Farming and Agriculture

In areas where freshwater is scarce, farmers often turn to treated wastewater to irrigate crops. And many regulators and consumers worry about exposing food to compounds routinely found in wastewater, including many psychoactive medications that treat mental disorders. But new research from Johns Hopkins University has found that certain crops—tomatoes,... Read more

A study has traced thousands of conserved regulatory elements back 300 million years, revealing deep principles of plant genome evolution—a discovery that could pave the way for more precise engineering of crop traits.... Read more

A team of international scientists, including researchers at the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, reports a major advance in sorghum genomics: a powerful new resource designed to speed discovery of traits that help crops thrive under heat, drought, and highly variable growing conditions. The study is published in Nature.... Read more

A pioneering research-industry partnership has used advances in indoor farming technology to grow pea shoots fortified with vitamin B12, opening an exciting route to market for farmers and addressing a major public health need. The partnership between the John Innes Centre and the Quadram Institute, based at the Norwich Research... Read more

The larvae of the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) are considered a promising source of sustainable protein, as they contain high-quality protein comparable to soy protein. They can produce this protein from a wide variety of biomass sources, including by-products and residues from agriculture and food processing. However, while their... Read more

Plants are constantly on guard. Their roots are equipped with molecular alarm systems that detect invading microbes and trigger immune responses. Yet beneficial soil fungi routinely enter living root cells and establish close partnerships essential for plant nutrition. Scientists have now discovered that these fungi send small RNAs into the... Read more

Wild garlic, oyster mushrooms and sea beet were once regularly gathered and eaten as part of meals across the UK. Today, some people have concerns about eating food growing in the woods or hedgerows, but are keen to discuss why—as our research shows.... Read more

A University of Queensland analysis of genetic data from northern Australian cattle has identified key regions of the genome that influence traits like fertility, growth and body condition, sometimes all at the same time. Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation researcher Dr. Mehrnush Forutan said the study helps explain... Read more

An international research team involving the IPK Leibniz Institute has discovered a small yet significant genetic difference in faba beans. Whether a plant survives the winter or can only be grown in spring hinges on a single location in the genome. The results of the study, which could significantly speed... Read more

Farmers could turn more of the UK's farmland into productive agroforestry systems if they had access to trusted advice and real farm examples, according to new research from the University of Reading. Dr. Amelia Hood, from the Department of Sustainable Land Management at the University of Reading, worked with 220... Read more

By 2050, nearly 20% of the areas currently suitable for cocoa cultivation in Colombia could lose the climate conditions needed for production, particularly in the lowlands of the Caribbean region and the country's northeastern departments, according to a new scientific study.... Read more

Climate change is threatening modern life in ways we are still finding, from food security to the economy to everyday living. It has been labeled a "threat multiplier" for its potential to complicate geopolitical relationships. Our efforts to adapt as a global society face obstacles brought on by inequality.... Read more

Long before humans cultivated crops or sailed between continents, a group of plant viruses was already evolving among wild plants in Eurasia. According to a new international study published in Plant Disease, the ancestors of modern tymoviruses likely emerged before the last Ice Age, reshaping scientists' understanding of the vast... Read more

Most plants allow fungal microorganisms to enter their root cells and provide them with carbohydrates in exchange for a better supply of nutrients and water. Only leguminous plants like peas, beans, and clover enter into an additional, mutually beneficial symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria. The alliance with so-called rhizobia enables... Read more

Herring from different parts of the Baltic Sea belong to distinct populations genetically adapted to local differences in salinity and temperature. However, these populations can also mix with each other, according to a new study by researchers from Uppsala University, Stockholm University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. These... Read more