Brazilian Scientist wins Food Prize for developing method to grow food with fewer chemicals
Microbiologist Mariangela Hungria's research helped her country become an agricultural powerhouse, an accomplishment that has now won her $500,000 from the Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation. Hungria has been researching biological seed and soil treatments for 40 years, and has worked with Brazilian farmers to implement her findings.
"I still cannot believe it. Everybody said, my whole life, it's improbable, you are going the wrong way, just go to things like chemicals and so on. And then, I received the most important prize in the world of agriculture," Hungria said in an interview.
"Sometimes I still think I'll wake up and see that it's not true.' Norman Borlaug, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work to dramatically increase crop yields and reduce the threat of starvation in many countries, founded the World Food Prize. Since the first prize was handed out in 1987, 55 people have been honored.
Hungria said she grew up wanting to alleviate hunger. Early in her career, she decided to focus on a process called biological nitrogen fixation, in which soil bacteria could be used to promote plant growth. At that time, farmers in Brazil and around the world were reluctant to reduce their use of nitrogen fertilizers, which dramatically increase crop production but lead to greenhouse gas emissions and pollutes waterways.
Hungria studied how bacteria can interact with plant roots to naturally produce nitrogen. She then demonstrated her work on test plots and began working directly with farmers to convince them that they wouldn't have to sacrifice high crop yields if they switched to a biological process.
The work is credited for increasing yields of several crops, including wheat, corn, and beans, but it has been especially affective on soybeans. Brazil has since become the world's largest soybean producer, surpassing the United States and Argentina.
Although Hungria's research could be applied on farms in other countries, soybean production in the U.S. is different than it is in Brazil; American farmers typically rotate crops on their land between growing corn and soybeans.
Enough nitrate fertilizer applied to corn still remains in the soil when soybeans are planted that little or no fertilizer needs to be applied, Hungria said. Brazilian agricultural companies have faced fierce criticism for clearing forested land to create farmland, largely to grow soybeans.
Much of that criticism is justified, Hungria said, but she added that her biological approach builds up the soil and makes further encroachment into forested areas less necessary. "If you manage the crop well, the crop will enrich the soil with nitrogen. Soil health improves if you do the right things,' she said.
Hungria will be awarded her prize at an annual October gathering in Des Moines, Iowa, of agricultural researchers and officials from around the world. Gebisa Ejeta, chair of the World Food Prize Laureate Selection Committee, credited Hungria for her "extraordinary scientific achievements' that have transformed agriculture in South America.
"Her brilliant scientific work and her committed vision for advancing sustainable crop production to feed humanity with judicious use of chemical fertilizer inputs and biological amendments has gained her global recognition both at home and abroad,' Ejeta said in a statement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab Times
a day ago
- Arab Times
Researchers uncover prehistoric whale with Pokémon-like face and sharp teeth
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, Aug 16, (AP): Long before whales were majestic, gentle giants, some of their prehistoric ancestors were tiny, weird, and feral. A chance discovery of a 25-million-year-old fossil on an Australian beach has allowed paleontologists to identify a rare, entirely new species that could unlock mysteries of whale evolution. Researchers this week officially named Janjucetus dullardi, a cartoonish creature with bulging eyes the size of tennis balls, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Unlike today's whales, the juvenile specimen was small enough to fit in a single bed. Boasting fiendish teeth and a shark-like snout, however, this oddball of the ocean was nasty, mean and built to hunt. "It was, let's say, deceptively cute,' said Erich Fitzgerald, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute, and one of the paper's authors. "It might have looked for all the world like some weird kind of mash-up between a whale, a seal, and a Pokémon, but they were very much their own thing.' The rare discovery of the partial skull, including ear bones and teeth, was made in 2019 on a fossil-rich stretch of coast along Australia's Victoria state. Jan Juc Beach, a cradle for some of the weirdest whales in history, is becoming a hotspot for understanding early whale evolution, Fitzgerald said. Few family trees seem stranger than that of Janjucetus dullardi, only the fourth species ever identified from a group known as mammalodontids, early whales that lived only during the Oligocene Epoch, about 34 to 23 million years ago. That marked the point about halfway through the known history of whales. The tiny predators, thought to have grown to 3 meters (10 feet) in length, were an early branch on the line that led to today's great baleen whales, such as humpbacks, blues, and minkes. But the toothy ancestors with powerful jaws would have looked radically different to any modern species. "They may have had tiny little nubbins of legs just projecting as stumps from the wall of the body,' said Fitzgerald. That mystery will remain tantalizingly unsolved unless a specimen is uncovered with more of its skeleton intact, which would be something of a miracle. Even the partial skull that allowed the initial identification this week was an astonishing discovery. Janjucetus dullardi was named by researchers after an amateur fossil hunter who doesn't mind its looks in the slightest. "It's literally been the greatest 24 hours of my life,' said Ross Dullard, who discovered the skull while fossil hunting at Jan Juc Beach. After Wednesday's confirmation of the new species, the school principal walked like a rock star onto campus with "high fives coming left, right and center,' he said. His friends and family are probably just relieved it's over. "That's all they've heard from me for about the last six years,' he said. Dullard was on a regular low-tide hunt at Jan Juc the day he spotted something black protruding from a cliff. Poking it dislodged a tooth. He knew enough to recognize it was unlikely to belong to a dog or a seal. "I thought, geez, we've got something special here,' he said. Dullard sent photos to Museums Victoria, where Fitzgerald saw them and immediately suspected a new species. Confirming the find was another matter. This was the first mammalodontid to be identified in Australia since 2006 and only the third on record in the country. Fossils of sufficient quality, with enough of the right details preserved to confirm uniqueness, aren't common. "Cetaceans represent a fairly miniscule population of all life,' Fitzgerald said. Millions of years of erosion, scavengers, and ocean currents take their toll on whale skeletons too. "It's only the chosen few, the vast minority of all whales that have ever lived and died in the oceans over millions of years, that actually get preserved as fossils,' he added. Finds such as Janjucetus dullardi can unlock insights into how prehistoric whales ate, moved, behaved - and evolved. Researchers said the discoveries also helped to understand how ancient cetacean species adapted to warmer oceans, as they study how today's marine life might respond to climate change. Meanwhile, Dullard planned to host a fossil party this weekend, featuring cetacean-themed games and whale-shaped treats in jello, to celebrate his nightmare Muppet find, finally confirmed. "That's taken my concentration for six years,' he said. "I've had sleepless nights. I've dreamt about this whale.'
