Australia's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has issued license DIR 201 to The University of Adelaide, allowing the field trial of wheat and barley genetically modified (GM) for yield enhancement. The field trial will be conducted on one site in Light Regional Council in South Australia, with a maximum planting area of 2 hectares each year. The trial will run from May 2024 to January 2029. The purpose of the field trial is to assess the performance of GM wheat and barley under field conditions in Australia.

Coffea arabica, an allotetraploid hybrid of Coffea eugenioides and Coffea canephora, is the source of approximately 60% of coffee products worldwide, and its cultivated accessions have undergone several population bottlenecks. We present chromosome-level assemblies of a di-haploid C. arabica accession and modern representatives of its diploid progenitors, C. eugenioides and C. canephora. The three species exhibit largely conserved genome structures between diploid parents and descendant subgenomes, with no obvious global subgenome dominance.

The webinar was attended by 37 participants representing different agencies in the Philippines, such as the National Committee on Biosafety of the Philippines (NCBP), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The participants were welcomed by Ms. Maria Lorelie Agbagala, Assistant Scientist and Head Secretariat of NCBP and the DOST Biosafety Committee (DOST-BC).

Mr. Phạm Thành Nhân, Dong Thap Muoi Research and Development Centre, leaving for IRRI, the Philippines, to join the three-month training course by IRRI from  November 13, 2019 to January 21, 2020

Mr. Li Jianqiang (Director), Ms. Feng Chunmei (Technical Director), Mr. Tan Yewei (Business Manager) - Subtropical  Crop Research Institute, QuangXi, China, paid a short visit how to cooperate with the IAS about crop production and consumption, November 12, 2019.

In 2023, the IAS has conducted 34 R&D activities with the total budget of VND 22.58 billion.

The outputs are as followed:

- Thirteen research articles were received and published in Vietanamese journals.

- Nine new crop varieties have developed including 3 varieties of cashewnut; 2 potato; 3 chrysanthemum; 1 carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus)

Vietnam is striving to take stronger measures to achieve “net-zero emissions” by 2050. Agriculture has been recognized as a bright spot in the economic development of 2023. Economic and market intelligence played an important part in the sector's growth last year. Traditionally, farmers focused on how to improve production, but higher yields did not always translate to increased income. As prices fluctuate, they may produce more but gain less.