international agriculture research News
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USD 10-million facility for studying climate change effects on plant growth opens at IRRI
On a hot, breezy afternoon on 21 January 2016, an international gathering of agricultural scientists and development officials dedicated the Lloyd T. Evans Plant Growth Facility (PGF) on the campus of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The opening of the USD 10 million state-of-the-art facility manifests IRRI’s commitment to better understand the effects of climate change on ...
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Ancient crops preserved for future generations in Arctic seed vault
Varieties of one of the world's most important staple crops will be stored for perpetuity deep in the Arctic ice today. José Graziano da Silva, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is joining scientific experts and delegations from Peru, Costa Rica and Norway to witness a ceremony here this afternoon that will help to preserve these vital ...
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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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44 New Rice Varieties in Asia and Africa
In 2013, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and its partners released 44 new and improved rice varieties, continuing the decades-long mission of using rice science to reduce hunger. Around half of the current global population—or about 3.5 billion people—relies on rice as a source of sustenance and livelihood. Resilience to climate change is a big thrust of IRRI’s ...
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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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Plan to boost African rice R&D unveiled
A research strategy to help boost rice production in Africa has been formally unveiled by the Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), a pan-African agricultural research organisation. The ten-year plan, launched this month (1 February) aims to help the continent become nearly 90 per cent self-sufficient in rice production by 2020, with at least ten countries expected to full meet their own needs. This ...
By SciDev.Net
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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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Statistical analysis can estimate crop performance
Scientists at Rothamsted Research, United Kingdom, in collaboration with the International Center for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria have developed a method of accounting for spatial trend in single crop field trials. Spatial trend refers to the variations in crop yield and other characteristics observed when repeating this single crop field trial. Usually plant breeders ...
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Global wild seed hunt begins
An international project to collect seeds from the wild relatives of 23 of the world's major food crops including maize, rice, wheat and potato, has received its first funding. Last week (10 December) Norway, home to the world's largest seed bank, in Svalbard in the Arctic, pledged US$50 million towards the collection, which is expected to take ten years to complete. Research and planning will ...
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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Science: what has it done for the millennium development goals?
When the United Nations published the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, with aspirations including the ending of poverty and hunger; the promotion of gender equality and a reduction in child mortality, there was little mention of science. Yet most people involved in working towards the goals accepted that achieving them would rely on the successful application of science. Now, ...
By SciDev.Net
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