Arab Times
2 days ago
- Arab Times
Horned Rabbits? Here's the Weird but True Story
DENVER (AP) — A group of rabbits in Colorado with grotesque, hornlike growths may seem straight out of a low-budget horror film, but scientists say there's no reason to be spooked — the furry creatures merely have a relatively common virus. The cottontails recently spotted in Fort Collins are infected with the mostly harmless Shope papillomavirus, which causes wart-like growths that protrude from their faces like metastasizing horns. Viral photos have inspired a fluffle of unflattering nicknames, including 'Frankenstein bunnies,' 'demon rabbits' and 'zombie rabbits.' But their affliction is nothing new, with the virus inspiring ancient folklore and fueling scientific research nearly 100 years ago. The virus likely influenced the centuries-old jackalope myth in North America, which told of a rabbit with antlers or horns, among other animal variations. The disease in rabbits also contributed to scientists' knowledge about the connection between viruses and cancer, such as the human papillomavirus that causes cervical cancer. The virus in rabbits was named after Dr. Richard E Shope, a professor at The Rockefeller University who discovered the disease in cottontails in the 1930s. The virus in rabbits was named after Dr. Richard E Shope, a professor at The Rockefeller University who discovered the disease in cottontails in the 1930s. News about the rabbit sightings in Fort Collins, 65 miles (105 kilometers) north of Denver, started getting attention after residents started spotting them around town and posting pictures. Kara Van Hoose, a spokesperson for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the agency has been getting calls about the rabbits seen in Fort Collins. But she said that it's not uncommon to see infected rabbits, especially in the summer, when the fleas and ticks that spread the virus are most active. The virus can spread from rabbit to rabbit but not to other species, including humans and pets, she said. The growths resemble warts but can look like horns if they grow longer, Van Hoose said. The growths don't harm rabbits unless they grow on their eyes or mouths and interfere with eating. Rabbits' immune systems are able to fight the virus and, once they do, the growths will disappear, she said.
Kuwait Times
3 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Auction of world's largest Mars meteorite sparks ownership debate
The recent auction of a Martian meteorite -- for a record-grabbing $5.3 million at Sotheby's New York -- has sparked questions over its provenance and renewed debate over who gets to claim rocks fallen from the heavens. The hefty 54-pound (25-kilogram) stone is the largest Martian meteorite ever discovered on Earth, according to its Sotheby's listing, and was found in November 2023 in the vast Saharan desert in Niger. The government of Niger has announced that it will open an investigation following the auction, saying it appears to 'have all the characteristics of illicit international trafficking.' On Friday, the government suspended exports of precious stones and meteorites until further notice. Sotheby's has rejected the accusations, insisting that the meteorite was 'was exported from Niger and transported in line with all relevant international procedure.' In light of the controversy, however, a review of the case is underway, a Sotheby's spokesperson told AFP. 'The stone journeyed 140 million miles through space, and hurtled through Earth's atmosphere before crashing in the Sahara Desert,' the Sotheby's listing said. Following its discovery, the jagged, ochre-colored stone was then sold to an international dealer, briefly exhibited in Italy, and eventually ended up in the auction catalog in New York. For American paleontologist Paul Sereno, who has worked closely with Niger's authorities for years, all signs suggest that the stone left the country 'illicitly.' 'Everybody's anonymous -- from the person who found it, the dealers, the guy who bought it, everybody's anonymous,' he told AFP, making no secret of his frustration. 'If they had put on baseball gloves and caught the meteorite as was hurtling towards Earth before it landed in any country, they could claim it... but I'm sorry, it landed there. It belongs to Niger,' he said. The 54-pound Martian meteorite NWA 16788, the largest known piece of Mars ever discovered on Earth, is displayed during a Sotheby's auction preview in New York. 'We should respect it' Laws governing the ownership of meteorites vary based on their point of impact. In the United States, for example, if a rock falls on private land, the property owners have ownership rights. In Niger, however, a law governs 'national cultural patrimony,' which includes rare mineralogical specimens, according to Matthieu Gounelle, a professor at France's National History Museum, and his father Max Gounelle, a French university professor. Both are specialists in regulations governing the collection and sale of meteorites. 'In our opinion, there is no doubt that meteorites should be included among the rare mineralogical specimens' protected by Nigerien law, they told AFP. Beyond the legal battle and the possible involvement of a trafficking network, the sale of the meteorite also raises science ethics questions. The rock, named NWA 16788, has unique scientific research value. Much larger than other Martian meteorites that have been recorded to date, it offers a unique insight into the geological history of the Red Planet. Like other Martian meteorites, it is believed to have been ejected into space when an asteroid slammed into Mars. 'This is nature's heritage. In many ways, it's world heritage, and it's telling us things about the cosmos. We should respect it,' Sereno said. 'It's not something to my mind that should be auctioned up to potentially disappear into someone's mantle.' — AFP
