Farming and Agriculture

Researchers at North Carolina State University show that an important gene in maize called HPC1 modulates certain chemical processes that contribute to flowering time, and has its origins in "teosinte mexicana," a precursor to modern-day corn that grows wild in the highlands of Mexico. The findings provide insight into plant... Read more

To halt biodiversity loss, the future design of EU agricultural policy could be guided by six basic principles and accompanied by multi-annual agreements and progressive payment systems. These are at the core of recommendations made by more than 300 scientists from 23 EU member states who were consulted at the... Read more

Researchers from the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science (HFIPS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a new algorithm for near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) that is suitable for high-throughput identification of the authenticity of crop varieties. Results were published in Infrared Physics & Technology.... Read more

Increased use of trees in agriculture can pave the way toward a transformation of the global food system, according to a new study released in May. Scientists have found that even small incremental increases in global tree cover on agricultural land could provide short-term respite to carbon accumulation in the... Read more

Using nutrient-rich coconut water to artificially inseminate female pigs could improve breeding and meat quality, a project carried out in Uganda has found.... Read more

Having a big idea may not be enough to change the world—innovation is a commercial process as well as scientific inspiration. Turning research into marketable products is partly a business challenge.... Read more

Researchers from the Disruptive & Sustainable Technologies for Agricultural Precision (DiSTAP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT's research enterprise in Singapore, and their local collaborators from the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) as... Read more

Cropping systems are one of the most important components in the crop production system, which is intensified to feed a growing global population. Previous studies focused on high yield with less attention to production of nutrients and vitamins for human diet. Since the Green Revolution, a winter wheat-summer maize double... Read more

Sitting in a semi-circle in the yard outside of a village school in Nepal, a group of farmers share their concerns about the future. They discuss how the rain is unreliable—droughts and floods are both becoming more common. The heat is overwhelming before the rains come.... Read more

Nigeria—the sixth largest producer of cashew nuts globally—exports more than 80% of its raw cashews primarily to Vietman and India where they are processed into various consumer products such as butter, food and cosmetic ingredients.... Read more

A team of researchers from the City University of Hong Kong, working with several colleagues from the U.K., has modified an AI application for use in detecting chick distress calls in noisy environments. In their paper published in Journal of the Royal Society Interface, the group describes the modifications they... Read more

The production of wild and farm-raised fish, shellfish and algae reached record levels in 2020, and future increases could be vital to fighting world hunger, the Food and Agriculture Organization said Wednesday.... Read more

Through CRISPR and other gene-editing technologies, researchers and developers are poised to bring dozens—if not hundreds—of new products to grocery stores: mushrooms with longer shelf lives, drought-resistant corn and bananas impervious to a fungus threatening the global supply. A few, including a soybean variety that produces a healthier cooking oil,... Read more

In the meat industry, it's common practice to turn the whole animal into food products. In the fish industry, over half of the weight of the fish ends up as side-streams which never reach our plates. This takes a toll on the environment and is out of step with Swedish... Read more

A team of researchers has assembled a reference genome for Solanum lycopersicoides, a wild relative of the cultivated tomato, and developed web-based tools to help plant researchers and breeders improve the crop.... Read more