This report documents the impacts of international maize breeding research in eastern and southern Africa. It draws on information from a comprehensive 1998/99 survey of public and private maize breeding and seed production organizations active in the region. In many countries of eastern and southern Africa, policy reforms introduced in the 1980s and 1990s encouraged private sector participatio...

Successful crop production depends initially on the availability of high-quality seed. By 2050 global climate change will have influenced crop yields, but will these changes affect seed quality? The present review examines the effects of elevated carbon dioxide (CO2) and temperature during seed production on three seed quality components: seed mass, germination and seed vigour. In response to e...

Recent studies indicate that strong systems of property rights are not a necessary condition for the operation of the soybean seed market in the Americas (Wright; Pardey, 2006; Endres; Goldsmith, 2007). These studies are based on a dichotomy. The North – represented by the U.S. – is a strong institutional environment in which agrobiotechnology firms adopt an optimal strategy, setting technologi...

We develop and estimate a discrete-choice model of differentiated products for the corn and soybean seed industry in the United States to assess the welfare impact of genetically engineered (GE) crop varieties. We use a unique dataset, spanning the period 1996-2011, that contains rich information on the adoption of GE traits. Using a two-level nested logit model, we estimate that U.S. farmers a...

In this paper we present a fast three dimensional computed tomography system in combination with automatic 3d image processing, which gathers necessary information for production control of sugar beet seed. We outline the design of the inspection system and the three dimensional image processing. Within one hour the geometrical parameters of more than 1000 seeds (about 3-4 mm diameter) are meas...

Fusarium wilt of cotton, caused by F. oxysporum f sp.vasinfectum, was first recognized in Australia in 1993. The pathogen can be seed borne and it can also be dispersed in soil and crop residues attached to vehicles and machinery and carried in irrigation and flood water. Infection is favored by cool, wet spring conditions and shallow development of roots. The rapid increase in the distribution...

After pulp extraction in fruit processing industry, a significant quantity of mango seed kernels are discarded as solid wastes. These seed kernels can be ideal raw materials for obtaining extracts rich in bioactive compounds with good antioxidant properties. The conversion of these wastes into utilizable food ingredients would help in reducing environmental problems associated with processing w...