Ex situ conservation is the technique of conservation of all levels of biological diversity outside their natural habitats through different techniques like zoo, captive breeding, aquarium, botanical garden, and gene bank
Description of the project
By 2050, climate change is likely to reduce maize production globally by 3–10 percent and wheat production in developing countries by 29–34 percent. Even without climate change, the real costs of wheat and maize will increase by 60 percent between 2000 and 2050; climate change could make the figure substantially greater. Food security, despite the above, may be possible if agricultural systems are transformed through improved seed, fertilizer, land use, and governance.
Description of the project:
Grainothèque, set up in the Western part of Ivory Coast, works on preserving and exploring the genetic diversity and reproduction of local feeding plants through organic seed banks as well as improving access to information. Tools and technical notes explaining production techniques, pollination, botanical classification, isolation, harvesting, seed stocking and feeding properties are made available to women. An android application provides technical help to producers in case of plant diseases.
Climate impact:
Scientists working at NDSU are developing biodegradable sensors capable of directly monitoring and reporting the soil environment in which they are placed. The sensors are constructed by using NDSU’s patent-pending “direct write” electronic printing techniques to print circuit and antenna patterns directly onto renewable bio-based materials. The circuit patterns are printed with trace amounts of metallic materials such as aluminum that are safe for the soil when the sensors naturally biodegrade over time.
Background: Exponential growth in the world population coupled with increasing environmental damage underlines the need for more sustainable and environmentally-friendly approaches to agricultural practice. Many current approaches utilize chemical additives to accelerate crop growth. Newer more environmentally-friendly strategies include the use of transgenic plants and plant-growth promoting bacteria (PGPB). Unfortunately most PGPBs identified thus far fix little or no nitrogen.
Stanford researchers have developed a low cost photovoltaic material by using a scalable ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) process to fabricate textured crystal silicon (c-Si) films on display glass. The inventors used a template seed layer of calcium fluoride (which has a close lattice match with silicon) to grow biaxially textured heteroepitaxial c-Si. This process controls the grain boundary alignment to improve microelectronic efficiency and performance.
In many agricultural seed products—such as oilseed crops grains and legumes as well as seed for planting—the premature release of seeds prior to harvest results in serious losses. Prior to this invention visual examination of the crops and other agricultural techniques such as determination of moisture content have been the primary means to indicate timing of the seed harvest. This invention uses antisense genetic manipulation to achieve rational control of the natural regulatory mechanism of seed release.
In an increasingly competitive agricultural market the development of crops with increased seed yield is of great economic interest. The current invention pertains to the Brassicaceae family also called the crucifers the mustard family and the cabbage family. An economically important member of this family is the rapeseed (canola). Rapeseed is used for production of vegetable oil for human and animal consumption as well as for biodiesel. Rapeseed produces more oil per unit of land than crops like soy bean and it is therefore is the preferred source of biodiesel in Europe.
IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (Research Institute for Development) - is a research organization based in France that is working with its partners in the South to address international development issues. Improving health, understanding social changes, and protecting the environment are the main pillars of its work towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). IRD work includes interdisciplinary scientific research, capacity building and nurturing innovation in more than fifty countries worldwide.