Researchers at the University of Maryland and their collaborators have cloned a gene that makes wheat resistant to feeding by Hessian fly larvae and demonstrated its direct interaction with a protein produced by the insect. The research breaks through a longstanding barrier to understanding and engineering pest resistance in wheat....
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The United States could exhaust its domestic phosphorus supply within 40 years. Europe, Latin America and Southeast Asia already depend on imports from China and Morocco to meet their needs. Without phosphorus, crops cannot grow—and without a reliable supply of the mineral, the world's food supply is at risk....
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For thousands of years, farmers in the Pacific have lived in harmony with their environment. But rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and tired soils are testing even the most experienced hands....
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ETH researchers have used a sustainability program for cocoa cultivation in Côte d'Ivoire to demonstrate that, in one in four cases, data was manipulated to meet the program's requirements. If the auditor were aware of the required target values, data manipulation increased significantly. Where these values were unknown, the frequency...
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In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers show how a wider diversity of vegetables could help improve diets and strengthen agriculture against climate change. They use the term vegetable biodiversity to describe the full range of vegetable species, traditional varieties and their wild...
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The federal government is injecting millions of dollars into efforts to combat feral hogs—and it's considering spending even more in the coming years. The problem has grown for decades, but our research has found that a recently revived federal effort offers the potential for bringing the hogs under control....
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Last year, we described Agrilo, an affordable "colorimetric" soil-testing system developed through research at MacEwan University. Using a smartphone camera to interpret color changes, Agrilo measures soil nutrients and can provide farmers with timely guidance to support fertilizer decisions....
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Every tomato begins with a flower. But before a fruit can grow, an intricate sequence of events must happen in perfect order. The flower's male and female organs must develop together, pollen must be released at exactly the right time, and fertilization must occur....
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University of Bristol–led researchers have identified a naturally occurring gut molecule that could strengthen chickens' immune response against a wide range of bacterial infections. This development, published today, Aug. 12, in The Journal of Immunology, offers a major step forward in sustainable farming and the global fight against antibiotic resistance....
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The North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network—known as NDAWN—isn't just measuring precipitation amounts and temperatures across the state. It's also playing a role in developing tools for crop disease management....
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They may look like any ordinary species of flies buzzing around on any given day, but the New World screwworm is quite extraordinary. Screwworm flies are highly destructive parasitic flies that feed on the tissue of warm-blooded animals, including humans (though the risk to humans is low). They burrow in...
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When it comes to identifying harmful bacteria, it helps to look at the company their genes keep. Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture, used a machine-learning approach to study not just which genes a bacterium has, but also...
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Karevo's AI-powered optical recognition system can sort up to 10 tons of potatoes per hour with 95% accuracy. The founder's journey took him from a potato farm to the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and ultimately to his own startup....
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In the Midwestern summer, humans and plants have to breathe through the heat and humidity. Researchers hope that a retooled crop plant—one with an improved ventilation system within its leaves—could thrive while avoiding drought stress by reducing "crop sweat." Thanks to next-generation imaging technology powered by Argonne National Laboratory's particle...
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In the 1950s, the New World screwworm cost U.S. livestock producers tens of millions of dollars a year, reaching $50 million to $100 million annually in the hardest-hit Southwest, before it was eradicated from the United States and pushed south to Panama. Now the flesh-eating pest has spread north again,...
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