Researcher assess the development and performance of more tailored approaches to fertilizer application within sub-Saharan Africa; solutions to overcoming the stumbling blocks that are preventing more widespread adoption are discussed.
New research has identified more than 1,000 edible plants that could address vitamin B deficiencies for thousands of people.
Local and Indigenous communities warn of a significant decrease in the abundance of wild edible plants and mushrooms that negatively impacts their nutrition and food security, from local to global scales.
Researchers examine the formation of air channels in wetland plants, a protective trait that makes them resilient to environmental stresses.
How do you like your rice? Sticky, fluffy, brown, or white? These qualities, in addition to grain length, width, appearance, and other traits, are hugely important predictors of rice sales and consumption worldwide. And region matters. Rice preferences in Latin America, for example, are very different from those in West Africa, Japan, India, and elsewhere.
Dehydrated plant seeds can lay dormant for long periods–over 1,000 years in some species–before the availability of water can trigger germination. This protects the embryonic plant inside from a variety of environmental stresses until conditions are favorable for growth and survival. However, the mechanism by which the baby plant senses water and reactivates cellular activity has remained a mystery until now.
This autumn, as COVID-19 brings a sharp focus on the resilience of our food system and a need for distance learning options, the Lancaster Environment Centre is opening all three of its online Food Security courses to full-time as well as part-time students. This provides an opportunity to join well-established online courses that have already graduated more than 30 part-time students.
Wheat, in its own right, is one of the most important foods in the world. It is a staple food for more than 2.5 billion people, it provides 20% of the protein consumed worldwide and, according to the FAO, supplies more calories than any other grain. Its long-term productivity, however, is threatened by rising temperatures, among other factors. Stress from heat, an increasing trend due to climate change, affects its performance, a fact that needs urgent solutions bearing in mind that, according to some estimates, the world’s population will reach 9 billion by the year 2050.
A virtual Workshop on the Development of National Gene Banks in the member states of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) was conducted online. The 160 participants examined issues of the development, conservation and exchange of plant and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture intending to promote strong and resilient food systems.
Amongst the world’s most challenging problems is the need to feed an ever-growing global population sustainably. Securing the food supply is of paramount importance, and more attention must be given to the threat from fungal pathogens competing with us for our own crops.
