AVA and polytechnic study using nature to protect plants

Study to pit fungi against 'soldier' fungi
Aim is to find way to protect plants without using toxic chemicals
Grace Chua Straits Times 9 Jul 10;

SOME types of fungi cause ornamental plants to wilt, vegetables to turn yellow or mould to grow in the ventilation systems of buildings.

To combat these scourges, Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) researchers have, in the last four years, been studying other tiny fungi with a view to enlisting them as 'soldiers' in the war against their disease-causing cousins.

The polytechnic has now paired up with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) to do a study using weapons culled from nature to kill disease-causing plant agents.

The findings from the NYP-AVA study could add to knowledge about how vegetables and plants can be protected without using toxic chemical fungicides.

AVA chief executive Tan Poh Hong said at the ceremony at which the NYP-AVA tie-up was inked: 'In land-scarce Singapore, we will have to use new technologies to grow more from less land, using fewer hands.'

As of 2008, Singapore had 58 vegetable farms and 83 orchid and ornamental plant farms; its share of the international cut-orchid market was 15 per cent.

Dr Joel Lee, the director of life sciences at the NYP's School of Chemical & Life Sciences, explained that not all fungi cause harm or disease. Those classed as endophytes often produce chemicals that kill harmful organisms and protect their host plant.

Researchers are thus trying to identify the fungi which produce such arsenals of chemicals, and to perhaps extract these protective chemicals.

'Instead of looking in exotic locations, we should look in our own backyard,' said Dr Lee of the search for such fungi.

The researchers have done just that, collecting microscopic fungi from places such as the Central Nature Reserve here.

The soil and leaf litter there have yielded a wide range of micro-organisms which could become valuable sources of new drugs and useful substances.

AVA plant pathology assistant director Yap Mei Lai said the research could pave the way for commercial development of a bio-fungicide to control common plant diseases without the use of toxic chemicals.

The AVA has put $35,000 into the fungi project and the NYP, $40,000.

Want some mussel sauce with that?
Straits Times 9 Jul 10;

OYSTER sauce could one day have a competitor that looks the same, tastes the same but costs less.

Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) food scientists, working with the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), have developed one such sauce - using mussels.

It is likely to be ready for companies to mass produce and market in about a year.

The thick brown sauce, which can be used as a condiment or dip, is made from the broth produced as a result of processing of the shellfish for sale. This broth, which would otherwise have been discarded, is what is left behind when mussels have one shell removed and are frozen.

Because mussels are cheaper than oysters, mussel sauce costs less to produce.

This project is one of four covered under a memorandum of understanding signed by the AVA and NYP yesterday.

The other joint projects aim to:

# Develop quality and safety guidelines for processed vegetables and fruit, such as ready-to-eat salads

# Build a machine to mechanise the vaccination of farmed fish

# Use fungi as natural fungicides to kill the kinds of fungi that cause disease in vegetables, trees and ornamental plants.

These projects will involve five NYP staff members and 75 students from the polytechnic's School of Chemical & Life Sciences and its School of Engineering.

NYP will also launch a new diploma programme in food and beverage business next year. For a start, it will take in 40 students for training in both the business and food-preparation side of the industry.

GRACE CHUA

Singapore's food science sector set to expand
Surekha Yadav Channel NewsAsia 10 Jul 10;

SINGAPORE: You could soon have your vegetables with mussel sauce if the joint project between Nanyang Polytechnic and Singapore's Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority hits the supermarkets shelves in about a year's time.

Students working on the project are studying for a diploma in Food Science and Nutrition.

The project is just one of several covered under a memorandum of understanding between AVA and the polytechnic.

Other projects in the work include an automated fish vaccination machine for the aquaculture industry to increase productivity and the survival rate of fingerlings.

The projects are identified by the AVA based on areas that will serve national interest.

And such collaborations are part of AVA's long term strategy to work with institutions to increase local production.

Tan Poh Hong, CEO, Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore, said: "It provides a strategic stockpile for us in times of need. However in Singapore, there is very little land. So in land scarce Singapore, we will have to use technologies so we use less land for local farming and fewer hands. One of the areas we can be more productive in use of our lands is to leverage on technology to increase our capabilities and capacities."

Last year NYP had an ice cream making competition - "Eskimos Battle" to whet the appetite of secondary school students for Food Science.

The competition was held in partnership with Swensens. The ice-cream chain is now launching its first Savoury Ice Cream range after the collaboration.

Educators note that developing the local food industry further will require training from conceptualisation to commercialisation.

Nanyang Polytechnic will soon introduce a Diploma in Food & Beverage Business which aims to train students in both the food preparation and business aspects of F&B services.

Dr Joel Lee, director (Life Science), School of Chemical & Life Sciences, NYP, said: "We know in the food industry the whole value chain is from conceptualising to making sure its safe for consumption, all the way to manufacturing it, and commercialising it.

“By launching this new diploma in food and beverage business, it completes our contribution towards training manpower in Singapore to sustain the food industry from upstream all the way up to the commercialisation part."

The diploma will be offered in April next year. - CNA/vm