For the first time, farmers in the Philippines have cultivated Golden Rice on a larger scale and harvested almost 70 tonnes of grains this October.
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Stomata are microscopic structures on the leaf epidermis that facilitate gas exchange between the plant and the environment. Thanks to these specialized cell types, plants are an essential component of the global carbon and water cycles. Plus, stomata not only interlink plants and climate but also influence the global water cycle.
The biofertilizer is a liquid organic fertilizer that can be produced within any rural property, with materials that are easy to find on the property itself, like animal manure and plant remains. Its preparation is very easy and relatively fast, being ideal to complement the fertilization with compost.
Flower and seed coat colour are important agronomic traits in chickpea that influence consumer preference. Based on their cultivation globally, this legume crop is categorized as “desi” or “kabuli”. Seeds of desi-type chickpeas are generally dark brown and angular with a rough seed coat, while the kabuli type produces light-brown coloured and rounded seeds with smooth seed coats. Recently, a group of scientists in India successfully developed a new genetically engineered selection marker-free stable chickpea line.
As days grow colder and shorter, and many of us find ourselves entrenched in winter, you wouldn’t be mistaken for feeling a noticeable reduction in activity around you. However, in certain crops such as winter wheat and barley, this cold season holds the key to flowering in the spring. This well-studied process, called vernalization, requires the plant to sense appropriate conditions – i.e., low temperature and short day-length – usually early in development to “overwinter” through several inhospitable months.
Stemborers and Striga weeds cause significant losses to maize production throughout Africa. Maize yield losses due to stemborers can vary from 20-40%. Striga weeds infest 40% of the arable land in sub-Saharan Africa, causing an annual crop loss of US$ 7 to 13 billion. Around the Lake Victoria basin, infestation by Striga weed causes 30 to 100% loss in maize yield. Weeding for Striga control is both time-consuming and labor-intensive. The use of insecticides for stemborer control is not only expensive and harmful to the environment but is also ineffective.
How we love chocolate! The big downside of this love is that more chocolate consumption directly implies more cocoa plantations, which has led to significant loss of forests especially in West Africa. In the coming decades is expected both an increase in demand and a decrease of suitable areas for growing cocoa due to climate change.
At the rise of the fourth agricultural revolution, the modern farmer seeks to become “smarter,” benefit from new technologies and produce crops sustainably. The conventional knowledge around climate, agroecosystems, new technologies and sustainable farming of all crops is constantly enriched by practical experience, examples, and scientific data.
In multicellular organisms, distinct cell types are produced and maintained through the coordination of several progenitor lineages. How is this information stored in the transcriptome? Do these cells’ behaviors reflect their lineage history or their current biological surroundings?
Phenotypic plasticity in plants occurs at all biological scales in every organism. Phenotypic plasticity is defined as the physical and/or metabolic responses of organisms to their environment. Some plastic responses may be strategies that enhance fitness in specific environments. In contrast, other forms of plasticity may be symptoms of stress or pathology, all of which may develop at different time scales. A recent review highlights the characterization, costs, cues, and future perspectives of phenotypic plasticity.
