WINKER

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12484.html Thursday 14 April 2011 African women more at risk of having stillbirths. Some 2.6 million third trimester stillbirths worldwide occur every year, according to the first comprehensive set of stillbirth estimates, published today within a special series in the medical journal The Lancet. Every day more than 7,300 babies are stillborn. A death occurs just when parents expect to welcome a new life. Ninety-eight per cent of stillbirths occur in low and middle-income countries. Wealthier nations are not immune with 1 in 200 pregnancies resulting in a stillbirth - two thirds occurring in the last trimester of pregnancy, a rate that has stagnated in the last decade. The five main causes of stillbirths are childbirth complications, maternal infections in pregnancy, maternal disorders (especially pre-eclampsia and diabetes), foetal growth restriction and congenital abnormalities. The number of stillbirths worldwide has declined...

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12430.html Tuesday 29 March 2011 The 44 member self help group, initially presented a project on technology of up scaling on passion fruit production. MURANGA---When Hannah Wairimu 48, lost her husband in 2009, she thought the world had crumbled on her as she was left with the burden of feeding their four children and taking them to school. The family, living in Karwaya Village of Kandara district, had been dependent on coffee growing but due to poor marketing strategies of the crop, they incurred losses. Meanwhile, her income was dwindling day by day thereby making it impossible to take care of her family. The widow invested in diversifying crops on her small farm, thanks to the Agricultural Technologies Information Response Initiative (ATIRI) programme introduced by Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI). Wairimu now grows passion fruits, avocadoes, bananas, and strawberry for commercial purposes thereby earning her enou...

http://www.newsfromafrica.org/newsfromafrica/articles/art_12429.htmlMonday 28 March 2011 Plant clinics are modeled on the human health advice concept, where plant ‘doctors’ provide expert advice on pests and diseases affecting their crops and provide prescriptions for affected plants. NAIROBI---As human beings visit doctors when feeling unwell, that is the same way farmers are now taking their ‘sick’ plants to clinics for information and prescription. Plant clinics are modeled on the human health advice concept, where plant ‘doctors’ provide expert advice on pests and diseases affecting their crops and provide prescriptions for affected plants. The global plant clinic concept was developed in 2003 by the Centre for Agricultural Bio-Science International (CABI) in Bolivia then piloted in Bangladesh and Nicaragua. In Kenya CABI, jointly partnered with the Ministry of Agriculture’s extension services, Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) and Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate (KEPHI...