Agricultural research paradigms have shifted over the years in response to demands to make research more efficient and effective. It has been widely acknowledged that closing the gender gap to help women gain access to resources, technologies, and markets is critical to tackling the challenges of poverty and hunger, particularly in the face of increasing vulnerability to climate change. Integrating gender in agricultural research is no longer a debate. It is about doing it effectively

Widespread drought conditions in the Horn of Africa have intensified since the failure of the Oct–Dec 2016 rains. Areas of greatest concern cover much of Somalia, northeast and coastal Kenya, southeast Ethiopia and the Afar region, and South Sudan, which faces a serious food crisis due to protracted insecurity.

India's Society for Plant Research honored Velu Govidan, a wheat breeder, with the "2016 Young Scientist Award for Agriculture". Govidan is working with the HarvestPlus project at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). His remarkable work includes the development of high-yielding, nutritious wheat varieties tolerant to rust diseases and climate change-induced heat and drought stress.

On 23 February, Dr. Tin Htut, Permanent Secretary of the Myanmar Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Irrigation (MOALI), and more than 20 representatives from the World Bank, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), and MOALI participated in a workshop to begin the implementation of the Myanmar Agricultural Development Support Project (ADSP).
 

Waterhemp, a common weed has become increasingly resistant to atrazine and other herbicides in recent years. Every time farmers attack the weed with a new herbicide, waterhemp becomes resistant to it, reducing or eliminating the efficacy of the chemical. University of Illinois weed scientists Dean Riechers, Rong Ma, and Josh Skelton focused on metabolic resistance to atrazine, a chemical that has been used for decades and is still sprayed on approximately 80 percent of the corn acreage in the United States.

Mozambique has planted the first field trial of genetically modified (GM) maize in the Chokwe District of Gaza Province in the southern part of the country on February 18, 2017. The GM maize plants were planted in the Confined Field Trial (CFT) run by the Mozambican Agricultural Research Institute (Instituto de Investigação Agrária de Moçambique, IIAM) as part of the Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) program. The trial will test the tolerance of GM maize to drought and insect pests.

Nigeria's Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) conducted a one week training on GM seed detection for National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) staff. The training aimed to enhance the capacity of the NASC staff in differentiating GM seeds from non-GM seeds. According to NASC Deputy Director, Joseph Omole, farmers must have access to quality and certified seeds, irrespective of seed type, to achieve the government's target of advancing agriculture and increasing food supply.

On 18 February 2017, the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China (NHFPC) reported to WHO the results of genetic sequencing on virus isolates from two previously reported cases of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus from Guangdong province. Changes at the cleavage site of the HA gene suggestive of being highly pathogenic to poultry was confirmed by the Chinese National Influenza Centre of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC).

Based on the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) reporting criteria for avian influenza in commercial poultry, since 1997, the United States has experienced sporadic incidents of LPAI (H5 or H7). For more information about LPAI (H5 or H7) outbreaks that have been reported in North America (including the U.S.) and around the world since January 2005, visit the OIE’s World Animal Health Information Database (WAHID).

A research team from the Center for Genome Engineering, within the Institute for Basic Research (IBS) in South Korea has successfully edited two genes that contribute to the fat content of soybean oil using the new CRISPR-Cpf1 technology. This technology is an alternative to the more widely used gene editing tool CRISPR-Cas9.