South America is responsible for about half of the cassava world production. In the 1970's productivity of the crop on the continent was about 15 ton/ha, and dropped continuously until reaching 12 ton/ha in 2004. India's productivity of cassava increased from 10 ton/ha in the 1970's to 28 ton/ha in 2004. Brazil contributed significantly to improving cassava crops through the Instituto Agronômic...

Most studies of the Columbian Exchange have not appreciated the significance of Africans in establishing plant domesticates in the Americas. African plants traversed the Atlantic as provisions aboard slave ships and slaves proved instrumental in their establishment in the New World as preferred food staples. This paper identifies the diverse crops domesticated in Africa, the intercontinental pl...

The house finch or linnet, Carpodacus mexicanus frontalis (Say) is a protected migratory nongame bird indigenous to California and found abundantly in a l l but the northern and mountainous areas. These finches attack more than twenty different crops and damage is demonstrated by fruit pecks, seed removal, and disbudding. When house finches cause agricultural damage control measures must be car...

This is the first time an archaeobotanical analysis based on macroremains, both charred and desiccated, from Cambodia is reported. The archaeobotanical samples are rich and provide evidence of rice processing, consumption of non-indigenous pulses, and the use of economic crops. The evidence is supported by data from inscriptions, texts and historical ethnography. This study demonstrates that th...

internationally boarder and Manipur, Assam, and Tripura national boarder. The climate is mild and temperature ranges from 11 to 210 C in winter and 20 to 30oC in summer. Monsoon starts from June and lasts till the month of August. The average rainfall is around 2500mm. Major crops grown in the state are paddy, maize, mustard, sugarcane, sesame, fibber less ginger and potatoes. In the state ther...

Improvements in diet diversification and quality can be facilitated by greater cooperation between the agricultural and the nutrition communities, according to an expert panel that met in early 2002. Encouraged to think innovatively, the panelists agreed that modern technology offers the potential to increase the amount and nutritional content of the food supply in developing countries, especia...

BACKGROUND Researchers are required to seek consent from Indigenous communities prior to conducting research but there is inadequate information about how Indigenous people understand and become fully engaged with this consent process. Few studies evaluate the preference or understanding of the consent process for research with Indigenous populations. Lack of informed consent can impact on rese...

Background A study of disability among the indigenous Sami people in Norway presented a number of ethical and methodological challenges rarely addressed in the literature. Objectives The main study was designed to examine and understand the everyday life, transitions between life stages and democratic participation of Norwegian Sami people experiencing disability. Hence, the purpose of this art...

South Africa is considered to be a “hotspot” for biodiversity and more than 22,000 plant species occur within its boundaries. This represents 10% of the world’s species, although the land surface of South Africa is less than 1% of the earth. The country is divided into seven biomes and into 68 vegetation types (Low and Rebelo 1996). The Savanna biome covers 33% of the surface of the country, bu...