A global team of experts discovered the key traits in lentils that will enable the important grain legume to tolerate rising temperatures. Scientists from the University of Western Australia, Panjab University, Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) - Indian Institute of Pulse Research, Punjab Agricultural University

Scientists from the University of Kentucky led by Professor Hongyan Zhu have discovered a more efficient way for legumes to fix nitrogen. Zhu and his team found two antimicrobial peptides in the legume Medicago truncatula that kill certain rhizobial bacteria as nitrogen fixation begins. M. truncatula is closely related to alfalfa, a forage legume.

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is an allotetraploid plant with a complex genome, with most genes having multiple copies. Due to its high efficiency, the CRISPR-Cas9 system was used by the team of Pengcheng Wang from Huazhong Agricultural University to generate two sgRNAs in a single vector and conduct multiple-site genome editing in cotton. The team targeted the exogenously transformed gene, Discosoma red fluorescent protein2 (DsRed2) in DsRed2-overexpressing cotton, which has a red seed phenotype.

Biotechnology is an essential tool in farmers' quest to produce enough food to meet the needs of 9.7 billion people by 2050, said the American Soybean Association (ASA) in their comments submitted to both the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding regulations in response to advances in genetic engineering.

Feasibility, ease of implementation and transparency in information are factors that will prove decisive in attracting investment for agriculture projects, stakeholders agreed at a conference held on Monday. Chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ, the conference held in Hà Nội sought feedback on amendments to Decree 210 aimed at encouraging enterprises to invest in agriculture and rural areas.

In Malawi, pigeon pea production, harvest, preparation and sale are all activities which are important to, and carried out by women. While these varieties may have been selected with market-desired traits, breeders did not fully appreciate the gendered preferences of their end-users, nor fully understand how they drive adoption and use.

Throughout 2017, we will be celebrating CIAT’s 50th Anniversary and bring together our partners, donors, and people behind CIAT’s achievements, while reflecting on the future of food and agriculture. Following the first regional celebrations in Hanoi, Vietnam on 3-4 April 2017, CIAT is pleased to announce the upcoming celebrations in Nairobi, Kenya on 29 May.

Chef Robby has more than 20 years of professional cooking and kitchen management experience, with a scope that knows no geographical boundaries. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy, he is renowned for his classic Mexican, Greek, American, and, of course, Filipino restaurants that constantly get rave reviews and have won numerous prestigious awards.

- Deepening ties between FAO and the United Nations Volunteers programme (UNV) should make opportunities to join the fight against hunger and rural poverty more accessible to young people as well as to experts who wish to contribute their time and skills. Daniel Gustafson, FAO Deputy Director General and UNV Executive Coordinator Olivier Adam signed a Memorandum of Understanding today aiming at scaling-up their collaboration and making rapid deployments easier. 

Rice, one of the vital staple for many countries, was first domesticated in China about 10,000 years ago. This is according to the study conducted by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and published in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers recovered rice remains from the Shangshan site in the Lower Yangtze in China. The remains were recognized as the earliest examples of rice cultivation.