In India, swapping crops could save water and improve nutrition
Reading Time: 3 minutesINDIA will need to feed approximately 394 million more people by 2050, and that’s going to be a significant challenge. Nutrient deficiencies are already widespread in India today–30 percent or more are anemic—and many regions are chronically water stressed. Making matters worse, evidence suggests that monsoons are delivering less rainfall than they used to. But […]
Speeding up photorespiration boosts crop production
Reading Time: < 1 minutePLANTS such as soybeans and wheat waste between 20 and 50 per cent of their energy recycling toxic chemicals created when the enzyme Rubisco—the most prevalent enzyme in the world—grabs oxygen molecules instead of carbon dioxide molecules. Increasing production of a common, naturally occurring protein in plant leaves could boost the yields of major food […]
Multi-nutrient rice against malnutrition
Reading Time: < 1 minuteRESEARCHERS from ETH Zurich led by Navreet Bhullar from the Institute of Molecular Plant Biology have genetically modified (GM) one of the most commonly grown varieties of rice. The ETH researchers developed rice lines with iron increases equaling more than 90 per cent of the recommended iron content and up to 170 per cent of […]
ISAAA: The ‘green’ way forward with biotech crops
Reading Time: 3 minutesBIOTECH CROPS offer enormous benefits to the environment as well as contribute to the enhancement of both, human and animal health. They also largely contribute to improving and upgrading the socioeconomic status of famers and crop producers everywhere, and more so in third world countries in Africa and Asia. This was the take home message […]
Golden Rice meets food safety standard
Reading Time: 2 minutesLOS BANOS, PHILIPPINES: GR2E Golden Rice, a provitamin A biofortified rice variety, completed its third positive food safety evaluation, this time from the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). In an official response received by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on May 24, the US FDA concurred with IRRI’s assessment regarding the […]
Is monoculture a bad thing? It’s time to revise simplistic ideological narrative
Reading Time: 6 minutesBY ANDREW PORTERFIELD IN a Nebraska field, thousands of acres of winter wheat stretch to the horizon. In California, workers pick strawberries in a field that has grown no other crop for the past eight years. And in Maryland, a single tomato plant grows in a single pot. What do these have in common? They […]
Zero-waste palm oil industry on the horizon with new technology
Reading Time: 3 minutesENGINEERS at The University of Nottingham Malaysia have developed new technology to help the global palm oil processing industry reduce CO2 emissions and create renewable energy from its waste. Malaysia is the second-largest crude palm oil producer in the world and fulfils nearly half of all demand for the oil, which is now used in […]
Gene boosts rice growth, yield in salty soil
Reading Time: 2 minutesIN A NEW study published in The Plant Cell, a team of researchers identified a gene that limits yield losses in rice plants exposed to salt stress and deciphered the underlying mechanism. Around 20% of the world’s irrigated land is considered to contain elevated concentrations of salt, and the soil continues to get saltier as […]
UK approves first gene- edited crop trial in Europe
Reading Time: 2 minutesSCIENTIST at Rothamsted Research received approval to sow one of the world’s first experimental field trials of a genome edited crop in an effort to develop more nutritious plants that can be sustainably grown. The trial — the first to be conducted on genome edited (GE) plants in the United Kingdom crops as part of […]
Scratching the surface: why mandatory GMO feeding studies do not make sense
Reading Time: 4 minutesIt’s time to scratch the surface, and recognise that advanced plant breeding methods, including GM crops, can really make a positive impact, writes Julian Little. BY JULIAN LITTLE ANIMAL testing of cosmetics in Europe isn’t fashionable, certainly not when it comes to consumer products like lipstick and eye shadow or face cream. It doesn’t fit […]