Category: Industry News

The findings could lead to new ways of preventing disease in crops – of great potential benefit to farmers. Led by the University of Sheffield (UK), the research team identified, for the first time, specific locations (loci) within a plant’s chromosomes that impart disease resistance to their offspring by undergoing a reversible biochemical modification known… Continue reading Breakthrough in fighting plant disease

The agriculture ministry has unveiled a plan to promote the spread of drones for agriculture to cope with the aging of farmers and shortages of successors of farms in the country. In the plan announced Monday, the ministry set a goal to introduce agricultural drones for more than half of the land area planted with… Continue reading Japan seeks to harness drones for agriculture

The Spanish citrus industry has demanded immediate steps to prevent the spread of an insect known to carry huanglongbing (HLB), a disease it claims could have “almost apocalyptic” impacts on the sector. Spain’s Citrus Management Committee (CGC) forecasts if HLB – also known as citrus greening – were to hit the industry, it could lead… Continue reading Spanish growers ring alarm bells over citrus huanglongbing

The U.S. organic industry continues to grow, with sales of organic food reaching $45 billion in 2017 and the number of organic farms estimated at over 14,200, an 11% increase in one year. Organic carrots increasingly make up a larger share of overall carrot production – 14% of the estimated 100,000 acres of carrots grown… Continue reading Organic carrot breeding delivers novel varieties, cutting-edge research

In the 22nd year of commercialization of GM crops in 2017, 24 countries grew 189.8 million hectares of GM crops – an increase of 4.7 million hectares (11.6 million acres) from 185.1 million hectares in 2016. Except for the 2015 adoption, this forms the 21st series of increases every single year. In 2018, there were… Continue reading 2018 Overview of Global GMO Development

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 IAEA and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Namibia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Water and Forestry, through an IAEA… Continue reading Drought-tolerant crops to contribute to food security in Namibia

For six generations, Ben Riensche’s family has tended corn and soybeans outside Jesup, a town of 2,500 on the windswept plains of eastern Iowa. But today he’s harvesting a valuable new crop from his 12,000 acres: information. “The future is simply data analytics and tech,” says Riensche, who still has his grandfather’s handwritten notebooks containing… Continue reading Data becomes cash crop for big agriculture

Gene-editing sugarcane for use in renewable energy and bio-plastics could help secure the industry’s future. The University of Queensland’s Professor Robert Henry said sugarcane’s reinvention as an “energycane” crop could sustain the industry in the face of falling global demand for sugar. “The industry must think beyond just producing sugar, to also producing electricity, biofuels… Continue reading Sugar set for ‘energycane’ reinvention

At the beginning of 2019, soybean oil with improved quality did took its place on the market shelves. The mentioned soybean oil contains several times less saturated fatty acids and healthier oleic acid than ordinary soybeans. Their most striking feature is that they form less trans fatty acids in frying conditions. This new variety is… Continue reading First plant product of gene editing: A new soybean variety

An international team of scientists have for the first time demonstrated that it is possible to speed up banana breeding using genomic prediction models that accurately select banana hybrids with desired traits. The models use the plant’s genetic data (DNA landmarks) to estimate its usefulness in breeding and predict the physical traits such as height,… Continue reading Researchers use DNA prediction models to speed up banana breeding