During the course of our history, humankind has been through different periods of agricultural improvement aimed at enhancing our food supply and the performance of food crops. In recent years, it has become apparent that future crop improvement efforts will require new approaches to address the local challenges of farmers while empowering discovery across industry and academia. New plant breed...

Members of the genus Dioscorea, food yams, were introduced to Jamaica from Africa during the slave era and have remained a staple in local diets and national cuisine. Yam cultivation has also been an important economic activity providing employment for thousands of rural Jamaicans. Until the 1960s yams were grown for local use by subsistence growers for home consumption or by commercial growers...

Studies under controlled experimental conditions show a clear advantage for staple food grown under biological/ecological farming conditions as compared to those from conventional farming methods. This is especially true for the vegetative parts of plant products, where lower undesirable (e.g. nitrates) and higher desirable (e.g. vit. C, trace elements) components are present. A better storage ...

Hurricane Georges struck the Carribean Islands in September 1998, causing numerous deaths and extensive damage throughout the region. The Dominican Republic was hardest hit, with approximately 300 deaths; extensive infrastructure damage; and severe agricultural losses, including staple crops of rice, plantain, and cassava. Two months after the hurricane, the American Red Cross (ARC) was asked t...

The health of the majority South Africa’s population is seriously threatened by hunger and micronutrient deficiency, with impaired immune response a real threat, which current SARSCoV-2 virus pandemic has highlighted. Traditional household food-processing techniques can, amongst other advantages, increase nutrient bioavailability in affordable staple foods hence provide way, part, to alleviate ...

fruits are one of the oldest forms of food known to man. there are many references to fruits in ancient literature. according to quran, the fruits like grape, date, fig, olive and pomegranate are gifts and heavenly fruits of god.  fresh and dry fruits are the natural staple food of man. they contain substantial quantities of essential nutrients in a rational proportion. persons subsisting on th...

BACKGROUND Despite growing interest in use of lipid nutrient supplements for preventing child malnutrition and morbidity, there is inconclusive evidence on the effectiveness, and no evidence on the cost-effectiveness of this strategy. METHODS A cost effectiveness analysis was conducted comparing costs and outcomes of two arms of a cluster randomized controlled trial implemented in eastern Cha...

Food fortification is a widely used approach to increase micronutrient intake in the diet. High coverage is essential for achieving impact. Data on coverage is limited in many countries, and tools to assess coverage of fortification programs have not been standardized. In 2013, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition developed the Fortification Assessment Coverage Toolkit (FACT) to carry out...

The sources of energy used in cooking in most Nigeria homes are fossil fuel and biomass. The fuel is becoming expensive beyond the reach of common person. There is need to source for suitable alternative. Therefore, the work focused on use of solar cooker for cooking some staple food in Nigeria. Preliminary study was carried out to quantify appropriate water requirements for cooking some staple...