to those known to affect treatment outcome, for instance care for diabetes mellitus, drug and alcohol treatment programs, tobacco smoking cessation programs, and other psychosocial support services, or to such services as antenatal or well baby care.
Tobacco cessation is an important part of the comprehensive tobacco control programme, but not the only part. So all components of the comprehensive tobacco control measures should be implemented for improving public health outcomes. All countries should implement the global tobacco treaty formally known as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Comprehensive tobacco control programmes can yield major public health outcomes, as 30% of male TB patients die of tobacco smoking.
According to PATH Canada factsheet, “For the poor, daily spending on tobacco represents a daily drain on scant family resources. Yet in many countries it is precisely the poor who use tobacco the most. In Bangladesh, smoking rates are twice as high in the lowest income group as in the highest.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “it is the poorer and the poorest who tend to smoke the most. Globally, 84% of smokers live in developing and transitional economy countries.” The WHO further adds: “Together, tobacco and poverty create a vicious circle. In most countries, tobacco use tends to be higher among the poor. Poor families, in turn, spend a larger proportion of their income on tobacco. Money spent on tobacco cannot be spent on basic human needs such as food, shelter, education and healthcare. Tobacco can also worsen poverty among users and their families since tobacco users are at much higher risk of falling ill and dying prematurely of cancers, heart attacks, respiratory diseases or other tobacco-related diseases, depriving families of much-needed income and imposing additional costs for healthcare.”
The risk to develop active TB disease is higher when tobacco smoking is combined with alcohol.
The poor people are undoubtedly most hard hit by TB, tobacco and COPD, and are least likely to have access to existing services. Collaboration between different single disease or other programmes that are addressing poverty in communities will be truly beneficial and have major public health outcomes.
Reporting by Bobby Ramakant of Citizen News Service
The author serves as the Director of CNS Stop-TB Initiative, and was conferred upon the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General’s WNTD Award in 2008. . Email: bobby@citizen-news.org, website: www.citizen-news.org
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Six-Figure Haul Likely For Nuns With Honus Wagner Baseball Card
Baltimore, MD, United States (AHN) – The School Sisters of Notre Dame are raising money for their cause in an unusual way as they are auctioning off a Honus Wagner baseball card, expecting to yield over $100,000.
The card is part of the T206 series, produced between 1909 and 1911. About 60 Wagner cards are known to exist.
A near-mint-condition T206 Wagner card sold in 2007 for $2.8 million, the highest price ever for a baseball card.
The card was left to the School Sisters of Notre Dame by the brother of a deceased nun. The card is expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000.
On Wednesday morning, the highest bid was $60,000.
Proceeds will benefit the sisters’ ministries in 35 countries.
Nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman,” Wagner played for 21 seasons, including 18 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has a .328 career batting average and was one of the five original inductees into baseball’s Hall of Fame.
The card was printed by the American Tobacco Company while Wagner was one of the best players in baseball.
Production of the Wagner card was halted soon after it began which some have chalked up to Wagner not wanting to promote tobacco products to children.
Others believe it was a dispute over money.
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Dussehra Celebrated To Mark Victory Of Good Over Evil
New Delhi, India (AHN) – Hindus in India, Bangladesh and Nepal are celebrating Dussehra, a festival that celebrates the victory of good over evil. Usually celebrated in September or October, Dussehra is observed on the tenth day of the waxing moon during the Hindu month of Ashvin.
Dussehra marks the victory of the diety Lord Ram over the demon Ravan, often called Dashanan because of his 10 heads. Ram killed Ravan in the world’s biggest battle to punish the demon for kidnapping his beautiful wife Sita and taking her to Lanka to make her his wife. Ram and his brother Lakshman crossed the sea with devotee Hanuman and a huge army of monkeys to rescue Sita.
Dussehra also marks the end of hot summers and the beginning of cold weather as well as infections, especially in North India. Hence effigies made of phosphorus-based firecrackers are burnt to purify the environment. Temples also perform rituals to keep the household environment clean and healthy and with the aim to eliminate bad emotions such as lust, anger, delusion, greed, pride, jealousy, will, ego, desire and selfishness, all of which are represented by Ravan’s 10 heads. Hindus also burn effigies of Ravan’s brother Kumbhakarn and son Meghanaad on Dussehra evening. This day is also called Vijaydashmi – the victory on the 10th day.
People also worship Shakti, the “God of Power,” during the festival period with the hope of gaining physical, mental and spiritual powers.
