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Fungus in some organic pesticides can cause severe cob rot in maize

Protecting crops against pests and diseases is essential to ensure secure food supply. Around 95 percent of the food comes from conventional agriculture, which uses chemical pesticides to keep crops healthy. Increasingly, however, organic pesticides are also being sought as an alternative.

1 Oct 2020

New project to advance technologies for carbon capture through catalysis

Climate-conscious consumers often take steps to curb their emissions of greenhouse gases. For example, you might drive a hybrid car to reduce your use of fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere during combustion.

1 Oct 2020

Manual pollination increases the cocoa yield and farming income

Cocoa is in great demand on the world market, but there are many different ways to increase production. A research team from the University of Göttingen has now investigated the relative importance of the use of pesticides, fertilizers and manual pollination in a well replicated field trial in Indonesian agroforestry systems.

1 Oct 2020

New project aims to strengthen agro-biodiversity and food diversity

Twenty-eight interdisciplinary partners will be coming together from 30 September to 2 October for the kick-off meeting of the FoodLAND project. Due to the current COVID-19 global health situation, the event will take place online.

29 Sep 2020

New index relies on pigs to demonstrate protein quality for humans

Nearly a decade ago, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) developed a new index to assess protein quality in foods. The goal, writ large, was to address food security for the world's most vulnerable populations, creating more accurate tools for food assistance programs seeking to provide balanced nutrition.

24 Sep 2020

Farmers' knowledge and high-tech breeding can help find climate-resilient crops

In a review paper published in Frontiers in Plant Science, scientists urge the importance of combining the knowledge harbored by farmers of diverse crop varieties - which is often overlooked by scientists - with high-tech breeding done in laboratories.

24 Sep 2020

Making healthy, environmentally friendly protein from the air

Increasing environmental challenges have led scientists to rethink how protein can be produced. Traditional processes require a lot of space on land or sea, resulting in a high carbon footprint and reduced resources.

24 Sep 2020

Climate change is a risk accelerator for several aspects of economy and society

It could be worth up to 8% of GDP per capita, exacerbate the differences between north and south, between society's rich and poor, as well as affect a number of Italy's strategic sectors: climate change is a risk accelerator for many aspects of both the economy and society.

24 Sep 2020

New research initiative to model species' range shifts in response to climate change

In response to a changing climate, populations of plants and animals move to more hospitable locations. Predicting where species will end up, and how New England farmers and rural communities need to plan and adapt accordingly is the focus of a new interdisciplinary research initiative led by the University of Maine.

24 Sep 2020

The widespread use of antibiotics in crop production and its risks

AZoLifeSciences talks to Dr. Phil Taylor and Dr. Rob Reeder about their research into the scale of antibiotic use in crop production.

From Centre for Agriculture and Bioscience International (CABI) 24 Sep 2020

Water quality database helps scientists to monitor and manage health of freshwater lakes

Although less than one per cent of all water in the world is freshwater, it is what we drink and use for agriculture. In other words, it's vital to human survival. York University researchers have just created a publicly available water quality database for close to 12,000 freshwater lakes globally - almost half of the world's freshwater supply - that will help scientists monitor and manage the health of these lakes.

From York University 23 Sep 2020

Researchers develop new mathematical model to predict economic performance of crops

Researchers from Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) developed a new mathematical model to predict economic performance of crops.

21 Sep 2020

Tropical, Mediterranean animals are most sensitive to land-use and climate change

Animals in tropical and Mediterranean areas are the most sensitive to climate change and land use pressures, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

From University College London 15 Sep 2020

Study shows how climate change impacts Arctic insect communities

Through a unique research collaboration, researchers at the University of Helsinki have exposed major changes taking place in the insect communities of the Arctic. Their study reveals how climate change is affecting small but important predators of other insects, i.e. parasitoids.

14 Sep 2020