Africa will be able to feed itself in the next 15 years. That’s one of the big “bets on the future” that Bill and Melinda Gates have made in their foundation’s latest annual letter. Helped by other breakthroughs in health,…
In 1944, the year Bir Bahadur (B.B.) Singh was born in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, Indian agriculture was in shambles. During nearly 200 years of British rule, the country’s agricultural enterprise had been turned over to commodities…
Brazil is a major producer of ethanol from sugarcane, and this leading global position is the fruit of scientific and technological advances resulting from a development program that was initiated in the 1970s. Driven by the oil crises of 1972-1973,…
The 2014 Global Plant Council annual general meeting (AGM) was held 2-3 October and hosted by the Society of Experimental Biology in London. GPC Individuals representing 22 member organisations from 5 continents gathered at Charles Darwin House to share updates…
In our recently published study (Levesley et al 2014, New Phytologist, June 2014, http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/nph.12905) we show that online research lectures, when embedded into a course as part of a blended learning approach to teaching, are an effective learning tool and…
The focus of agricultural policy should be to increase productivity, provide employment and reduce poverty. How often have you read or heard statements like this? I am an economist, and I understand this thinking. It has its place. But I…
I may not be totally unbiased here because of my past involvement in the various national and international Arabidopsis projects, but there is no denying that plant science would not be where it is today if it were not for…