Author Topic: Djerb International AgriShow 2019  (Read 2045 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Markus

  • Roleplay Manager
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,337
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: Samantra
Djerb International AgriShow 2019
« on: December 23, 2019, 07:20:17 PM »

Djerb International AgriShow 2019


The Djerb International AgriShow has a tradition dating back to the early 1950s but this first time the AgriShow has gone international inviting participants from other countries to present their products ranging from agricultural machinery to fertilizer and silos. The AgriShow also hosts a series of conferences where businesses can present their solutions to various challenges facing the agricultural sector.

The change from a national show to an international is not by chance. The main sponsor of the event, Jalal Deer, strongly supported the idea. According to Gholam Dabiri, the Royal Seleucid food crisis showed vulnerabilities in food security of the MidAranye region and it is the hope of Mr. Gholam Dabiri that events such as these will continue to put pressure of governments, whether local or national, to  take measures that should a new crisis take place, the countries of MidAranye in particular would better prepared to deal with it.

In the following days we will bring you more news from the first international Agrishow hosted by Tamora.


The inauguration ceremony



Agricultural machinery was on display all over the expo pavilion. 



Outside the pavilion, manufacturers could demonstrate the capabilities of their tractors, harvesters etc.


The friendly staff is ready to receive visitors and offer advice.

Spoiler:  ooc explanations • show


I plan on doing a few short post relating to agriculture (in the widest possible sense) of the MidAranye region. If you want to post, fell free. You  can say you have an area where you  show off your agricultural machinery, organize a conference about a particular issue relating to agriculture or something else. Slava Lavosk, Kaitaine, Rokkenjima and Lakhzovia cannot take part because of political issues, all others are welcomed.

   

Online DaveIronside

  • Roleplay Moderator
  • Global Superpower
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,371
    • View Profile
  • Your Nation: East Moreland / Royal Seleucid
Re: Djerb International AgriShow 2019
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2020, 11:18:24 PM »
The first to take the stage was Lucas Greening, a leading researcher with OsmanTech, a company that started off making medical equipment and prostetics before branching out into drugs, and then later in a wide range of technology from solar panels to laser optics. They'd experiemented for years with a type of rice they called "Golden Rice" and the company saw it as a vital project for the future.

"Ladies and Gentleman, I'm Lucas and today I'll be talking to you about an important crop for the future OsmanTech have developed called Golden Rice. Before I begin telling you about it I'd like to thank our hosts for the chance to come here today and share with you the development of the crop.

For many nations in the world rice is a staple of their everyday life, it can for some people form the vast majority of their calorific intake. Its a hardy crop and versatile, whether its a lovely risotto cooked in the Allied States of Ardia, a curried goat from Paracambi or rice pudding in East Moreland. One issue comes however that when it becomes the major part of a diet it means the human body can reach the required number of calories in a day but not maybe gain the correct nutritional balance. Reseach shows that in some regions where rice is a heavily relied upon aspect of a diet Vitamin A can be lacking and as such this can lead to serious health issues, particularly in at risk groups such as the young, the old and the ill. This lack of Vitamin A can be lethal in the very young and can even lead to irrevisible blindness. One region where this was an issue was Zimalia and as such OsmanTech became committed to looking for a solution. Originally we began playing about with suppliments, and these are a solution to the problem however they require a steady supply chain, are costly and require you to remember to take them. A solution that allowed life to continue as normal was preferred and that's when the science began.

