Methane is a potent but short-lived greenhouse gas targeted for short-term amelioration of climate change, with enteric methane emitted by ruminants being the most important anthropogenic source of methane. Ruminant production also releases nitrogen to the environment, resulting in groundwater pollution and emissions of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. We hypothesized that inhibiting rumen methanogenesis in dairy cows with chemical inhibitor 3-nitrooxypropanol (3-NOP) would redirect metabolic hydrogen towards synthesis of microbial amino acids.

Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Walp is a well-known agroforestry leguminous tree that provides multiple benefits in different agroecological zones. Its apparent versatility is seen in improving animal feed, cleaning environmental wastes, and healing inflammations. It was also found to have significant benefits in agroforestry due to its ability to enhance soil fertility through nitrogen fixation and green manure. However, this article reviews the use of Gliricidia sepium to improve soil fertility and crop agronomic and nutritional properties.

For grain yield stability analysis, genotype by environment interactions are crucial in properly identifying and discriminating between varieties and locations.

The cattle sector is strategic for both the economic development and food security of Africa, but the low availability and quality of forage puts the most vulnerable population at risk. Hybrid forages are an alternative for enhancing both food security and sustainability of the sector but adoption levels are still low in Africa, which is related to various factors such as the availability of seeds.

In Mozambique, smallholder farmers commonly grow rice under rainfed systems with limited fertilizer
application; thus, productivity remains very low. Moreover, the adoption rate of improved rice varieties
is as low as 3 per cent, partly because these varieties usually require an irrigated environment with
the use of fertilizer. Green super rice (GSR) varieties are expected to sustain high yield potential under
severe stress conditions. This article used farm-level survey data collected in Mozambique to assess

Improving plant performance in salinity-prone conditions is a significant challenge in breeding programs. Genomic selection is currently integrated into many plant breeding programs as a tool for increasing selection intensity and precision for complex traits and for reducing breeding cycle length. A rice reference panel (RP) of 241 Oryza sativa L. japonica accessions genotyped with 20,255 SNPs grown in control and mild salinity stress conditions was evaluated at the vegetative stage for eight morphological traits and ion mass fractions (Na and K).

Determining the stability and consistency of grain yield performance requires accurate evaluation of genotypes in different environments. In Mexico, annual national spring wheat irrigated trials are conducted to assess elite bread and durum wheat performance in different testing environments (TEs) in the main wheat-growing areas. These trials provide data supporting release of new cultivars and aim to also address Mexican wheat value chain grain needs.

Today, most African countries have dysfunctional municipal waste management system, negatively impacting the environment and human health. However, as most of this waste is recyclable, informal actors are making their income out of the collection/sorting of waste. Accounting for the risks involved in waste manipulation, it is important to ensure decent working conditions for those recycling it.

The importance of the food environment in influencing dietary choices of consumers has been widely acknowledged, but little attention has been paid to the urban food environment in Africa despite the rise in incidence of obesity and other nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases (NR-NCDs). We contribute to the literature on urban food environments by conducting an observational macro-scan of the food environment in three cities – Accra, Cape Coast, and Koforidua – with a view to unravelling the nature of the urban food environment in Ghana.

The aim of the dissertation was to undertake phenotypic and genetic characterization and design community-based breeding programs for two indigenous goat populations in Ethiopia, namely Arab and Oromo. The dissertation was based on five manuscripts. Papers I, II, IV and V were based on data generated from production system, morphological characterization and ranking experiments. Paper III was based on whole genome data generated from three indigenous goat populations (Arab, Fellata and Oromo).

Background: Economic reforms and trade liberalisation in Vaietnm have transformed the food environment, influencing dietary patterns and malnutrition status. The present study focuses on the relationship between food environments (proximity and density of food outlets) and malnutrition (underweight, overweight, obesity) through diet quality in adult populations across urban, periurban and rural areas of Vietnam.

The recent invasion, rapid spread, and widescale destruction of the maize crop by the fall armyworm (FAW; Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith)) is likely to worsen the food insecurity situation in Africa. In the present study, a set of 424 maize lines were screened for their responses to FAW under artificial infestation to dissect the genetic basis of resistance. All lines were evaluated for two seasons under screen houses and genotyped with the DArTseq platform.