During these celebrations, Hindus observe a fast to honor the mother Goddess and pray to her to start the new harvest season by reactivating the fertility of the soil. Hindus believe in rejuvenating soil by invoking cosmic forces. They make huge clay statues of the Goddess Durga, honor her with turmeric and other worship items and submerge her into the river on the tenth day with the hope that this will help the water yield better crops.
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Canada Court Rejects Petition To Reinstate Long Census Form
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (AHN) – Statistics Canada will use the new but shorter census form when the agency conducts a head count next year.
The Federation of Francophone and Acadian Communities in Quebec had attempted to secure a judicial review of the Ottawa decision to scrap the mandatory long census form. However, Federal Court Judge Richard Boivin on Wednesday dismissed the federation’s application.
The federation argued the use of the shorter voluntary survey form would result in less reliable information about minority French-speaking communities. This, in turn, would stand in the way of the federal government’s ability to fulfill its obligations under the Official Languages Act.
In rejecting the petition for a judicial review, Brown said the act did not specify the tools that government must use to support and serve minorities who use different languages. The justice added it is too early to judge if the voluntary survey form would yield unreliable data, as groups opposed to the change in census form point out.
Marie-France Kenny, president of the federation, was disappointed with the court’s decision, but said they have not yet decided if the group would appeal the ruling.
A similar petition has been filed by some First Nations group.
Industry Minister Tony Clement said that because of advice from StatsCan about the importance of questions pertaining to the Official Languages Act, the new census form would include questions about support for official languages. These questions will remain mandatory, according to Clement.
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Scientists Develop Protein-Packed Potatoes
New Delhi, India (AHN) – Indian scientists claimed to have developed protein-packed potatoes 60 percent more nutritious compared to the ordinary tuber.
The idea to develop a genetically modified potato was the brainchild of National Institute for Plant Genome Research scientists, who said that they also discovered increased levels of essential amino acids in the potato variant.
The project’s lead researcher Subhra Chakraborty said these transgenic potatoes would soon gain huge popularity because it uses a gene from another edible crop – the amaranth seed.
“Because potato constitutes an important part of the diet of many people in developed as well as developing countries, it is apparent that this can add value to potato-based products with enhanced benefits for better human health,” said Chakraborty. “Our strategy also offers unique opportunities for the genetic engineering of unique traits into the next-generation crop to accrue nutritional benefits,” she added.
Explaining about their breakthrough, Chakraborty said that they tested AmA1 (Amaranth Albumin 1) gene into seven types of potatoes and monitored their development over two years. She added that all varieties of the transgenic potatoes showed an increase of 35-60 percent protein during this period.
The tubers also showed boosted levels of amino acids, lysine, tyrosine and sulfur, which is normally limited in potatoes.
Moreover, the new crop had more production per hectare than the ordinary potatoes. The scientists added that the new crop did not have any toxic or allergic effects.
“This study represents a major technological advance in translational research in which the engineering of a seed storage protein has led to nutritional improvement with essentially no negative collateral effects on crop yield or quality,” the researchers said.
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Rare “Asian Unicorn” Spotted In Captivity, Then Dies
Bolikhamxay, Laos (AHN) – A rare animal dubbed an “Asian unicorn” was spotted in captivity but has died according to the government of Laos. The animal, called a saola, was sighted for the first time in 10 years.
According to government officials, the animal which has two horns despite it’s moniker, was captured in August by villagers in the central province of Bolikhamxay. The animal with its long horns and white facial markings that resembles a North African antelope was brought back to their village.
When news of the capture reached authorities, a team was dispatched by the Bolikhamxay Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office, advised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Their mission was to examine the adult male animal and release it.
However, the animal was weakened by the ordeal of its capture and captivity and died. A photograph of the animal, one of the rarest in the world, was taken while it was still alive.
“The government of Lao PDR and WCS are to be commended for their rapid response and efforts to save this animal. We hope the information gained from the incident can be used to ensure that this is not the last saola anyone has a chance to see,” said William Robichaud, coordinator of the IUCN Saola Working Group.
The statement went on to say that the death of the saola is unfortunate but it confirms an area where it still occurs and the government has plans to immediately move to strengthen conservation efforts there.
This was the first confirmed sighting of a saola since 1999, when remotely triggered cameras snapped images of one in Laos. The animal was first discovered in 1992 in Vietnam’s Vu Quang Nature Reserve, near the country’s border with Laos. it is considered critically endangered, and its numbers so few that biologists have never seen one in the wild.
Dr. Pierre Comizzoli, a veterinarian with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and a member of the Saola Working Group, said: “Study of the carcass can yield some good from this unfortunate incident. Our lack of knowledge of saola biology is a major constraint to efforts to conserve it, and this can be a major step forward in understanding this remarkable and mysterious species”.
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