Over the next few years we began genetically adapting various food types to see if we could get them to produce higher concentrates of Vitamin A. We first managed to get beta-Carotene, the precursser of Vitamin A to flourish in tomato's, the problem was this crop wouldn't perhaps be used in everyday meals in nations like Zimalia. As such though we learned that we could adapt the process and create it in rice, a much more useful carrier for the beta-Carotene. We then began tests crossbreeding our new beta-Carotene rich rice with local variaties found in Zimalia. Eventually we had a stable, sustainable rice which was a yellowy red colour when mature, giving the strain its name. Then it was about proving that the stuff was safe. Over years we conducted various tests in the labs of OsmanTech in specially constructed pens, in 2010 we received approval from the East Moreland food safety agencies that the rice was safe for human consumption. We then began tests in Zimalia and have interest from other nations across Mundus. Testing in other nations has given feedback that the rice has almost identical nutritional content as standard rice except for the fact that one bowl of the rice provides 50% of the daily recommended amount of Vitamin A.

The rice was given to a number of farmers in Zimalia to allow for wide spread testing and this went extremely well. The biggest issue we had was people were reluctant at first to use it on a similar scale as their traditional brown or white rice however this soon abated. Taste wise in blind taste testing 82% of people can not tell the difference between Golden Rice and their traditional rice varieties. The amount of Vitamin A related blindness has in the decade past helped cut down the amount of blindness in young children in Zimalia and has been seen to contribute to lowering deaths related to malnutrition.

The rice however has not been without opposition. At first critics of the rice claimed that the beta-Carotene would not be processed to Vitamin A and that when the rice was cooked this beta-Carotene would be destroyed. Tests however carried out by independent Universities concluded that beta-carotene from golden rice is effectively converted into vitamin A in humans and a  study that fed 68 children ages 6 to 8 concluded that golden rice was as good as vitamin A supplements and better than the natural beta-carotene in spinach.

A second criticism by some environment agencies is that Golden Rice could be seen as a "gateway genetically modified crop" meaning that as the rice is considered important because of its humanitarian and health properities it is given more leeway than other genetically modified crops. They believe that should Golden Rice become more and more widespread then nations may begin utilising even more GM crops. Long term studies of the rice however have shown that no long term damage to surrounding crops has taken place. Effective controlled testing prior to planting ensures that no contamination or health issues could be passed along. Just as we would expect OsmanTech pharmacetecal branch to carry out extensicve testing before putting a new drug in a human body it is vital GM crops undergo a similar process before we put them in the soil. Therefore GM crops are something we will see more of going forward but it is vital nations take a robust and heavily scrutinised approach to them.

Others claim that the rice will take away biodiversity. As Golden Rice will be proclaimed as a useful crop for health reasons the crop may be grown by a large number of farmers in the majority of their fields. While it is true and can be argued that a varied diet containing foods rich in beta-carotene such as sweet potato, leaf vegetables and fruit would provide children with sufficient vitamin A this is short sighted. These crops are often seasonal, regional and too expensive for poor families in many cases. Golden Rice is available all year round, easier to store and inexpensive.

So what does the future hold for Golden Rice. We are currently beginning open field testing of Golden Rice 2, early studies show this may in its uncooked form produce up to 23 times more beta-carotene than the original golden rice and early testing shows Golden Rice 2 contains sufficient vitamin A to provide the entire dietary requirement via daily consumption of some 75g per day. This crop we hope will be approved for mass distribution by the end of 2020.

What is most exciting is the fact that as of today OsmanTech is hoping to make Golden Rice 1.0 avaliable on a larger scale. We are now in a position to distribute globally and on a scale larger than before. We today will make initial batches of the rice available on humanitarian grounds for free. Any farmer who is earning less than $10,000 a year will be permitted to get supplies of the seeds for free. We believe this can help eradicate Vitamin A deaths and blindness by the end of 2030. The agreement would stay in place as long as a farmer or subsequent user of golden rice genetics does not make more than $10,000 per year, no royalties need to be paid. In addition, farmers will be permitted to keep and replant seeds.

I hope those of you gathered here today will support OsmanTech in this attempt to use food science to try and eradicate health issues. Should any of you wish to try the Golden Rice we have some authentic East Moreland venison made into a chilli served with rice, and for any veggies out there we've not forgot about you as we have a vegetable curry. We look forward to seeing you enjoy our food."