NAIROBI  cheap nike exp x 14 , April 28 (Xinhua) -- The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) started using mobile phone technology in reporting desert locust's invasion in the Eastern Africa, a senior UN official said on Friday.

FAO Sub-regional Crop Production Officer for Eastern Africa Region Mathew Abang said that community administrators and selected youths have been identified to help in reporting army locust's deserts through mobile phones in the sub region to help hasten control the insects from causing massive destruction to farmers.

"We have resorted to the use of mobile phones following our experience with the management of African army worms that that caused massive damage due to disconnect in communication between farmers and scientists," Abang said this during a stakeholders forum on Fall Armyworms in Nairobi.

He said the approach is set to help harness data by triggering early warning response since it is not easy for scientists to monitor the movements of the insects without the help of local communities.

Abang called on scientists to deploy the approach in the fight against Fall Armyworm that is currently ravaging crops, especially maize in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa countries.

"Empowering communities through capacity building is an approach that should be scaled up in Africa in the fight against the pest as we wait for the scientific solution  cheap nike air zoom pegasus 35 ," Abang said.

The Director of Desert Locust Control Organization for Eastern Africa (DLCO-EA) Stephen Njoka told the meeting that one of the solution to fighting Fall Armyworm and other pests in the region relies in the development of insect resistant crop varieties.

"It is time to equip farmers with modern technology and improved resistant seeds to save them from making losses every year," Njoka added.

He said that whereas his organization controls pests using aircraft, most small scale farmers cannot be helped by the approach as they own small farms.

According to scientists, fall armyworm is so far the most damaging insect pest in Africa in recent times.

Food security in Southern, Central and Eastern Africa is under threat by the invasive moth especially in regions where maize is the staple food. It has so far destroyed 287  cheap nike air max 270 ,000 hectares of maize in the region.

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BEIJING, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Bamboo slips dating back more than 2,300 years were officially recognized Sunday by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's earliest decimal calculation tool.

"The significance is that it is decimal, not duodecimal as seen in other countries. Decimal did not appear in Europe until the 15th century  cheap nike air vapormax ," said Li Xueqin, head of the Research and Conservation Center for Excavated Texts at Beijing-based Tsinghua University.

The 21 slips, crafted around 305 B.C. during the Warring States Period, are 43.5 centimeters long and 1.2 centimeters wide each.

When arranged together as a multiplication table, the slips can perform multiplication and division of any two whole numbers under 100 and numbers containing the fraction 0.5.

The slips have inscribed numbers and holes  cheap nike air force 270 , where threads used to go. A user would pull the threads corresponding to numbers needed to be calculated in order to see the result.

The owner of the slips remains unknown, according to Li. "Our guess is that the tool might have been used in trade or in the measurement of land in the kingdom of Chu," Li said.

PROTECTION, NO EASY JOB

In July 2008, Tsinghua acquired a rare collection of 2  cheap nike air force 1-100 white ,500 slip bamboo items from the late Warring States period, which had been smuggled out of China, including the multiplication table.

"It was the day summer vacation started, and we had planned to take care of the bamboo slips after summer vacation," said Li. "When I opened the plastic box that held the bamboo slips  cheap nike sf air force 1 high mens , I saw they were quite muddy and I smelled harsh chemicals."

Small spots of mold were also growing on some of the slips. "If not immediately dealt with, the mold would have resulted in holes in the slips," said Zhao Guifang, an expert on bamboo slip protection at Tsinghua.

Li thought that they could wait no longer.

"As they are made of bamboo, they had actually become as soft and fragile as tofu after 2  cheap nike sf air force 1 high ,300 years," he said.

He and his team of more than 10 people started cleaning the slips with the smallest and softest brushes. The team then spent the next four months cleaning the 2,500 slips day and night.

Cleaning was just the beginning. Preserving the slips also posed challenges for the team. In order to keep the slips in good condition, they had to put them in distilled water at a constant temperature and change the water very day.

The team now holds a meeting and reads the slips every Monday morning.

"Reading the slips is full of surprises and excitement, and I often get so excited that I have to stop by noon  cheap nike sf air force 1 mid mens ," Li said.

Apart from the multiplication table, the bamboo slips also have records of about 65 ancient texts that have been recognized to be among the most important artifacts from the Warring States Period.

"They have survived from the book burning of Qin Shi Huang, China's first emperor, who united the country. Therefore, they have great research value  cheap nike sf air force 1 mid ," Li said.

At the age of 84, he continues to be the protector of the bamboo slips. "There are still many slips that have not been read yet

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