Wageningen University & Research and Agrifirm have cooperated in the development of a new Phytophthora advisory App which has recently been made available to growers on the Akkerweb platform. WUR supplied the new computation module and Agrifirm the interface for the new App. The development of the App was in part funded by PPS PL2.0 (Precision Farming 2.0). Following tests of the new App at ...
In rows of petri dishes, soybean roots bathe in fluorescent light, an unremarkable site unless you work in the laboratory where they grow. The simplicity of the setup belies the complexity of the research that went into creating the roots. For decades, the genes of the seeds that produced these roots have been tinkered with to create a plant that resists a common and highly destructive soybean ...
Native ants living in cacao trees in Indonesia that are often seen as pests in fact seem to boost their yields, a study suggests. Scientists from Germany, Indonesia and Sweden studying how ant communities affect cocoa yields in Sulawesi found that trees with abundant native ants (Dolichoderus sp.) produced the best yields. In contrast, the yields of cacao trees where ants were excluded were 27 ...
Late blight is one of the most serious diseases of potatoes and tomatoes worldwide, resulting in significant yield and quality losses annually. In Alberta, late blight occurs infrequently, but can have devastating impacts in the years when it reaches epidemic levels. “This disease is caused by a fungal pathogen called Phytophthora infestans,” says Robert Spencer, ...
In a new study, researchers examined the potential influence of human-driven changes in land-use on disease establishment in forests. The research suggests that changes in forest management, which encourage greater and more dense forest cover, are creating environmental conditions that promote disease. The invasive, fungal-like Phytophthora ramorum causes Sudden Oak Death (SOD), which is ...
In this week 'Nature Plants', scientists from Wageningen University, The Netherlands, and The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, UK, report the identification of a resistance gene that enhances resistance against potato late blight from a South American wild relative of cultivated potatoes. The gene targets elicitin, a conserved protein with an important biological function, making it less likely ...
Low-altitude aerial images can detect laurel wilt, a devastating avocado disease, giving growers an early way to identify diseased trees and perhaps help reduce losses to the $100 million-a-year economic impact avocados provide Florida. Reza Ehsani, an associate professor in agricultural and biological engineering at the UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center in Lake Alfred, used a ...
Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer has announced that USDA awarded more than $28 million through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) to solve critical specialty crop agriculture issues, address priorities and solve problems through multifunctional research and extension. The Specialty Crop Research Initiative was established by the 2008 Farm Bill to support the specialty crop industry by ...