As the world celebrates the International Women's Day (IWD) 2018, more women are speaking up for their rights, equality, and justice. With the theme "Time is Now: Rural and Urban Activists Transforming Women's Lives", the United Nations Commission puts a focus on the activism of rural women, who make up over a quarter of the world population, and being left behind in every measure of development.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most pervasive form of violence globally—with 1 in 3 women physically or sexually abused by a partner in her lifetime. IPV has multiple malign consequences for the physical and mental health of women, as well as a range of adverse effects on their children. While these consequences are well documented, there is less evidence on the effectiveness of policies and programs in reducing IPV in the developing world.

IRRI is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Krishna Joshi as the Institute’s representative in Nepal, effective 12 February 2018. Dr. Joshi will lead the Institute’s key initiatives in the country and will serve as the focal person for all endeavours in strengthening IRRI’s partnership with key stakeholders.

A study published in Genome Biology shows how plants use ‘baits' to recognize and trap disease-causing pathogens before infection can start. Ksenia Krasileva and her team from Earlham Institute, together with researchers from The Sainsbury Laboratory, used phylogenetic analyses to identify how these ‘bait' genes are distributed throughout different wild and domestic grasses, including crop plants such as wheat, barley, maize, and rice.

Plants are engineered to contain less lignin to ease the industrial processing of plant biomass into energy. Unfortunately, this process reduces yield. Researchers at the VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology  discovered a way to overcome this problem. Moreover, the strategy they used does not just restore the biomass yield. It increases the yield beyond that of wild type plants.

The Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation in the Government of India, Mr. Nitin Gadkari, launched a massive pink bollworm awareness campaign in Nagpur, Maharashtra, India on February 25, 2018. The pink bollworm awareness campaign is implemented jointly by South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC), Indian Society for Cotton Improvement (ISCI), and Agrovision Foundation.

Nitrogen fertilizer helps increase crop yields, but excessive use causes environmental pollution. Large amounts of nitrogen can also delay flowering in rice. A recent study identified a rice nitrate transporter (NRT) that can help increase grain yield and accelerate flowering if overexpressed.

Kenyan farmers are feeling miserable about the infestation of fall armyworm in their maize fields. The attack started as a simple, seemingly manageable situation, but has grown to greater magnitudes requiring more attention and strategies to solve. The fall armyworm outbreak, which has affected the major maize growing regions in the country is projected to diminish the crop's production by up to 5 percent.

In “Nutritional and greenhouse gas impacts of removing animals from US agriculture,” White and Hall (1) imagine a future without animal agriculture but fail to address perhaps the single most influential aspect of livestock on US agriculture: land use for feed crops. The authors unrealistically assume that without livestock, Americans would continue to grow animal feed and incorporate it into human diets.

More than 7 million people in South Sudan - almost two-thirds of the population - could become severely food insecure in the coming months without sustained humanitarian assistance and access, three United Nations agencies warned today. If this happens, this will be the highest ever number of food insecure people in South Sudan. The period of greatest risk will be the lean season, between May and July. Particularly at risk are 155,000 people, including 29,000 children, who could suffer from the most extreme levels of hunger.