News

Czech scientists have opened a lab to experiment growing food under extreme conditions and in environments lacking water – such as Mars, Reuters reports.

The “Marsonaut” experiment by 29-year-old scientist Jan Lukačevič and his team at the University of Life Sciences in Prague is based on aeroponics — growing plants in the air, without soil, and limiting water use to a minimum.

Using aeroponics, plants grow horizontally from a vertical unit and are stacked one above the other in order to minimise space.

Lukačevič told Reuters his team has already succeeded in growing mustard plants, salad leaves, radishes and herbs, such as basil and mint.

The main benefit of aeroponics is that it uses 95 percent less water than normal plant cultivation and saves space, which could boost agricultural yields in areas hit by climate change and urbanisation.

The IHS Markit Czech Republic Manufacturing PMI edged up to 45.0 in October 2019 from 44.9 in the previous month. It remains at the weakest level since mid-2009.

The reading pointed to the 11th straight month of contraction in the manufacturing sector, but was the softest since June, Markit Economics said.

The rate of decline in both new orders and new export eased slightly; while employment fell at the fastest rate for almost a decade.

On the price front, input costs rose as lower demand for inputs limited supplier pricing power; while output costs increased for the first time since July despite weak demand conditions.

Sentiment towards output over the coming year was negative for the first time since December 2012, Markit Economics said, as hopes of a pick-up in demand waned.

The sixth annual Aussie and Kiwi Film Fest gets underway in Prague on Friday night at Prague’s Lucerna theatre with a screening of the comedy drama ‘Ladies in Black.’

The festival, which this year focuses on the theme of freedom, will offer movie screenings and accompanying events, including an exhibition of photographs by Jiří Jírů called ‘Havel in New Zealand’ and a discussion at the Václav Havel Library about Czechoslovak emigration to Australia and New Zealand. The Aussie and Kiwi Film Fest will run until November 6.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has ranked the Czech Republic second among the post-communist nations in the sustainability of the civil society sector for 2018, along with Poland, Latvia and Lithuania, the Czech News Agency reported on Thursday.

The USAID annual report, which compares the situation in 24 former Eastern Bloc countries, suggests that Czech NGOs have improved the offer and the quality of their services over the past year, but the sector’s public image has deteriorated for the second consecutive year.

The growing distrust in NGOs is caused by the activist approach of some NGOs in face of the migrant crisis as well as fake news, which portray the sector as unreliable and incompetent, says Marek Šedivý, president of the Association of public benefit organisation in the Czech Republic.