The Nigerian government have mandated bakeries to start including cassava flour in their recipes.
Some reservations against the use of cassava flour in bakery industry:

1. Impurities such as sand
2. Odor
3. (Unfounded) concerns regarding the possible presence of cyanogenic glucosides
4. Shortening of shelf life of the product (e.g. biscuit)
5. Gradual change of color (biscuits turning pale)
6. Fluctuating prices

Nigerians bakers and flour millers think that substituting 10% wheat with cassava flour is achievable, but beyond that level cassava would introduce odour and aftertaste, reduce shelf life from 7 to 4 days and badly change the baking characteristics. At 40% cassava in wheat flour, higher doses of bread improvers, especially protein and preservatives will be needed. This means that the price of bread will go up since one 40% cassava flour bread recipe calls for the use of 12 eggs per loaf. Small scale bakers will have to invest in spiral mixer since hand mixing will not be possible with cassava flour inclusion.

The table below shows the recommended maximum level of cassava flour that can substitute wheat flour for bakery products. This was recommended by Abass et al, 1997.


   

This is NASA idea. They want to use a satellite with an array of mirrors to collect energy from the Sun and send it back to Earth via a Microwave beam. The array will feature a modular, tulip shaped satellite equipped with thin-film mirrors to reflect sunlight into photovoltaic cells. The collected solar energy will be converted into microwaves that will then be transmitted back to a receiving station on Earth at a low frequency and intensity.

Power plants on Earth will be able to convert the Microwave energy into electricity and add it to the power grid. NASA says that each array system could create anywhere from tens to thousands of megawatts of energy.

Since the satellite array will use so many small, lightweight parts, it will also be simpler and cheaper to build than previous solar-power satellite methods. Instead of building a gigantic array on Earth and launching into space, scientists could send parts up into space on current cargo spacecraft so they could be assembled in orbit (much like a space station).

I just wish science will overcome this challenge very soon!

Hello all, I’ll like to know what you think about factory farming. With some people, that words brings to mind animal cruelty, antibiotic misuse, pollution and so on. On the other hand, they’ve really help in feeding the booming population of the world. Now to you personally, what is your view about factory farms? What better ways can the world be fed without harming the environment?

Yes, moringa seed can be use to make water safe for drinking. The seed is crushed and added to water at a rate of 30mg per liter of water. However, the seeds obtained during the rainy season are not effective at all. So you have to use seeds obtained during the dry season.

1. Agrafural: N700-740
2. Keproceryl: N550-N600
3. Amin’Total (Multivit): N550
4. Tylodox: N950-N1100
5. Polidine (Iodine disinfectant): N1600
6. SuperLiv: N450 (from Animal Care)
7. Zodex Dewormer: N500
8. Albiovit (Multivitamin):N350
9. Kepromec (Dewormer): N850

I know they may differ base on location. My location is Onitsha Anambra state. You can add how much drugs cost in your own location let's compare.

The price below applies to AnimalCare Asaba. Other animal labs may have similar charges.

1. Serological test for day old chicks: N7000.
2. Routine Serological Monitoring: NCD (N2500/batch), CRD (N300/blood sample), IB (N300/blood sample)
3. Test for MG: N300/bird and minimum of 5 birds.
4. Necropsy: N2300/ dead bird
5. Feed Test for Microbials: N2500
6. Testing Nutrient Content of Feed Ingredients: N5000
7. Aflatoxin: N2500

1. Baking Soda and powdered sugar in a ratio of 1:1.
2. Boil orange peels, put the water in a sprayer with a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of molasses.
3. Mix dish soap and water in a ratio of 1:2. Put in a bottle and shake. This mixture will suffocate the ants.
4. Mix water and vinegar in a ratio of 1:1. Ants hate vinegar. You can use this mixture to clean floors, windows etc.

You’ll need 1 cup of flour + 1 cup of sugar + 1 cup of baking soda (bicarbonate of soda). Mix and place in small bowls and keep it for the rats. When they eat it, the soda will react with stomach acid to produce CO2 which will result in stomach swelling. The swelling stomach will squash the lungs and suffocate the rat. Cats and dogs don’t normally eat the baking soda.

Another alternative is flour and plaster of paris/cement. Mix them together and keep for the rats. Once they eat it, they’ll feel like drinking and if that happens, the cement will set in their stomach and kill them almost instantly.

