Month: May 2019

The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday forecast bigger-than-expected domestic supplies of corn, soybeans and wheat, with outlooks for big harvests and export concerns underpinning the bearish stocks view. | File photo The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday forecast bigger-than-expected domestic supplies of corn, soybeans and wheat, with outlooks for big harvests and export concerns… Continue reading USDA says grain supplies to remain massive in new crop year

A team of biochemists at FAU led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Sonnewald have discovered why potato plants form significantly lower numbers of tubers or sometimes none at all at higher temperatures. A small RNA is responsible for this effect. They have even succeeded in deactivating this RNA to create potato plants that are resistant to… Continue reading How potatoes could become sun worshippers

Some NGOs have opposed the campaign to lift the ban on the basis that Kenya does not conclusively understand the dangers of GMOs and that lifting the ban could open the country to potential risks. PHOTO | SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY The Kenyan Cabinet is over the next two months expected to make a monumental decision… Continue reading Is Kenya finally ready for rollout of GM crops?

The illegal supply of Herbicide Tolerant (HT) cotton seed in the State surfaced again after the police busted a gang that ‘smuggled’ this brand of seed from Gandhinagar in Gujarat. On a tip-off, the sleuths of Hyderabad Commissioner’s Task Force North Zone team intercepted a commercial vehicle near outward parcel office of Secunderabad Railway Station… Continue reading India: Huge quantity of illegal cotton seed seized

Using the new gene metrics in evaluating markers can pave the way for breeders to design better varieties through high-precision breeding programs. Smallholder farmers face an increasingly complex rice production system because of extreme events like drought, flood, or rising sea levels caused by climate change. To protect farmers from the effects of climate change… Continue reading New gene metrics eliminate hit-or-miss in emerging rice breeding technologies

Nigeria approved two genetically modified varieties of cotton for use by the nation’s farmers to help boost supply to its textile industry and cut lint imports of as much as 115 billion naira ($319 million) a year, officials said. The strains were modified by the Institute of Agricultural Research at the Ahmadu Bello University in… Continue reading Nigeria approves two GMO cotton varieties to increase output

Soon you may get fancy eating breads of different colors maybe blue, purple or black. These colourful breads are much healthier than the ‘normal’ yellowish-brown wheat. Agricultural biotechnologists’ team led by Monika Garg at the National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute or NABI located in Mohali have not just developed these coloured wheat varieties, but they have… Continue reading Indian scientists develop coloured wheat varieties with many health benefits

Without the nubby joints that are normally present on the stems of tomato plants, the fruit is much easier to harvest. However, researchers have discovered how a cryptic mutation can get in the way of this otherwise desirable trait. – Credit: Lippman lab/CSHL Even in this “age of the genome,” much about genes remains shrouded… Continue reading Cryptic mutation is cautionary tale for crop gene editing

White flour made from wheat currently needs to be fortified with iron – but a new crop variety being trialled in Norwich could produce this important nutrient itself. Picture: James Bass Norfolk crop scientists have engineered a genetically-modified (GM) wheat plant which can produce white flour with extra iron – potentially bringing health benefits to… Continue reading Iron-boosting GM wheat trial could help anaemia sufferers, say Norwich crop researchers