African countries governments must take the lead both in designing and funding climate smart agricultural (CSA) practices. This is according to an article written by Dr. Esther Ngumbi, a researcher from The Aspen Institute in the U.S. Early this year, the World Bank launched one of its largest climate smart agriculture initiatives to support over 25 million smallholder farmers in Maharashtra, India.

Over the last few years, CIAT, under the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture, and Food Security, or CCAFS, has been promoting climate-smart agriculture, a set of practices that can boost farming yields, while enabling farmers to adapt to climate change and, where appropriate, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Developing climate-smart agriculture (CSA) profiles for countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America forms part of this effort.

Sinh Somphavong, a farmer for 33 years in Xieng Khouang province northeast of Laos, farms on 0.8 ha of land, and earns about 50 million kip (around US$6,000) each year from selling rice, vegetables, forages, and livestock. Livestock is his major income earner; he rears more than 20 cattle, 5 buffaloes, 2 pigs, 50 chickens, and 20 ducks, and would love to raise more cattle to fatten and sell, except that he’s concerned about the additional labor that that would entail.

The Netherlands-based agricultural biotech company KeyGene and not–for-profit scientific research organization, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) signed a Letter of Intent (LoI), for research and co-development on legumes and cereals. The two institutions will work together using novel crop innovation solutions based on KeyGene’s proprietary technologies and know-how.

IRRI together with the Odisha Department of Agriculture and the Odisha State Seed Corporation (OSSC) is connecting global innovative solutions to local needs through SeedCast, a mobile application and web-based Management Information System (MIS) portal for seed demand estimation.

A United Nations Security Council Resolution on hunger and conflict today won praise from FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva for underscoring the critical role of safeguarding food production and rural livelihoods even under conditions of extreme violence and instability.

A new study conducted by a team of scientists from Wageningen University & Research and Teagasc, the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority reveals that a potato variety genetically engineered to resist potato blight can help reduce the use of chemical fungicides by up to 90 percent. The approach uses two tools: a genetically modified (GM) potato along with a new pest management strategy.

For the first time in the United Kingdom, genome-edited (GE) crops will be planted in a field as part of an experimental trial at Rothamsted Research that aims to investigate genetic engineering's efficiency in developing plants to yield more nutritious diets more sustainably. The GE lines of Camelina will be planted in the same field where Rothamsted's genetically modified (GM) varieties of Camelina plants will be sown.

Filipino lawmakers on Monday called for the continued advancement of biotechnology in the country during the opening of the Biotechnology Exhibit in the House of Representatives themed Bioteknolohiya: Pambansang Hamon, Pambansang Solusyon (Biotechnology: Our Nation's Challenge, Our Nation's Solution). The exhibit was organized by the Department of Agriculture's Biotechnology Program Office from May 21-24, 2018 at the North Wing Lobby of the House of Representatives.

Many of the plant pathogens inject effector proteins into plant cells to attack the host's immune system and it has been unclear how the complex system of attack works. Researchers from Cornell University and Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences published in Cell Reports a new experimental system for studying effector interplay to sabotage a plant's defenses.