The Philippines remain as Asia's biotechnology leader, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service-Global Agricultural Information Network Report on agricultural biotechnology. The Philippines is the first Asian country to allow the planting of GM crop and is moving towards developing a regulatory framework for GE animals. In 2016, the original GE plant regulations (Department of Agriculture Administrative Order No. 8) was changed to the Joint Department Circular (JDC)

Scientists at the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science in Japan have found that the protein NGA1 is critical for plants to have normal responses to dehydration. In plants, dehydration response is regulated by the hormone abscisic acid (ABA). Successful rehydration requires accumulation of ABA during the early stages of dehydration, among other things. While scientists know how ABA does its work, they did not know much about how ABA begins to accumulate in response to dehydration stress. RIKEN scientist Hikaru Sato and his team screened 1,670 transgenic plant lines and performed a series of experiments to address this issue.

PennState University researchers used rice seedlings to show that the stress of hotter temperatures may trigger a response in a plant's ribonucleic acid (RNA), which is a part of a cells' genetic messaging system, to manage this change in its environment. The researchers studied over 14,000 different RNAs to look for changes in the RNA. Thus, they searched for changes in RNA's intricately folded structures that could signal acute heat stress.

University students and educators from four universities have called for an expedited legislation on biotech crops under research and development in Uganda. This was during an inter-university dialogue on agricultural biotechnology, which was held at the School of Food Technology, Nutrition and Bioengineering Makerere University, Kampala on November 1, 2018. Students attending the event voiced the need for the National Biotechnology and Biosafety Bill to be passed by the parliament to enable Ugandan farmers access to improved biotech crops.

Reying on agriculture for survival, Q'eqchi communities living in Guatemala's mountains are seeing their traditional crops fail to excessive heat and erratic rainfall.

But thanks to a project supported by IFAD they are learning to adapt to the changing climate by adopting practices that protect their environment and preserve their food culture.

Women in Kakamega and Busia counties of Western Kenya are going against the grain. They are turning their backs on the commonly planted grains of sorghum and maize and on commercial sugarcane, and replacing them with a grain that not only better meets the nutritional needs of the family but also fulfils economic and agronomic requirements in a time of climate change.

The world’s agricultural monitoring systems provide up-to-date information on food production to decision makers that is crucial to global and national food security. When prices become dangerously volatile—as they did during the food price crisis of 2007-2011—these systems spread critical information quickly that can reduce the risks of market and supply upheavals.

Path-breaking village-level studies with over 40 years of data will be available at ICRISAT for further research with support from the Jim and Wendy Ryan Endowment Fund. Instituted by the former Director General of ICRISAT, Dr Jim Ryan and his wife Wendy Ryan, this new fund will support researchers undertaking agricultural economics studies with data from the Village Level Studies (VLS) and the Village Dynamic Studies in South Asia (VDSA) that have been carried out by ICRISAT.

International food commodity prices dipped in October, as falling dairy, meat and vegetable oils prices more than offset a surge in sugar prices, the United Nations said today.

The FAO Food Price Index, a measure of the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, averaged 163.5 points in October, down 0.9 percent from September and 7.4 percent below its level a year earlier.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne have discovered how a protein called LMI1 controls leaf growth and shape. Francesco Vuolo and colleagues are investigating the mechanisms underlying leaf shape variations, but have recently looked into the little understood leaf parts called stipules. These outgrowths form at the base of a leaf during development and vary greatly in size and function in different plant species.