Month: March 2018

Keywords: soybean Producers surveyed across the United States intend to plant an estimated 89.0 million acres of soybeans in 2018, down 1 percent from last year, according to the Prospective Plantings report released today by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Planted acreage intentions for soybeans are down or unchanged in 20 of the… Continue reading U.S. farmers expect to plant more soybean acreage than corn acreage

Keywords: soybean Approximately 340 million metric tons of soybeans are produced globally each year, with the market for soybeans worth $40 billion in the U.S. alone. Having a map of soybean genes is key for breeders, who work to develop varieties that farmers can use to help battle diseases and other environmental factors. For nearly… Continue reading The map of additional soybean genomes could help breeders fight diseases and other challenges in the crop

On March 27th, the reporter learned from the Agricultural Bank of China that as of the end of 2017, the balance of agriculture-related agricultural loans reached 3.08 trillion yuan, an increase of 358.6 billion yuan over the beginning of the year. Zhao Huan, governor of the Agricultural Bank of China, said that in 2017, Agricultural… Continue reading Agriculture Bank’s Agricultural Loan Breaks 3 Trillion RMB

Keywords: rice An international team led by the University of Exeter showed that chemical genetic inhibition of a single protein in the fungus stops it spreading inside a rice leaf – leaving it trapped within a single plant cell. The finding is a breakthrough in terms of understanding rice blast, a disease that is hugely… Continue reading Scientists made breakthrough in battle against rice blast

Keywords: maize Researchers at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) have developed a maize variety which is rich in both Vitamin A and essential amino acids through the process of plant breeding. Maize, the third most important foodgrain following wheat and rice, is grown throughout the year in India. Popularly known as corn, it is… Continue reading Scientists develop bio-fortified maize to address ‘hidden hunger’

The Ministry of Agriculture of Argentina has approved the commercialization of two varieties of corn and one soybean variety improved by modern biotechnology. One of the corn crops approved incorporates multiple genes to increase the control of the Lepidoptera insects, as well as tolerance to herbicides glyphosate and glufosinate. Another is resistant to the herbicides… Continue reading Argentina approves new corn, soybean GMO seeds

Keywords: vegetable Space missions will increasingly become longer, so in the future, the crew members will need to grow their own food. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to understand how plants respond to microgravity. With this in mind, NASA’s Veg-03 mission aims to check the functioning of a planting hardware called Yeggie.… Continue reading Vegetables grown successfully in the International Space Station

Keywords: rice A lot has been written about the Green Revolution in the late 1960s, which helped prevent mass famine. IR8, the first rice variety released by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the world’s first high-yielding rice variety, sparked the Green Revolution in Asia. This scientific innovation was soon followed by other high-yielding… Continue reading Breakthrough in improving yield potential could continue what the Green Revolution started

Keywords: tomato The Boyce Thompson Institute’s Computational Biology Center (BCBC) in collaboration with RWTH Aachen University has released an annotated genome sequence for Solanum lycopersicoides, a wild relative of tomato. The genome has been assembled to near chromosome scale using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies. The S. lycopersicoides genome sequence and accompanying annotation provide valuable… Continue reading Open-access wild tomato genome offers valuable insights for tomato growers, crop scientists

Keywords: aphids Carmen Blubaugh is an assistant professor in Clemson University’s plant and environmental sciences department. He is involved in a study that addresses how plants mediate interactions between predators and prey. The study took place in organic broccoli fields on 52 mixed-vegetable farms in Washington, Oregon and Idaho over a period of two years.… Continue reading Research suggests plants and predators might work together to control aphids