This flash examines trends in market participation by smallholder farmers in rural central and northern Mozambique between 2008, when prices of many commodities rose to previously unseen levels, and 2011. Using panel data for 2008 and 2011, the analysis describes marketing dynamics – entry, exit, and persistence of participation, and the trends in marketing intensity associated with those dynam...

Malnutrition is one of the foremost causes of death among children below 5 years in developing countries. Development of nutrient-dense food formulations using locally available crops has been proposed as a means to combat this menace. This study optimized the extrusion process for the production of a nutritious amaranth-based porridge flour. Least cost formulations containing grain amaranth, g...

While identifying proteins present in the cytoskeleton and protein body fractions from maize (Zea mays L.) endosperm, a 51 kDa protein was discovered in a fraction containing small (approximately 200 nm in diameter) protein bodies. Based on partial amino acid sequences of V8 protease fragments, degenerate primers were made and fragments of cDNA encoding these partial sequences were cloned. Usin...

Two isolates of Pratylenchus coffeae were collected from coffee roots (in Marília, São Paulo State, Brazil) and Aglaonema (in Rio de Janeiro City, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil) and maintained in the laboratory on alfalfa callus. Twenty-four plants were tested in the greenhouse to characterize the host preference of these isolates. The host ranges of the isolates differed from each other and, in...

Ageing reduces vigour and viability in maize inbred lines due to non-heritable degenerative changes. Besides non-heritable genetic changes due to chromosome aberrations and damage in the DNA sequence, heritable changes during maize conservation have been reported. Genetic variability among aged seeds of inbred lines could be used for association studies with seed germination. The objective of t...

Waxy maize (Zea mays L. var. ceratina) is a special type of characterized by sticky texture when cooked, due to high amylopectin content in the endosperm. popular China and Southeast Asia for fresh consumption. Breeding strategies have been used improve quality waxy maize, including hybrid breeding crossing super sweet maize. However, lack marker has limited efficiency trait, especially because...

The maize (Zea mays) endosperm enzyme, ADP-glucose pyrophosphorylase, which produces ADP-glucose from ATP and glucose-l-phosphate, is an important enzyme in the synthesis of starch. ADP-glucose arising from the action of this enzyme is the major, if not sole, donor of glucose for starch biosynthesis. The enzyme is composed oftwo dissimilar subunits encoded by the two unlinked genes, Shrunken-2 ...

Purple sweet potato starch is a potential resource for resistant starch production. The effects of heat-moisture treatment (HMT) and enzyme debranching combined heat-moisture treatment (EHMT) on the morphological, crystallinity and thermal properties of PSP starches were investigated. The results indicated that, after HMT or EHMT treatments, native starch granules with smooth surface was destro...

Sweet potato is grown extensively from tropical to temperate regions and is an important food crop worldwide. In this study, we established detection methods for 17 major sweet potato viruses using single and multiplex RT-PCR assays. To investigate the current incidence of viral diseases, we collected 154 samples of various sweet potato cultivars showing virus-like symptoms from 40 fields in 10...

;Black Mexican Sweet' (BMS) maize (Zea mays L.) tissue cultures were selected for tolerance to sethoxydim. Sethoxydim, a cyclohexanedione, and haloxyfop, an aryloxyphenoxypropionate, exert herbicidal activity on most monocots including maize by inhibiting acetyl-coenzyme A carboxylase (ACCase). Selected line B10S grew on medium containing 10 micromolar sethoxydim. Lines B50S and B100S were subs...