Ants and termites boost dryland wheat yields

Ants and termites have a significant positive impact on crop yields in dryland agriculture, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Communications by scientists at CSIRO and the University of Sydney."

Ants and termites perform the same ecosystem service functions in dryland agriculture that earthworms perform in cooler and wetter areas, but the potential for ants and termites to provide these benefits has received little attention until now," said CSIRO's Dr Theo Evans.

"We already knew that the activities of ants and termites affect soil structure, aeration, water infiltration and nutrient cycling in natural ecosystems but we wondered whether they also perform these services in agricultural landscapes." Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.

Vietnamese animal feed imports face huge losses if Indian feed rejected

Vietnamese animal feed importers face huge losses if they are forced to return almost 100,000 tonnes of maize and soybean to India because of termites. The feed arrived from India in early January and the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development's Plant Protection Department has asked importers to return the goods rather than allowing it to be fumigated as usual.

The department said Vietnam was free from the invasive pest and it had told Indian suppliers to fumigate the feed before it was sent because it was such a large quantity that would have been too difficult to fumigate. Vietnam Feed Association’s chairman, Le Ba Lich, said the department had previously allowed feed stock to be imported and fumigation if termites were detected. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Global Miller, published and supported by the GFMT Magazine from Perendale Publishers.