The seventh Buôn Ma Thuột coffee festival will be held in March in the Central Highlands province of Đắk Lắk with a wide range of activities featuring local specialties, including locally produced coffee beans.

Themed “Quintessence of the Great Forest”, the biennial festival will take place from March 9-16 with diverse programmes.

IRRI seeks to improve the nutrition and health of rice farmers and consumers in a number of ways. Through improving the nutritional content of milled rice (biofortification with pro-vitamin A, iron and zinc), enhancing the health impact of rice consumption through changes in glycemic index or increased anti-oxidants, improving the safety of rice by reducing the risk of heavy metal contamination, as well as strongly supporting dietary diversification in rice-based agricultural systems.

Biotechnology impacted millions of lives in the world. The technology has not been harnessed to its potential in the Asia Pacific Region (APR) except for Bt cotton dominant spread in countries such as India and Pakistan and GM maize in Philippines. Among the other crops, Bt brinjal and golden rice are in the initial stages of penetration and may take several years to reach status of Bt cotton for various reasons.

Citrus fruits have always been known for their sour, zesty taste. With a little help from science, researches have finally identified what gives the lemon, orange, grapefruit, and other similar fruits their particular tangy flavor. Scientists from the University of Amsterdam found out that the sour taste of citrus fruits is due to the acidity in the vacuoles of the citrus' fruit cells. Vacuoles are the compartments of the cell that are filled with fluid that the cell needs to survive

Agriculture plays a key role in achieving many of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, a recent study conducted at Lund University in Sweden reveals that researchers, policymakers, and farmers in Europe currently have different, often conflicting priorities for sustainable agriculture. The researchers identified where the major gaps are in terms of observable and measurable variables in sustainable agriculture.

SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center's (SEARCA BIC) fifth policy brief, which is based on a study authored by Dr. Maria Monina Cecilia A. Villena, Program Head of SEARCA's Knowledge Management Department, explores how the public makes sense of message frames (i.e., key messages or story lines grouped together in support of a particular message) used by the government when disseminating information about genetic modification or biotechnology.

A research team at University of California, Riverside (UCR) led by plant pathologist Hailing Jin has identified a regulatory, genetic mechanism in plants that could help fight bacterial infection.

Using Arabidopsis thaliana, Jin's research team found that Argonaute protein, a major core protein in the RNA interference machinery, is controlled by "post-translational modification," a process that occurs during bacterial infection. This process controls the level of Argonaute protein and its associated small RNAs.

GM food is safe for consumption, says Zambia Health Minister Dr. Chitalu Chilufya while presenting in Parliament the results of studies conducted about GM food consumption. He emphasized that the studies have shown that GM food had no effect on the health of human organs.

The exceptional climate-altering capabilities of cattle are mainly due to methane, which they blast into the atmosphere during their daily digestive routine. Cattle urine is a lesser-known climate offender. It produces nitrous oxide (N₂O), which has warming power far greater than that of carbon dioxide (CO₂), the main driver of global warming. A study conducted by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and partners shows that these N₂O emissions can be significantly curbed by healthy cattle pastures.

Five candidates have been presented by FAO Member Countries for the post of FAO Director-General to be elected in June 2019, the agency announced today. Election for the agency’s top leadership post with a four-year term of office starting on August 2019 will take place at the 41st Session of FAO’s Conference (Rome, 22-29 June 2019), the highest governing body of the Organization.