Philippines: Tripling yields, placing mangoes on world market year-round

For his many contributions that have had unprecedented impact on agriculture, Dr. Ramon C. Barba, now 72, was awarded the 2011 Umali Award by the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (SEARCA) last Wednesday in Los Baños. The plant scientist from the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) is the first Filipino to receive the award and the third recipient in Southeast Asia. The $10,000-award, given to outstanding Southeast Asian scientists, is named after the late National Scientist Dioscoro L. Umali, a founding Director of SEARCA and former Assistant Director General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Foremost among Barba’s researches was a breakthrough discovery in 1974 of mango flower induction by potassium nitrate, making it possible for fruits to be available all year round.

The use of potassium nitrate is low-cost and benefits both farmers and consumers: flower production is profuse and fruit production can be programmed according to market demands. "Although Dr. Barba holds a patent for this technology, he has foregone royalties due him so that mango farmers can use it without additional cost," the award observed. "Dr. Barba is known to perceive simple solutions to complex problems and produce results with minimum resources," the citation noted. "His research on induced mango flowering was a private initiative that cost less than P500 to complete." His achievements include banana micropropagation and sugarcane and calamansi tissue culture; all have impact on the agribusiness potentials of these crops in the world market.

Read full article at source: FreshPlaza.com

Increased yields through better CO2 use in plants

BASF Plant Science and the University of Cologne cooperate in plant biotechnology Aim is to increase yields and improve stress tolerance in crops

8 Jul 2009 , Limburgerhof, Cologne, Germany : BASF Plant Science and the Botanical Institute of the University of Cologne announce that they have entered a cooperation in plant biotechnology. Focus is on plant traits that increase the yield of crops like soybeans, rice, and canola and improve their tolerance to adverse environmental conditions like cold, drought or salinization. The cooperation comprises both a license and an R&D agreement, which were negotiated by PROvendis, the patent marketing company for North Rhine-Westphalia’s universities.

Together with BASF Plant Science, Prof. Dr. Ulf-Ingo Flügge and Dr. Verónica G. Maurino from the Botanical Institute of the University of Cologne are working on optimizing the energy generation of key global crops. During photosynthesis, the process where carbon dioxide (CO2) is converted into carbohydrates (e.g. starch), many plants don't make optimum use of the CO2 in the air. Certain types of plants, like corn, are able to use more CO2 through an additional metabolic process. The objective of the current research project is to transfer this biochemical mechanism to other plants. The Cologne-based researchers have already been successful in genetically modifying a test plant, the so-called thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana). Thanks to the inserted genes, the plant produces special enzymes which ensure that the plant uses more carbon dioxide resulting in the production of more biomass.

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