May 13, 2013 by Phil Pardey - 0 comments

Economics of Science and Technology Policy: Course Announcement

L-R: Liebenberg, Beddow, UP Dept. Head Johann Kirsten, and Pardey

The Collaborative Masters of Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) program brings together students from 7 African universities. As part of this program, the University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics is offering a course on the economics of science and technology policy joint with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Tags: Productivity Measures, Spillovers, Production

Apr 12, 2013 by Jason Beddow - 0 comments

Photo credit: CIMMYT

Right-sizing Stem Rust Research

Stem rust is a potentially devastating fungal disease that can kill wheat plants and small grain cereals, but more typically reduces foliage, root growth, and grain yields. The pathogen multiplies rapidly, and its spores can be dispersed by wind over thousands of kilometers.

Tags: Agricultural Productivity, Agricultural Research, Agricultural Research Investment, Agroecology, Cereals, Crop Diseases, Crop Production, Crop Yields, Pest Resistance, Stem Rust, UG99, Weather and Climate, Wheat Production, Yield Analysis, Pests and Diseases, Research Policy, Farming, Productivity, Policy

Mar 7, 2013 by Jagger Harvey - 0 comments

Photo credit: James Karanja, KARI

Aspergillus and Aflatoxin in African Maize Farms

May 28-June 1, 2012 (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania): As part of a multidisciplinary and multinational collaboration, a team of researchers representing several research institutions met to discuss the growing aflatoxin problem in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tags: Aflatoxins, Africa, Agricultural Pests, Kenya, Maize Production, Pest Management, Tanzania, Farming

Aug 8, 2012 by Darren Kriticos - 0 comments

Akuku, Kriticos, Ochungo, Yonow, Kiplimo

Livestock Pests and Disease: Counting Their Economic Costs

Thousands of pests and diseases affect our major livestock species, with impacts on livestock production varying in space and time.

Tags: Africa, Agricultural Pests, Livestock, Livestock Diseases, Livestock Production, Models, Pest Distributions, Pest Management, Pests and Diseases

Aug 4, 2012 by Darren Kriticos - 0 comments

Chilo partellus larvae by J van den Berg

Two for the Price of One: Training Crop Pest Modelers While Building New Maps

To improve our collective capacity to model and measure the economic costs of pests, weeds and diseases of the major food crops of the world, CSIRO and HarvestChoice-UMN are delivering a series of ecological modeling workshops.

Tags: Agricultural Pests, Climate Change, CLIMEX, Crop Diseases, Models, Pest Distributions, Pest Modeling, Spatial Analysis, Weeds, Pests and Diseases

Jul 16, 2012 by Susana Crespo - 0 comments

Lablab, Egyptian Bean or Pulse? Reclassifying Crops for SPAM Conformity

Picture it. You're working at HarvestChoice processing incoming crop statistics and you come across some figures for harvested area of dolichos in Kenya.

Tags: Crop Models, Crops, FAOSTAT, International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities (IMPACT), Models, Spatial Allocation, Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), Production, Farming

Jun 18, 2012 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

IFPRI Magazine Features MAPPR: Mapping African Agriculture

The June 2012 issue of Insights, IFPRI’s quarterly magazine, talks up HarvestChoice’s increasingly popular online tool: MAPPR. So friendly to use that a writer and a graphics designer combined wits to create the MAPPR-generated visuals for the article.

Tags: Africa, Agroecology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Mapping, MAPPR, Spatial Analysis, Sub-Saharan Africa, Demographics, Farming, Productivity, Markets

May 22, 2012 by Jawoo Koo - 0 comments

FourSquare 4 Farming?

While we were brainstorming “big ideas” at a recent working retreat, we stumbled upon the idea of promoting FourSquare as a tool to monitor smallholder farmers’ crop management practices.

Tags: Agricultural Statistics, Communication, Farming Systems, Social Media, Production, Farming

Apr 17, 2012 by Jeff Horwich - 0 comments

Risk: What It Means to Us, and Why It Matters (Video)

Risk: we all know what that means, right? But why is it such a critical part of our HarvestChoice portfolio, what does it mean when you look through the lens of farming in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Tags: Africa, Agricultural Pests, Agroecology, Climate, Communication, Crop Yields, Pest Management, Rainfall, Risk, Sub-Saharan Africa, United States, Videos, Weather, Weather and Climate, Risk, Pests and Diseases, Production, Farming, Productivity, Policy

Mar 23, 2012 by Jeff Horwich - 0 comments

How We're Pioneering the Mapping of Pests (Video)

Jason Beddow of HarvestChoice and the University of Minnesota, along with Darren Kriticos of CSIRO, explain how HarvestChoice is revolutionizing the science of tracking -- and predicting -- the paths of devastating crop pests and diseases such as UG99.

Tags: Agricultural Pests, Agroecology, Cereals, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Communication, Crop Diseases, Mapping, Pest Management, Pest Mapping, Pest Modeling, Risk, Rusts, Stem Rust, UG99, Videos, Wheat, Risk, Land Cover , Pests and Diseases, Farming, Policy

Feb 21, 2012 by Jeff Horwich - 0 comments

CSIRO and HarvestChoice

CSIRO and HarvestChoice: Our Partnership to Take on Global Hunger

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and HarvestChoice are now working together to apply innovative, “bio-economic” approaches to improve the food security of poor people in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Together, our organizations will merge biological, environmental and economic tools to track global food pests and better target strategic investments to improve global food security. 

Tags: Africa, Agroecology, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Communication, Crop Diseases, HarvestChoice, Models, Pest Management, Rusts, Stem Rust, Sub-Saharan Africa, Targeting/Priority Setting, UG99, Videos, Risk, Land Cover , Pests and Diseases, Production, Farming, Policy
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