rooting News
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Bayer fuels leading market positions in Crop Science through delivery of unmatched innovation
Division continues to successfully commercialize its product pipeline in key markets, including XtendFlex soybeans and SmartStax PRO corn in North America, and Intacta 2 Xtend soybeans in South America Successful launches demonstrate progress towards mid-term growth targets in Crop Science and strength of the division’s innovation, digital transformation and sustainability capabilities ...
By Bayer AG
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Delta-T Devices soil sensors used by Rothamsted Research for the world`s oldest continuously-running agricultural field experiment
Rothamsted Research is the longest-running agricultural research institute in the world, with a history dating back to the middle of the 19th century. Sir John Bennet Lawes, an archetypal Victorian scientist, entrepreneur and benefactor, became interested in agricultural science after leaving Oxford University. On assuming responsibility for the family estate at Rothamsted (Harpenden, ...
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Easing the soil’s temperature
Soil characteristics like organic matter content and moisture play a vital role in helping plants flourish. It turns out that soil temperature is just as important. Every plant needs a certain soil temperature to thrive. If the temperature changes too quickly, plants won’t do well. Their seeds won’t germinate or their roots will die. “Most plants are sensitive to extreme ...
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Grafting helps pepper plants deal with drought
Joining a high-yield pepper plant sapling to the roots of a strong and resistant variety could help pepper farmers cope with lower rainfall, a study has found. An experiment using the technique of merging two plants, known as grafting, resulted in higher fruit yield during periods of less rain. Plants also grew much better in salty soil, a by-product of drought, the researchers found. The ...
By SciDev.Net
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A worldwide network of seed information is taking root
As an increasingly bloody civil war raged around them, a team of scientists in the Syrian capital Aleppo quietly packaged and shipped a series of nondescript cardboard boxes to an island not far from the North Pole. The boxes bore no sign of the conflict that had surrounded them or the precious material they contained. The scientists, from an International Centre for Agricultural Research in the ...
By SciDev.Net
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Cover Crops Add to Farm Sustainability
A potentially record-setting U.S. corn harvest is underway. Many farmers can attribute the use of cover crops as one of multiple best management practices (BMPs) that help them increase yield year after year. Combined with BMPs of The Fertilizer Institute’s 4R Nutrient Stewardship program that promotes the application of nutrients at the right source, right rate, right time and right place, ...
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Soil nitrogen increased through greater plant biodiversity
Increased plant biodiversity improves grassland soil quality by boosting its nitrogen levels, even in the absence of nitrogen-fixing plants, recent research has found. Previous research has shown that grasslands with higher biodiversity had higher levels of carbon and nitrogen. However, in the case of nitrogen it has been suggested that this was purely a result of increased numbers of ...
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Super hanging basket liners
As budding gardeners welcome the arrival of spring and start preparing their hanging baskets and planters, a new innovative water-retaining liner fabric will help make nurturing and caring for plants a lot less time consuming and reduce overall water usage. The Super Absorbent Fibre (SAF) technology of UK based manufacturer Technical Absorbents Ltd (TAL), is a unique fibrous technology and which ...
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Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture will test disinfection equipment and substances
Starting this autumn it is possible to test disinfection equipment for pathogen elimination in soilless cropping methods. It is also possible to test substances or products to eliminate pathogens from the nutrient solution and to clean the piping. The last group can also be tested for remnants which may be able to damage plants. According a strict protocol pathogenic bacteria, fungi or virus will ...
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Climate-smart farming takes root in Kenya
Like most African countries, Kenya is highly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. There is growing concern about potential stress on fragile ecosystems and rural communities, especially in the arid and semi-arid agro-ecological zones and some humid highland areas of the country. In keeping with the Strategy for Revitalizing Agriculture (SRA) of Kenya 2010-2015 and Kenya's vision 2030, ...
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Composts that contain biodegradable plastics may hinder plant growth
Composts containing biodegradable plastics may hinder rather than help plant growth, according to a recent study by university scientists in Poland. These findings have implications for waste management practices within the EU. It is important to assess the quality and potential environmental risks associated with composts prepared from different wastes. Biodegradable plastics - known as ...
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Cassava`s huge potential as 21st Century crop
Save and Grow, an environmentally-friendly farming model promoted by FAO, can sustainably increase cassava yields by up to 400 percent and help turn this staple from a poor people's food into a 21st Century crop, FAO said today. In a newly-published field guide detailing Save and Grow's applications to cassava smallholder production, FAO noted that global cassava output has increased by 60 ...
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Potentially harmful effects of nanomaterials on soybean crops
A new study has examined contamination of fully grown soybean plants by two nanomaterials – nano-cerium oxide and nano-zinc oxide. The results could be concerning, as they indicate that the nanomaterials are absorbed by plants, possibly affecting growth, yield, and the fixation of nitrogen in soil, an important ecosytem service. With the rapid expansion of nanotechnology, there is concern ...
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EPA issues stop sale order to dupont on sale and distribution of imprelis herbicide
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today issued an order to E.I. DuPont de Nemours (DuPont) directing the company to immediately halt the sale, use or distribution of Imprelis, an herbicide marketed to control weeds that has been reported to be harming a large number of trees, including Norway spruce and white pine. The order, issued under the Federal Insecticide, ...
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Diversifying crops `could green African agriculture`
The biodiversity of crop fields could be key to a greener revolution in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields are stagnating, says a study conducted in Malawi. African farmers could halve their fertiliser use and still get the same yields, the study found, with less year-to-year variation in yields and with as much as 70 per cent more protein in grains — by simply rotating ...
By SciDev.Net
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Reality check for `miracle` biofuel crop
The hardy jatropha tree as a biofuel source may not be the panacea for smallholders that some have claimed, say Miyuki Iiyama and James Onchieku. It sounds too good to be true: a biofuel crop that grows on semi-arid lands and degraded soils, replaces fossil fuels in developing countries and brings huge injections of cash to poor smallholders. That is what some are claiming for Jatropha curcas, ...
By SciDev.Net
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Czech and Korean researchers clinch biomass patent
A Czech-South Korean research team has obtained a patent on a new method supporting plant biomass production which will also allow the cultivation of plants with a bigger biomass production. Both the food-processing and pharmaceutical industries can, in theory, use the patent, according to the team. 'The invention, which enables the cultivation of plants with an increased production of mass, ...
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Czech and Korean researchers clinch biomass patent
A Czech-South Korean research team has obtained a patent on a new method supporting plant biomass production which will also allow the cultivation of plants with a bigger biomass production. Both the food-processing and pharmaceutical industries can, in theory, use the patent, according to the team. 'The invention, which enables the cultivation of plants with an increased production of mass, ...
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