Word: agronomist
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...more than 10 years I have been an agronomist and food-processing technologist in several African countries, India and Indonesia [Oct. 26]. I completely agree that Western countries, development organizations and the Food and Agriculture Organization have neglected small-scale farming in the developing world, destroying rural economies under a growing population (thanks to health programs, better drinking water, etc., where so much of the money went). This is the single most important reason why 50 years of development aid did not work in Africa. But the agricultural policy, the food-aid policy and the trade barriers of the European...
...that stimulate the production of gossypol in the cottonseeds while the rest of the plant keeps its natural defenses. "This research potentially opens the door to utilizing safely the more than 40 million tons of cottonseed produced annually as a large, valuable protein source," says Norman Borlaug, an American agronomist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for developing high-yield wheat varieties that have helped increase the world's food supply...
...crowd met no less than 16 of our heroes. Some were locals, like David Attenborough, the legendary documentary filmmaker whose most recent series, Planet Earth, has taken his ability to reveal the secrets of nature to unparalleled heights. Others came from far away, such as Hammer Simwinga, a Zambian agronomist who has developed local businesses so that villagers do not have to resort to poaching, and Tommy Remengesau Jr., the President of the Pacific Island nation of Palau, who has led efforts to preserve a priceless marine environment. Some were activists, like Olga Tsepilova, who has exposed the dangerous legacy...
Francine's new prosperity came from the lush terraces in the southern mountains of Maraba, through which Texas A&M University agronomist Tim Schilling had driven me in his pickup an hour earlier. Rwanda is tiny and landlocked, an oasis of rain, lakes and volcanoes in the heart of Africa. Its slopes are home to mountain gorillas and the furthest source of the Nile. They are also, Schilling says, "where God would have chosen to grow coffee...
Five years ago, no one had heard of Rwandan coffee. It sold for less than a quarter of some speciality coffees and it didn't take an agronomist to figure out why. "It tasted crap," Schilling said. "Worse. It tasted of potatoes." Schilling, 54, was tasked with reviving Rwandan agriculture for usaid. So with almost 40% of the country farming coffee - more than 3 million people - he became a coffee expert. The key to a good cup, he discovered, was processing and speed. The sooner and more expertly coffee cherries are processed - stripped, washed, sorted and dried - the better...