Mix the leaves of the legume, Glyricidia sepium with cooked maize. People in Central America use this to kill rodents.

Neem cake is what is left after oil have been extracted from neem seed. It is a very good fertilizer and it helps to repel some soil-borne diseases. In tomato farm, neem cake can reduce root knot nematode index to zero and improve growth.

Neem seeds contains up to 45% of a brown and bitter oil (neem oil or oil of Margosa). It has many medicinal uses and can also be used in lamps and for soap making.

Neem oil can control blackspot, powdery mildew, anthracnose and rust fungi.

How to Produce Neem Oil in Your Kitchen: Extract the kernels from the seeds by pounding the seed in a mortar and winnowing out the shells (use a special mortar because neem seed is very bitter).

To spray neem oil on crops, you need to dilute it with water but neem oil will not mix with water. You need a surfactant to make it mix with water. A good home surfactant is liquid dish washing soap or soap. Don’t use detergent because they’re toxic to soil organisms. To make neem oil solution stick well to leaves, you can add saponins like aloe vera juice.

As an insecticide, use 4 teaspoons neem oil + 1 tablepsoon dish washing soap + 1 gallon water. Spray on plant or use as soil drench at 1l for 1m2 of soil. The best time to spray is during the cooler parts of the day – morning, late afternoon or evening. Doing so will prevent neem from harming beneficial insects like butterfly. For heavy infestation, apply weekly and for prevention, apply biweekly.

A solution of crushed need seed can prevent insects from eating your crop. It repels insects and prevent them from laying eggs on crops. To make the solution, crush neem seed and soak in water over night. Filter the solution through a fine gauze, sieve etc to remove the bigger particles. Then using a knapsack or hand-pump sprayer, spray it on your crops. To be effective, spray every 10 days. 20-30kg kernels can treat 1 ha.

Biochar can be used to improve soil condition. It loosens the soil, improving aeration, water retention, and making it conducive for beneficial soil micro organisms. Has anyone seen where bio-char have been used? Has anyone tried using it? If so what results did you get?

I like organic stuffs so I’m wondering if vinegar will have less bad effects than conventional herbicides.

Do you know that you can plant without having to spend money or energy tilling the soil? I was like “awww!” when I read about it. Is this really true? Have you ever seen where it was done and was the harvest ok?

Fish, bees and crickets all hate pesticides and insecticides. If I want to raise any of these but my neighbor spray chemicals in his farm, how can I prevent his chemicals from reaching my farm?

Due to the abuse of antibiotics in farm animal industry, farmers in US now need a vet prescription before they can use antibiotics on their animals. For years, many farmers have abuse antibiotics by using them mainly as growth promoter rather than for treating diseases. In fact, most of antibiotic use was for growth promotion. The danger here was that if you use antibiotics as growth promoter, some bacteria in the animal will gradually develop resistance against that antibiotic and they can transfer this resistance of other strains of bacteria. When a bacteria that can cause disease in man and animal become resistant to antibiotics, then when a person fall sick as a result of that bacteria, that disease will be very expensive to treat or worst still it will be incurable.
In Nigeria we don’t care much about antibiotic misuse, we don’t observe withdrawal period too. It is high time we mind the way we use antibiotics.

Many rivers have problems with water hyacinths. If you live in such area and you have pigs or chickens, you can scoop out water hyacinths, wash them and feed to the animals. You can also add it to your compost.

Prolapse of the oviduct, also called "blowout" or "pickout" is a condition where the lower part of the hen's oviduct turns inside out and protrudes through the vent.
Causes:

Let’s make a huge list of things chickens should not eat and reasons why they shouldn’t eat them. Below are my own lists:

Here is an important discovery I made:

Quote:Chicks are unable to regulate their body temperature for the first 72-96 hours (3-4 days) after hatching. If they become chilled either through the floor/litter or other means, they become stressed. This can cause them to become immunocompromised (unable to resist diseases). Growth rate will be higher if you maintain the recommended floor temperature (weight gain will be lower if litter temperature is cooler by as little as 5oF). For birds that were chilled during transportation, you can make them perform as well as un-chilled chicks by using slightly higher brooding temperature than normal (1).