Researchers from the University of Hong Kong (HKU), together with the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire des Plantes (CNRS, Strasbourg, France), have identified a new strategy to simultaneously enhance health-promoting vitamin E by ~6-fold, as well as double both provitamin A and lycopene contents in tomatoes, to significantly boost antioxidant properties.

Many consumers are getting confused with the "organic" and "non-GMO" labels, according to a national survey conducted by scientists at the University of Florida and Purdue University.

In June 2016, the Congress approved the National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard which allows companies to label GM foods by text, symbol, or QR codes.

Last October 23–27, a meeting on “Rice Flagship Project 2” was held at the CIRAD office in Montpellier, France. The objective of the event is to do a year-end review of the RICE-FP2, and discuss activities and outputs for 2018. The event brought together a multi-disciplinary team of researchers from IRRI, AfricaRice, CIRAD and JIRCAS committed to a common goal of upgrading rice value chains in Asia and Africa.

In Odisha, rice is synonymous with food. Out of the total arable land area of 5.8 million hectares (ha), rice is grown on 4.5 million ha (around 77%) of both rainfed and irrigated areas. However, average productivity is only 1.8 tons/ha, which is below the national average of 2.4 t/ha. The major constraints in rice production in the state are flood, drought, and salinity, along with poor crop management practices.

New discovery by Texas A&M AgriLife scientists gives insights about the biological circadian clock, how it regulates high water-use efficiency in some plants, and how other food plants might be improved for the same efficiency to be able to grow in conditions uninhabitable for them at present.

An international team of breeders and genome scientists together with biologists from the University of Georgia (UGA) have sequenced the genome of garden asparagus as a model for sex chromosome evolution. This research is the first confirmation of early models on how sex chromosomes diverge within the same species. While most flowering plants are hermaphrodites, garden asparagus plants are typically either male (XY) or female (XX).

Member countries, including 43 African nations of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), are expected to benefit exponentially following plans by the United States to add 500,000 more samples of plant genetic material to the Treaty's Multilateral System of Access and Benefit-sharing (MLS). This emerged during the 7th session of the ITPGRFA Governing Body held from October 30 to November 3, 2017 in Kigali, Rwanda.

Drought resistant jojoba could lead to growing forests on deserts, according to scientists at Osaka University in Japan.

Jojoba, which has high drought resistance and salt tolerance, is a popular source of oil used in cosmetic products. However, mass production of jojoba for agriculture has not been explored.

The B-BOX (BBX) proteins play important functions in regulating plant growth and development. In plants, the BBX gene family has been identified in several plants, such as rice, Arabidopsis, and tomato. However, there is still a need for a genome-wide study of BBX genes in pear (Pyrus bretschneideri).

DA Regional Field Office III information officers, technical staff, and other constituents of government agencies learned about maximizing engagement through Facebook and Twitter, crafting social media posts, the social media plan, infographics, and using Facebook for advocacy in the field of agriculture and biotechnology during the training Storytelling Agri-Innovations through Social Media held on October 28, 2017 at Hotel Stotsenberg, Clark, Pampanga.