"Much more must be done to ensure that family farmers, especially those in developing countries, have access to agricultural biotechnologies that can make their activities more productive and sustainable in the face of major challenges such as climate change and population growth," FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said during the opening of the FAO-hosted international symposium The Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition.

Researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, have discovered an unexpected role for Vitamin B6 in relation to nitrogen metabolism. Vitamin B6, a micronutrient, exists in different natural forms called vitamers. The study indicates that one of the vitamers informs the plant of its content in ammonium, a basic nitrogen compound needed for the biosynthesis of various molecules essential for life, such as proteins.

The National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP) of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) organized a fourth Public Consultation for the crafting of the Joint Department Circular titled "Rules and Regulations for the Research and Development, Handling and Use, Transboundary Movement, Release into the Environment and Management of Plant and Plant Products Derived from the Use of Modern Biotechnology" on February 9, 2016 at the DA main office in Quezon City.

The Philippines' Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture-Biotechnology Information Center (SEARCA BIC) and Thailand's Biotechnology and Biosafety Information Center (BBIC) took part in the Cornell Alliance for Science Asia Leadership Course on Strategic Planning and Effective Grassroots Organizing held at Dusit Thani Hotel in Hua Hin, Thailand, on January 18-26, 2016.

Professor Marja Timmermans and a team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered the purpose of one genetic tool that is present in both mosses and flowering plants. The tool, called small RNA, has been used to make plants more sensitive to environmental cues and facilitate responses to those cues.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an emerging public health threat requiring a globally coordinated effort to counter the risks it poses to food security, FAO Deputy Director-General Helena Semedo said Wednesday. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents foster increasing resistance among the very microbes that cause the infections and disease they were designed to quell, threatening to reverse a century of progress in human and animal health, she said.

Scientists at Lancaster University, Rothamsted Research, and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) have studied the naturally occurring plant enzyme Rubisco to explore its ability to increase wheat yields. The research team measured photosynthesis in 25 genotypes of wheat, including wild relatives of bread wheat, and found that variation exists even among closely related genotypes.

Washington State University researchers have concluded that feeding a growing global population with sustainability goals in mind is possible. Their review of hundreds of published studies provides evidence that organic farming can produce sufficient yields, be profitable for farmers, protect and improve the environment and be safer for farm workers.

South Sudan is facing unprecedented levels of food insecurity, as 2.8 million people — nearly 25 percent of the country's population — remain in urgent need of food assistance, and at least 40,000 people are on the brink of catastrophe, three UN agencies warned today.

An Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, and his collaborators have developed an antimicrobial wash that reduces the risk of foodborne pathogens contaminating fresh produce. Joshua Gurtler and scientists at NatureSeal Inc. have found that a combination of lactic acid, fruit acids, and hydrogen peroxide can be used in a produce rinse for commercial food distributors.