Over 34 million people in the U.S. don’t have enough food. More diverse and adaptable crops are needed to address challenges in food production made worse by climate change. Small, sweet berries called groundcherries may not feed the country, but along with other related “orphan crops,” they could strengthen food supplies. Unfortunately, these distant relatives of tomatoes aren’t ready for large-scale production—at least not yet.
We need to rethink how we think about Indigenous crops, say plant biologists. These crops include groundnut, teff grass, and a wide range of cereals, grains, fruits, legumes, and root vegetables predominantly cultivated by small farms in Africa, Asia, and South America.
Genebanks play an important role in the long-term conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Out of 1,800 genebank collections worldwide, more than 600 are in Europe. This vast array of crop diversity can be exploited to make our crops more nutritious, productive and resilient to pests, diseases and environmental changes, only if we have information about it.
An international team of researchers has discovered exactly how peas have evolved and revealed the traits breeders can leverage to make them even better.
A new banana fungus is rapidly spreading across the globe. It hit Africa a decade ago, and now spreads, a genetic study reveals. They state that the disease poses a threat to Africa’s food security.
The introduction of perennial crops in the alleys of Mediterranean dryland almond orchards reduces greenhouse gas emissions and increases soil carbon sequestration, according to a new study.
A new benchmark analysis of nutrient omission trial data provides new guidance on the predictors of yield in smallholder maize and rice cropping systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
How can biodiversity be preserved whilst securing the economic livelihood of smallholder farmers growing vanilla in Madagascar? There is a way, according to a study that shows that vanilla plantations established on fallow land do not differ in terms of yield from those established in the forest. Cultivation on fallow land also increases biodiversity there.
Although some researchers have identified peptides through multiple methods, as in Arabidopsis and maize, the biological functions of most NCPs remain to be demonstrated. NCPs function by modulating larger regulatory proteins, and their functions can therefore be predicted from the proteins on which they act.
Strawberry losses from Fusarium wilt could become less of a threat after researchers discovered genes that are resistant to the deadly soil-borne disease.
