A team led by Professor Marcelo Menossi at the University of Campinas's Biology Institute (IB-UNICAMP) in Brazil has found that the key to overcoming a major constraint on sugarcane yield could lie in a gene called ScGAI. Sugarcane yields have been static for decades due to the constraints on culm development. The culm's sugar storage capacity is physically limited, restricting the volume of sucrose and biomass that can be obtained from the crop for sugar and ethanol production.

Scientist from the USDA Agricultural Research Service developed a new process that can be used to insert multiple genes into a crop plant, which can make it easier to breed a variety of crops with highly enhanced characteristics. The new process is reported in The Plant Journal.

A new FAO report sounds the alarm on some of the world's most severely underfunded crises, which in the wake of new shocks require an urgent humanitarian response and emergency agricultural assistance. Without adequate funding, new challenges such as droughts, floods, lean seasons or conflicts could push millions of people into acute hunger and food insecurity, jeopardizing their well-being, lives and future, the UN agency warned.

A multi-pronged approach including quality seed availability and increased profitability for farmers can help India bridge the demand-supply gap in pulses, says a team of scientists. The 12-point recommendations made in the paper, ‘Leveraging Policies for Self Sufficiency in Pulses in India’, authored by Ranjit Kumar from ICAR and Dr KV Raju from ICRISAT, suggest strategies for policy makers to consider to fill in existing gaps.

To help Vietnam’s technology innovators rest assured that their ICT for agriculture (ICT4Ag) solutions do in fact adequately respond to Vietnamese farmers’ current and important challenges, they, together with farmers, convened at a workshop in which both parties gained a deeper appreciation of the challenges in the field on the one hand, and existing technology solutions on the other.

The improvement of cotton is highly dependent on efficient tissue culture and genetic transformation techniques. Somatic regeneration in cotton is highly genotype-dependent, and a while has gone since a highly regenerative cotton genotype was developed. Nevertheless, a group of scientists developed a new elite genotype for cotton (Jin668) through the Successive Regeneration Acclimation strategy in 2017.

Deoxycytidine monophosphate deaminase (DCD) is a key enzyme in the de novo deoxythymidine triphosphate (dTTP) synthesis. DCD is known to play key roles in cell cycle progression, and plant development. However, not much is known of the function of the DCD gene in Panicoideae plants. Setaria is an ideal model of Panicoideae grasses, especially for C4 photosynthesis research.

Scientists from The University of Sheffield have discovered that developing a high-yielding rice variety with reduced stomatal density helps the crop conserve water and survive high temperatures and drought.

Biofortification of crops through genetic modification can effectively lessen the burden of micronutrient deficiencies in an economically viable way. This is according to review article authored by economics and policy experts from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Ghent University, and European Commission and published in Current Opinion in Biotechnology.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) released the draft Environmental Assessment (dEA) and draft Plant Pest Risk Assessment (dPRA) of genetically engineered (GE) cotton with ultra-low levels of gossypol in the seed (event TAM66274). The documents were made available for public comment to be considered for potential deregulation of the GE cotton variety.