Understanding which agricultural practices work best, and where, to halt the impacts of climate change is one thing. But making sure those practices are adopted by communities – farmers, decision and policy makers – is another thing. The process of getting better practices to more people – “scaling up” innovations to make agriculture more climate-smart – has baffled many development practitioners. Some approaches work on a small scale, but suddenly on a larger scale, everything changes.

Do you ever contemplate climate change over your morning cup of coffee?

Probably not. But perhaps it is time that you did.

The tropical storms that recently hit the U.S. and Caribbean in quick and brutal succession have brought the impacts of climate change closer to home for many of us in the developed world. Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico, wiping out nearly 80 percent of the value of the country’s crops.

Efforts to confront the spread of antimicrobial resistant pathogens on farms and in food systems are gathering momentum, thanks to strong backing by governments and technical support that is boosting national capacities to respond to the problem, FAO said today.

Citrus canker caused by Xanthomonas citri subp. Citri (Xcc), is a serious disease in citrus-producing areas. While different levels of resistance to the disease have been reported, they are not sufficient to provide disease control. Overexpression of antibacterial genes is a potential way to increase plant resistance. Previous studies showed that sarcotoxin IA, an antimicrobial peptide from the flesh fly (Sarcophaga peregrina), can be efficient to control different plant pathogenic bacteria.

The wheat genome is both colossal and complex, more than five times the size of the human genome, and has been an immense puzzle to scientists for decades. After 10 years of large scale, international research, a group of scientists has finally assembled the wheat genome to its most complete and contiguous state. Assembling the genome took a total computer processing time equivalent to 53.7 years across just over five months of elapsed time. Because of its hexaploid structure, the genome for common bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, has ‘one of the most complex genome sequences known to science', according to the paper, published on October 23, 2017.

Assembling the genome took a total computer processing time equivalent to 53.7 years across just over five months of elapsed time. Because of its hexaploid structure, the genome for common bread wheat, Triticum aestivum, has ‘one of the most complex genome sequences known to science', according to the paper, published on October 23, 2017.

Scientists from Ohio State University and Italian National Agency for New Technologies have developed a "golden" potato with improved levels of vitamins A and E. The result of their study is published in PLOS ONE journal.

A large, prospective cohort study conducted among agricultural workers, farmers and their families in Iowa and North Carolina in the United States reports that there are no associations between glyphosate use and overall cancer risk or with total lymphohematopoietic cancers, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Resilient Rice Field Laboratory at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) today. While in the Philippines for the ASEAN Summit meetings, Modi spent time at the International Rice Research Institute discussing agriculture innovations and research advances for the rice sector.

ISARC will serve as IRRI’s center for capacity building in agriculture, particularly on rice-based systems in the South Asian and African regions. A robust seed system is the backbone of agricultural developments and to start its operations, ISARC hosted its first international training on quality seed production. The training aimed to strengthen the agriculture and seed sector of the country. It also provided a hands-on training for technical knowledge on quality rice seed production, and addressed problems that farmers, researchers, and seed production agencies commonly encounter.

Scientists from Cornell University and colleagues from other institutions have identified genes that control Vitamin E content in the maize grain.

The researchers used different types of genetic association analyses to identify 14 genes across the maize genome involved in the synthesis of vitamin E.