According to the ISPC review, RICE is a conceptually sound, compelling, and articulate proposal that addresses the issue of improving rice production across the developing world. It is founded on clear comparative advantage for CGIAR. Historically, investment in rice research has a proven track record of contributing to CGIAR goals.

The U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC) and U.S. Grains Council (USGC) held meetings in Brussels, Belgium last week to discuss the delays in approvals for soybean and corn biotech events in the EU. They highlighted the need for a predictable, transparent, and science-based regulatory system in the EU.

Vast swathes of Yemen - 19 out of 22 governorates - are facing severe food insecurity according to a new joint  assessment by the UN and partners, which warns that the situation within affected areas is likely to deteriorate if conflict persists. The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis confirms that over half the country's population is living in "crisis" or "emergency" levels of food insecurity, with some governorates seeing as much as 70 percent of their population struggling to feed themselves.

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Risk Management and Quality Assurance Research Data Management (RMQA-RDM) training team conducted RDM 101 course on 14-16 June at the institute’s headquarters.

ISAAA AfriCenter launched the ISAAA Brief 51: 20th Anniversary (1996 to 2015) of the Global Commercialization of Biotech Crops and Biotech Crop Highlights in 2015 at the 82nd event of the Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology on June 3, 2016. The launch was attended by 60 stakeholders, including women scientists from public and private research institutions, and youth leaders from the East African Youth Assembly.

Forest and farm producer organizations are key players in meeting the world's growing demand for food and forest products, improving the lives of rural communities, and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  That is the key take-away of a new FAO publication launched today at the European Development Days in Brussels, Belgium, taking place on 15-16 June.

The International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) launched the wheat sequence repository for use of wheat breeders and scientists to hasten crop improvement programs and wheat genomics research. The resource is based on Illumina sequencing data assembled with NRGene's DeNovoMAGICTM software which accurately represents over 90 percent of the highly complex bread wheat genome that contains over 97 percent of known genes, and assigns the data to the 21 wheat chromosomes.

A study published in the journal Climate Policy reports that all 36 countries that committed to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change complied with their emission targets. The results are the first published results to use the final data for national GHG emissions and exchanges in carbon units which only became available at the end of 2015.

ICRISAT: Hyderabad, India (13 June 2016) —More than 180,000 households were reached with new technologies that increased the production of sorghum and millets by up to 150%, at the end of a six-year project to boost food security in the dryland areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

The University at Buffalo (UB) has developed a new vaccine that allows bacteria to colonize the body, but acts only when the bacteria pose a threat. This approach offers the most direct and broad response to infections caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae, commonly known as pneumococcus.