Earthworm bounty calculated by scientists who correlated a global atlas of earthworm abundance with maps of agricultural production, taking into account soil properties and artificial fertilisers. They concluded: “Our findings indicate that earthworms contribute to roughly 6.5% of global grain (maize, rice, wheat, barley) production and 2.3% of legume production, equivalent to over 140 million […]
“UK farmers are tackling climate change” according to a report in BBC News 18 August 2019. Farmers are regularly condemned by climate change activists and environmentalists because farm animals “produce greenhouse gas emissions”. According to the BBC “Agriculture is currently responsible for about 9% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, mostly from methane.” However, many […]
Daily bread before farming, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 16 July 2018 and BBC News 17 July 2018, and PNAS 16 July 2018 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1801071115. A team of researchers from UK and Denmark have found charred remains in the fireplaces of an archaeological site known as Shubayqa 1, located in the […]
Rain spreads crop diseases, according to an article in ScienceDaily 20 November 2017. Previous research has shown that raindrops can spread microscopic pathogens, i.e. disease causing bacteria, viruses and fungi. A team of researchers at the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics at Virginia Tech have now studied how the spread actually happens, using laser […]