Maize research at Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru, Nigeria resulted in sustained growth in yields in the last two decades. Maize is grown throughout the country with guinea savanna as the most important ma...Maize research at Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru, Nigeria resulted in sustained growth in yields in the last two decades. Maize is grown throughout the country with guinea savanna as the most important maize growing zone. In the last five years, four new open pollinating varieties developed in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Ibadan) had been released for production. Hybrid varieties are also marketed by seed companies. The research was focused on variety improvement, improved management practices, integrated pests and disease control, soil fertility management, on-farm testing of improved production packages and socio-economics of production as well as adoption studies. The recently released quality protein maize has improved the nutritional status of vulnerable groups. Drought tolerant maize for Africa research project has contributed to sustainable maize production, poverty reduction and food security in the continent.展开更多
Based on multi-temporal topographic maps, remote sensing images and field surveys covering the entire coastal zone of China's Mainland, the coastlines of six periods since the early 1940s were extracted. Coastline...Based on multi-temporal topographic maps, remote sensing images and field surveys covering the entire coastal zone of China's Mainland, the coastlines of six periods since the early 1940s were extracted. Coastline changes over the last 70 years were then analyzed in terms of coastline structure, coastline fractals, coastline change rates, land-sea patterns, and bay areas. The results showed that mainland coastline structure changed dramatically, and due to the significant coastline artificialization mainly driven by sea reclamation and coastal engineering, the remaining natural coastline merely accounts for less than one third at present. Coastline fractal dimension represented an overall spatial pattern of "north 〈 entirety 〈 south"; however, the discrepancy between the north and south coast was apparently narrowed due to dramatic coastline artificialization of northern China which in turn altered the whole pattern. Patterns and processes of land-sea interchange along the mainland coast were complex and varied spatially and temporally, with over 68% advancing toward sea and 22% retreating toward land. The net growth of land area was nearly 14.2 ×10^3 km2 with an average growth rate of 202.82 km2 al; and coast retreat was characterized by area decrease of 93 bays with a magnitude of 10.1 ×10^3 km2 and an average shrinking rate up to 18.19% or an average shrinking speed up to 144.20 km2 a-1, among which the total area of Bohai shrunk by 7.06%, with an average annual loss amounting to 82 km2. The dramatic coastline changes along China's Mainland have brought about kinds of challenges to the coastal environment, therefore the integrated management, effective environment protection and sustainable utilization of coastlines is urgent.展开更多
文摘Maize research at Institute for Agricultural Research, Samaru, Nigeria resulted in sustained growth in yields in the last two decades. Maize is grown throughout the country with guinea savanna as the most important maize growing zone. In the last five years, four new open pollinating varieties developed in collaboration with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Ibadan) had been released for production. Hybrid varieties are also marketed by seed companies. The research was focused on variety improvement, improved management practices, integrated pests and disease control, soil fertility management, on-farm testing of improved production packages and socio-economics of production as well as adoption studies. The recently released quality protein maize has improved the nutritional status of vulnerable groups. Drought tolerant maize for Africa research project has contributed to sustainable maize production, poverty reduction and food security in the continent.
基金supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. XDA05130703)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31461143032)the Key Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZZD-EW-14)
文摘Based on multi-temporal topographic maps, remote sensing images and field surveys covering the entire coastal zone of China's Mainland, the coastlines of six periods since the early 1940s were extracted. Coastline changes over the last 70 years were then analyzed in terms of coastline structure, coastline fractals, coastline change rates, land-sea patterns, and bay areas. The results showed that mainland coastline structure changed dramatically, and due to the significant coastline artificialization mainly driven by sea reclamation and coastal engineering, the remaining natural coastline merely accounts for less than one third at present. Coastline fractal dimension represented an overall spatial pattern of "north 〈 entirety 〈 south"; however, the discrepancy between the north and south coast was apparently narrowed due to dramatic coastline artificialization of northern China which in turn altered the whole pattern. Patterns and processes of land-sea interchange along the mainland coast were complex and varied spatially and temporally, with over 68% advancing toward sea and 22% retreating toward land. The net growth of land area was nearly 14.2 ×10^3 km2 with an average growth rate of 202.82 km2 al; and coast retreat was characterized by area decrease of 93 bays with a magnitude of 10.1 ×10^3 km2 and an average shrinking rate up to 18.19% or an average shrinking speed up to 144.20 km2 a-1, among which the total area of Bohai shrunk by 7.06%, with an average annual loss amounting to 82 km2. The dramatic coastline changes along China's Mainland have brought about kinds of challenges to the coastal environment, therefore the integrated management, effective environment protection and sustainable utilization of coastlines is urgent.