According to the recent policy brief by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on Agriculture, Food, and Water Nanotechnologies for the Poor, the field of nanotechnology – research and development that involves measuring and manipulating matter at the atomic, molecular and supra-molecular levels – could lead to the development of potentially revolutionary technologies across
The World Bank recently released some interesting research into carbon capture in soil. The report looked at exactly how much carbon is in soil, and the repercussions that happen as a result.
Cesar Izaurralde, a soil scientist at the U.S. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, is quoted in a Reuters news piece as saying that farm management and carbon capture go
Some farmers are looking to the skies for help in boosting their crop yields. In an article appearing in The Economist this week, the spotlight is shone on farmers using satellite-based intelligence to find out how to best manage farm production to get the best yield.
Precise prescriptions for growing crops can be obtained quickly, and
Last week The Associated Press shined a light on the global fall in agricultural research funding. In the article, the impacts of this fall are outlined.
Philip Pardey, professor of science and technology policy at the University of Minnesota, talks about the decline:
The ultimate consequences of the productivity slowdown are that we’re going to move away
New research coming out of the Scripps Research Institute and the University of California, San Diego, has determined the molecular structure for a drought-tolerant plant hormone called abscisic acid.
In drought conditions, plants begin to produce more of this hormone, which creates a number of changes to their physical structure. Their seeds lie dormant in the
A team of scientists at the University of California, Riverside have successfully developed a genetic map of the cowpea. This development will enable further research into new and more resilient varieties of this staple crop, which is grown throughout many regions of the developing world.
Mapping the cowpea is notoriously time-consuming and difficult. But now production
