Category: Industry News

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

Productivity of soybean, an important oilseed crop, is severely affected due to droughts. A team of Indian scientists has now identified genotypes of soybean that can tolerate drought better without comprising on yields. By incorporating the traits which confer drought tolerance in these cultivars, scientists hope to develop more resilient varieties. The recurrent droughts pose… Continue reading Scientists move a step closer to drought-tolerant soybean variety

A team of scientists from the University of Adelaide, Australian Plant Phenomics Facility and Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg have identified beneficial alleles from wild barley that can be used for improving drought tolerance in barley, in a new paper published in BMC Plant Biology. “The team identified a QTL on chromosome 4H where, under drought… Continue reading Wild barley reveals drought tolerant traits that could improve elite cultivars

A tomato plant with more edible fruit than biomass could grow on the ISS. Credit: Martha Orozco-Cárdenas/UCR Tiny tomato plants developed at the University of California, Riverside, could one day feed astronauts on the International Space Station. The plants have minimal leaves and stems but still produce a normal amount of fruit, making them a… Continue reading Astronauts might soon grow SPACE tomatoes

India government on Friday raised wheat import duty by a third to 40 per cent to support local farmers from further price fall and prevent its possible import on the back of a growing demand for animal feed in drought hit states including Maharashta, Gujarat, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. A notification issued by the… Continue reading India government raises import duty on wheat to support local farmers

Left: highly branched plants of teosinte, a wild relative of corn. Right: tiny pods on the vine of Glycine soja, wild relative of soybean. New research sheds light on how domestication affects the genomes of corn and soybeans. Photo by Sherry Flint-Garcia (teosinte) and Scott Jackson (Glycine soja). New research published this week identifies the… Continue reading Research sheds light on genomic features that make plants good candidates for domestication

Farmers in Namibia now have new crop varieties of cowpea and sorghum that are more tolerant to drought and pests planted this year, thanks to nuclear technology provided with the support of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO). Namibia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Water and… Continue reading Namibian farmers introduced to new cowpea and sorghum crop varieties

Farmers can now for the first time insure their produce against price volatility as easily as insuring their homes, with a global platform based on hundreds of niche commodity indexes, underwritten by a Lloyd’s of London syndicate. Crop insurance has existed since the 1930s in the United States but is heavily subsidized by the government… Continue reading Farmers dip toes into global crop insurance platform

Think about the last food you ate. Maybe it was a meal or maybe you’re snacking on something right now. Have you ever considered the amount of effort that has gone into plant and animal breeding to produce that food? The wheat that was ground into flour for your bread, the latest variety of apple,… Continue reading Plant breeding for the future: the time is now