Month: August 2018

An annual U.S. soy exporters’ conference wrapped up on Wednesday without any known sales to Chinese buyers, in sharp contrast to previous years where billions of dollars of the main U.S. cash crop have been signed over to China in elaborate ceremonies. The U.S.-China trade dispute has effectively halted bilateral trade of soybeans and U.S.… Continue reading Chinese soy buyers leave U.S. exporters show empty handed

A tiny pest can cause huge losses to soybean farmers. Several top soybean producing states in the U.S. are in the Upper Midwest. In these states, an insect–the soybean aphid–is a damaging pest. Each year, soybean aphids cause billions of dollars in crop losses. The difference between resistant (left) and susceptible (right) soy plants. –… Continue reading Soy natural: Genetic resistance against aphids

As American farmers and ranchers step up to help meet the global challenge of producing 70 percent more food by the year 2050 to meet nutrition needs of some 9 billion people, peanuts will play a role. But to meet that demand, says USDA-ARS peanut breeder Kelly Chamberlin, Stillwater, Okla., the industry must build on… Continue reading Precision breeding crucial to maintain peanut yield trend

It is difficult for even veteran farmers to recognize every pest variety, making choosing the right pesticide to kill them difficult. But Chinese scientists have made the work as easy as using a smartphone to photo them. A pest-recognizing application developed by the Hefei Intelligent Machine Institute with the Chinese Academy of Sciences has tested… Continue reading Chinese scientists develop smart app to identify pests on crops

“Elite crops” can be grown to maintain their current high yields with less fertilizer, according to a paper published online this week in Nature. The new study led by Professor Xiangdong Fu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Beijing, and Professor Nicholas Harberd from the Department of Plant Sciences… Continue reading Researchers discover a new gene which improves yields of cereal crops, using less fertilizer

This is the average relative contribution of climate change and crop management on Tphe for spring wheat (a) and winter wheat (b). Values denotes the mean of percentage of all stations in each wheat-cropping system. SD: sowing date; ED: emergence date; AD: anthesis date; MD: maturity date; VGP: duration from emergence to anthesis; RGP: duration… Continue reading Scientists found that wheat growing season lengths change significant due to crop management measure

Changes in the workforce are challenging academia to prepare scientists to be adaptable and adept at communicating across boundaries. To meet these demands, the Plant Science Research Network (PSRN) is shifting the focus to enable trainees to take ownership of their training experiences. “Since President Lincoln established the Land Grant Institutions to train generations of… Continue reading Plant scientists call for renewed focus on empowerment of trainees

Kirby Nilsen has used the new sequence to identify genes in wheat that can help the plants resist wheat stem sawfly— a pest that may cause yield losses of up to 30 per cent annually to the $11-billion Canadian wheat industry. His work was a key component in breakthrough research published Thursday in Science, in… Continue reading University of Saskatchewan researchers uncover insect-resistant genes in wheat

Kansas State University scientists, in collaboration with the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium, published today in the international journal Science a detailed description of the complete genome of bread wheat, the world’s most widely-cultivated crop. This work will pave the way for the production of wheat varieties better adapted to climate challenges, with higher yields,… Continue reading Wheat code finally cracked; wheat genome sequence will bring stronger varieties to farmers

Tuesday 14 August will mark the start of the Autonomous Greenhouses Challenge as five international teams try to grow cucumbers at a distance with the use of artificial intelligence at the facilities of Wageningen University & Research (WUR). “The goal is to convert knowledge about cultivation into algorithms that can enable computers to regulate cultivation… Continue reading Can artificial intelligence do as well as farmers in the future? Cucumber plants to enter autonomous greenhouse of Wageningen University & Research