breeding research News
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Floating vegetative mats may help clean fishery wastewater
The feasibility of using floating vegetation to remove nutrients from fishery wastewater is being tested by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. The researchers' long-term goal is to develop a system to treat the wastewater, return it to ponds for reuse, and use the nutrients to produce biomass or plant material. The floating mats act as filters to remove the nutrients from the water. ...
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World agribusiness R&D controlled by `cosy cartel`
The increasing consolidation of global agribusiness is leaving the world's food production in the hands of a corporate "cartel", warns a new market report from ETC Group, a civil society organization based in Canada. According to the report, six multinational corporations — BASF, Bayer, Dow, DuPont, Monsanto and Syngenta — control 75 per cent of all private-sector plant breeding ...
By SciDev.Net
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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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Floods wash away Pakistan`s crop research efforts
The recent Pakistan floods have caused substantial damage to the country's crop research, washing away new seed varieties and test crops planted in the fields, and damaging buildings and equipment, leaving the country's research institutes in disrepair. So far, the floods have killed more than 2,000 people and affected a further 21 million, killed 200,000 livestock and destroyed 4.25 million ...
By SciDev.Net
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Faster and better breeding of sustainable and healthy quinoa
An international team of scientists, including quinoa breeding experts from Wageningen University & Research, published the complete DNA sequence of quinoa – the food crop that is conquering the world from South America – in Nature magazine on 8 February 2017. Quinoa is rich in essential amino acids and nutritional fibres and does not contain gluten. The crop is important to ...
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Scientists find four-leaf clover gene
Ending a period of “bad luck” for clover researchers, scientists report finding the gene that turns ordinary three-leaf clovers into the coveted four-leaf types. Masked by the three-leaf gene and strongly influenced by environmental condition, molecular markers now make it possible to detect the presence of the gene for four-leaves and for breeders to work with it. The results of the ...
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Lifeasible Enlarged Its Offerings for Plant Breeding Services
Lifeasible, a biotechnology company specialized in agricultural science, recently enlarged its offers for plant breeding services which now cover a wide range of plant species including major food crops, economic plants, and bio-energy feedstock plants. Plant breeding is the science of creating new varieties by modifying plant genomes, which can accelerate the production of plants with desired ...
By Lifeasible
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The dire need to support ‘orphan crop’ research
In spite of debate over its definition, the term ‘orphan crops’ refers to crops that are under-researched and underfunded due to their limited importance in the global market. These include cereals, legumes, vegetables, root crops, fodder crops, oil crops, fibre crops and medicinal plants that are largely indigenous to Africa, Asia and Latin America. They are characterised by their ...
By SciDev.Net
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Crop breeding gets boost from sweet potatoes
In Uganda, the sweet potato is a major staple crop. Behind China and Nigeria, Uganda produces the most sweet potatoes in the world. Nationwide, families grow the crop to feed themselves, their livestock and to use as a source of income. Small scale agricultural operations use a large number of sweet potato varieties in their planting. These varieties are steadily being lost due to weevils, sweet ...
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Genetics not enough to increase wheat production
The deep gene pool that has allowed wheat to achieve ever increasing gains in yield may be draining. Crop scientists estimate that 50% of the gain in wheat production over the past century has been due to breeding. According to a new study, however, that improvement has been slowing since the late 1980s, with little chance that future increases in yield can be met by breeding efforts alone. The ...
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Predicting disease and improving crops through genetics
Can scientists accurately predict when an individual will develop a disease? What if we could predict how to increase drought resistance in plants? Or offer patients personalized medicine? Researchers are looking for answers to these questions and more using a plant or animal’s obvious traits, called phenotype prediction, a field that will be discussed in a free workshop presented by the ...
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SG Biofuels Signs Customers for 250,000 Acres of Hybrid Jatropha Seed
SG Biofuels, a bioenergy crop company using breeding and biotechnology to develop elite hybrid seeds of Jatropha, today announced it has signed customers for the deployment of 250,000 acres of Jatropha using its JMax™ hybrid seeds. Jatropha is a non-edible energy crop that produces large volumes of sustainable plant oil used for biodiesel, bio jet fuel and specialty chemicals. The JMax™ hybrid ...
By SG Bio Fuels
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KeyGene and Phenome Networks enter into a strategic collaboration, cross licensing breeding and big data genomics software platforms
Today, the Crop Innovation Company KeyGene and Phenome Networks announce that they have signed an agreement to establish a strategic partnership in the growing market of breeding and big data genomics software. In the collaboration, Phenome Networks provides a license to KeyGene to its plant breeding software (PhenomeOne) to support KeyGene’s breeding of rubber-producing dandelion plants. ...
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Plant Genebanking: Investing Seeds for the Future
For many years, the agricultural sector has worked on the continuous development of sustainable practices to provide sufficient food and medicine supply for a growing population. Among the many challenges they aim to resolve are the issues inflicted by plant disease outbreaks and upsurge, pests, and climate change. The conservation and increase of diversity of plant species are recognized ...
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FAO launches new standards for plant genebanks
A new FAO publication is aimed at improving conservation of food crops, many of which are crucial to the world’s food and nutrition security. The publication, Genebank Standards for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, outlines voluntary, international standards for the many repositories – or genebanks - around the world that store seeds and other materials used to ...
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Soil gives away soybean pathogen’s presence
New research reveals that soil pH is a useful guide for farmers and agronomists to detect and manage soybean cyst nematode, a devastating soybean pathogen. The investigation uncovered a relationship between high soil pH, which is already outside the ideal growing conditions for soybean, and high populations of cyst nematodes. Scientists from Iowa State University and University of ...
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New $13.8 million project aims to boost banana production in Uganda and Tanzania
Millions of smallholder banana farmers in Tanzania and Uganda are set to benefit from a new $13.8 million project to develop and distribute higher-yielding, disease-resistant hybrid banana varieties. The effort is being funded by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA). Rony Swennen, a professor at KU Leuven (Belgium) and ...
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Ontario Releases Draft Pollinator Protection Health Action Plan
On January 22, 2016, Ontario released for consultation a draft Health Action Plan (Plan) to reduce losses of honeybees and other pollinators caused by several “stressors” stated in the Plan to include: (1) reduced habitat and poor nutrition; (2) diseases, pests, and genetics; (3) exposure to pesticides; and (4) extreme weather and climate change. This action plan is part of a broader ...
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International crop breeding programme needed for African farming
Climate change poses a large threat to African agriculture, but there is little research on how to respond. A recent study indicates that traditional adaptation methods are not enough and international collaboration is needed in 'planned adaptation' by collecting and conserving certain crops for the future. A large proportion of the African population - mainly the poor - depend on agriculture ...
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Fight against wheat rust needs sustained investment
Developing countries need help with crop surveillance and the development of strains resistant to wheat rust, say agricultural research leaders. Today's food security situation is being worsened by strains of wheat rust disease that are emerging more frequently and spreading much faster and to new areas — changes fuelled by climate change and conducive environments in increasingly fragile ...
By SciDev.Net
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