| Drought tolerance (8) |  |
| Urban agriculture (7) | |
This includes a greater emphasis on urban agriculture such as vertical farming which, properly designed and planned, could provide the sustainable means to improve food supply we need.
Ideally, urban agriculture fits neatly alongside or within existing buildings in a self-contained and sustainable manner without competing for resources.
Singapore has taken local urban farming to a high level Skygreens has built the world s first commercial vertical farm in large three-story greenhouses, providing a sustainable source of fresh vegetables.
A natural extension of urban agriculture, vertical farms would cultivate plant or animal life within dedicated or mixed-use skyscrapers in urban settings.
A complete drought tolerant package would include appropriate crop choices and specially bred varieties of crops as well as a drought tolerant system.
The crop-centered approach to drought was discussed by my colleague Doug Gurian-Sherman in hisrecent report High and Dry.
and alfalfa that are inherently more drought tolerant and might be used more often in U s. agriculture Doug also discussed the success of conventional corn breeders who have increased drought tolerance at a steady pace of 1 percent per year over decades.
Genetic engineering has yet to play an important role in drought tolerance. Only this year did agricultural biotech company Monsanto introduce its first drought tolerant seed variety Droughtgard.
According to the Monsanto website the variety has produced a five-bushel (or about 4 percent) yield advantage in field tests against competitor hybrids.
However successful crop genetics might be new plant varieties cannot compensate for the deficiencies in systems.
Yet from drought tolerant maize to virus-resistant cassava, many biotech traits are being developed that could quickly improve the livelihoods of poorer African farmers.
In addition, urban farming may also benefit from the ISS farming experiments. In recent years, vertical farming has attracted a great deal of interest from environmentalists, architects,
Climatologists predict that persistent"megadroughts"are going to be a feature of climate change in the American West.
#World first underground urban farm opens for business in London The world first underground urban farm has started trading in London,
as well as disease/drought resistance that also include the bread-quality gene, he said. sing the speed-breeding technology developed by QAAFI Dr Lee Hickey,
< Back - Next >
Overtext Web Module V3.0 Alpha
Copyright Semantic-Knowledge, 1994-2011