The National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), the body charged with advising the government on scientific innovations, has reiterated its support for emerging technologies including agricultural biotechnology. Speaking during the launch of the Next Harvest II: The Status of Biotechnology in Kenya report, held on June 11, 2015 in Nairobi, Kenya, Dr. Moses Rugutt, the Director General of NACOSTI was optimistic that the country is on the right path towards adoption of genetically engineered (GE) products.

From yesterday until next Friday, 12 June, a workshop on the analysis of big data from Uruguay’s commercial rice production is being held in the Uruguayan city of Treinta y Tres. The purpose of the event, which brings together rice producers, millers, and researchers from Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia, is to share and promote the use of new methods for analyzing agricultural information.

Researchers at the University of Georgia (UGA) have used CRISPR/Cas (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats/CRISPR-associated), a new gene editing tool, to modify the genome of a tree species for the first time.

FAO 15 June 2015, Rome - A new guide by FAO aims to help ensure anti-child labour measures are included in agricultural and rural development programmes, in particular those targeting family farmers. Programs intended to boost local food production and support family farmers often do include components to address the issue of child labour in agriculture.
 

Researchers from the University of Florida and Oklahoma State University conducted an online survey of 961 individuals in the U.S. to determine the effect of scientific information on beliefs about GM foods and global warming. Results showed that even if provided with science-based information about GMO or global warming

FAO 13 June 2015, Rome - Empowering family farmers, establishing safety nets to help those most in need escape poverty traps, and ensuring peace and inclusive economic growth in rural areas must be core elements in efforts to eradicate hunger once and for all, the presidents of Colombia and Mexico asserted in speeches made here today.
 

One of the major problems facing the feed industry is its processing. Most of the feeds contain anti-nutritional factors, such as raffinose-family oligosaccharide (RFO). These feeds containing RFO are supplemented with α-galactosidase to hydrolyze α-1,6-galactosidic bonds on the RFO.

The bacterium Myxococcus xanthus is a microbe with special properties. It lives in soils almost all over the world and is capable of social interactions; that is, individuals join forces to go hunting together for other bacteria and fungi. In times of need, several bacteria from this species can jointly form fruiting bodies with spores that can survive without water or nutrients for a long period of time.

During the green revolution, farmers replaced a large number of landraces with a small number of high-yielding varieties. There are concerns that such erosion of varietal diversity could be further aggravated through the widespread use of GM crops. In a recent study, Vijesh Krishna from the University of Goettingen and colleagues showed that GM technology can actually help to preserve agrobiodiversity, because GM traits can be introduced into a large number of varieties.

Robert Zeigler, director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Arvind Kumar, IRRI senior scientist, were admitted to the Fellowship of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. Both scientists have been elected to the Fellowship in recognition of their significant contributions to the agricultural sciences in India.