Scientists' inability to effectively engage with the public has partly contributed to public misunderstanding of gene technologies. This is according to Dr. Craig Cormick, a renowned science communication expert and author from Australia. This could be attributed to the fact that experts tend to believe that the general public wants to know as much about science as they do.

Kalahandi district in Odisha, India, has suffered from repeated droughts and famines for several decades, causing great hardships to the local farmers. A holistic intervention is helping 8,500 farmers in 10 villages boost farm yields by increasing water availability, enhancing soil fertility and providing improved crop varieties. A total of 32 farm ponds have alleviated water scarcity in the area. A yield increase of up to 50% was seen due to these collaborative efforts with the Power Grid Corporation Limited in this region.

Most of the time, conversations about the impacts of climate change on crop yields focus on the resilience (or lack thereof) of the crops themselves. How does the crop react to warmer air temperatures? How does it react to longer dry seasons, or to heavier rainfalls? Often missing from these conversations is the critical role that farmers play. Farmers make decisions throughout the growth cycle, adjusting practices and inputs to changing conditions, that can have major impacts on the yield of their crops, and climate can affect these decisions.

In his first year as FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu had shepherded the Organization through plagues, pests and a pandemic. Throughout the challenges that arose during his first year, he remained unwavering in his vision that food and agriculture are at the heart of solutions for many of the challenges the world currently faces. "Under my guidance," he promised prior to his election, "FAO will be further strengthened as the global centre of agricultural policy coordination."

A research team from China National Rice Research Institute revealed that the OsABCI7 transporter interacts with OsHCF222 to stabilize the thylakoid membrane in rice. The results are reported in Plant Physiology. The thylakoid membrane is a highly complex membrane system in plants and has vital functions in the development of plant parts used for photosynthesis.

Scientists from Nagoya University have, for the first time, observed one of the natural mechanisms in the regulation of the levels of growth inhibiting hormone in plants. Previously observed in bacteria, its discovery in plants will enable novel ways of increasing crop productivity globally. Using rice plants, the research team discovered that a process called "allosteric regulation" is involved in maintaining the phytohormonal balance in plants.

More countries are joining the COVID-19 Food Coalition led by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The initiative, which was launched in June by the Government of Italy, aims to tackle medium and long-term adverse impacts of the pandemic on food systems and agriculture. As of July 31, 2020, 35 nations from all over the globe have joined or expressed their interest to support the Coalition.

Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have mapped and analyzed the largest and most complex CRISPR system in a new study. The researchers studied a complex called Cmr-β, which belongs to the subgroup of so-called type III-B CRISPR-Cas complexes. The researchers believe that the system may have potential applications in biomedicine and biotechnology.

Up to USD 300 billion will be needed annually to adapt to the climate crisis, including the costs of projects designed to ensure agriculture is adaptable and sustainable in the face of climate extremes. Yet experience shows that agricultural-development projects in Africa can be highly risky and uncertain. At the design stage, they often fail to account for risks in implementing a project, even though conditions are known to be subject to rapid change. Part of the challenge is that few data are available to predict a project’s impact. So, projects frequently just fly blind.

The maize genome tells an intriguing story about domestication and the shaping of the genome by human selection. Around 10,000 years ago, Native Americans started to domesticate maize in what is Mexico today. They created the basis for one of today’s most important sources of food for both humans and livestock