Farming and Agriculture

Does climate change have an impact on the quality of cotton? Mississippi State scientists hope to answer that question with a new way to monitor the environmental impacts on the cash crop throughout the growing season.... Read more

A team from the University of Illinois has developed a modeling framework connecting enzyme activity related to photosynthesis to yield. This is the first time a model has tied the dynamic photosynthetic pathways directly to crop growth.... Read more

A new report on phosphorus, an essential element for Norwegian agriculture and aquaculture, suggests measures to ensure the mineral is recovered and reused.... Read more

Native plants and non-native crops do not fare well in proximity to one another, attracting pests that spread diseases in both directions, according to two new UC Riverside studies.... Read more

Farmers around the world all need to deal with weeds. The most widely used chemical product they use to kill those unwanted plants is glyphosate, often sold under commercial names like Roundup.... Read more

In a recent article published in the journal Nature Plants, the authors used simulation experiments to show that nitrogen fertilization in wheat cultivation will have to increase up to fourfold in the coming years to exploit the yield potential of the varieties and feed the growing world population. However, this... Read more

Quality is the core characteristic of cultivated land and is crucial for ensuring sustainable resource utilization and national food security. To meet the increasing demand for food driven by rapid population growth and the continual optimization of dietary structures, the intensity of cultivated land utilization has been steadily increasing.... Read more

The pathogen that causes bacterial spot is very good at what it does. Forming small lesions on the rinds of pumpkins, melons, cucumbers, and other cucurbits, it mars the fruits' appearance and ushers in secondary pathogens that lead to rot and severe yield loss. The bacterium, Xanthomonas cucurbitae, is so... Read more

Researchers in South Australia are digging deep into history of soil biology in the state to gain a better understanding of how the soil microbiome functions to ensure sustainable broadacre farming into the future.... Read more

Seaweed, a staple in traditional diets across the globe, is now gaining recognition in the United States. UConn Department of Nutritional Sciences researchers, including Department Head Professor Ji-Young Lee and Assistant Research Professor Young-Ki Park, are researching not only the health benefits of seaweed but also addressing the potential health... Read more

Mosses, liverworts, ferns and algae may offer an exciting new research frontier in the global challenge of protecting crops from the threat of disease.... Read more

Twelve million hectares of agricultural soils are lost globally through soil degradation every year. As an ecologist, I work alongside farmers and growers in the field and have seen how farming can help solve this global soil crisis.... Read more

University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers have discovered that the anatomical adaptation helping weedy rice varieties to proliferate is not, as previously believed, confined only to these pest varieties. The research, published recently in the Journal of Experimental Botany, shows that despite 10,000 years of human cultivation, a cell tissue that... Read more

Anthracnose, a severe disease caused by the Colletotrichum spinaciae plant pathogen, often occurs in common vetch, a widely grown legume. Chemicals are not recommended for disease management because the plants are used as livestock feed. A new study published in Grassland Research reveals that treating common vetch with certain bacteria... Read more

A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution indicates that while the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has collected annual data on areas of coca cultivation in South America for decades to monitor the establishment of illegal plantations and associated deforestation, scientists can't reliably distinguish among different types... Read more