Scientists working to study the impacts of climate change on agriculture based their predictions on rainfall, drought intensity, and weather volatility. However, a new study conducted by scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign puts predictions based on field working days. In a previous study, the group developed models that reliably translated past climate data into field working days for Illinois.

The China Agricultural University (CAU) signed an agreement with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) on 15 March 2017, renewing a partnership to boost research, training, and knowledge and technologies exchange between the two institutions. Under the new agreement, CAU and IRRI scientists will collaborate on several areas of rice research including genomics and advanced breeding.

The past month has seen a fierce international and academic debate flare up again over the large-scale use of wood to produce energy, notably in Europe. When we agreed on “Forests and Energy” as the theme for this year’s International Day of Forests on 21 March, we had no idea that there would be such a timely opportunity to share how forests and biomass can deliver crucial energy to support the livelihoods of billions of people, and at the same time provide major opportunities for our climate-smart future.

One of the chapters in the book Women in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Biotechnology narrates the story behind the approval of the first Bt maize product written by Laura S. Privalle. According to the book, the first Bt maize product represented all the promise that biotechnology brings to sustainable agriculture including lower inputs for farmers, less pesticide use, and higher yields.

The Committee for Risk Assessment (RAC) of the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has concluded that the available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria for the Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation to classify glyphosate as a carcinogen, as a mutagen or as toxic for reproduction.

Researchers from VIB-UGent have discovered a gene that significantly increases plant growth and seed yield in maize. The results from laboratory research were confirmed during a two-year field trials conducted in Belgium and the U.S. showing that this gene can increase seed yield in maize hybrids by 10 to 15%. The results of the greenhouse and field trials are published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have identified a key genetic switch that helps soil bacteria that lives on and inside plant roots to harvest phosphate, a vital nutrient for plant yield that is limited in global supply. The form of phosphate that plants can use is in danger of reaching its peak. The scientists show precisely how PHR1, a key switch protein, controls plant response to low levels of phosphate and the plant immune system as well.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NAS) Committee on Future Biotechnology Products and Opportunities to Enhance the Capabilities of the Biotechnology Regulatory System has released the prepublication version of a new report,  Preparing for Future Products of Biotechnology on March 9, 2017.

Planting trees seems like sensible choice when it comes to mitigating climate change, but crucial aspects of the relationships between trees and climate have so far been overlooked in climate research, the new review Trees, forests and water: cool insights for a hot world concludes.

RICE aims to reduce poverty and hunger, improve human health and nutrition, adapt rice-based farming systems to climate change, promote women’s empowerment and youth mobilization, and reduce rice’s environmental footprint.Rice is the world’s most important staple food and will continue to be so in the coming decades. A staple for some 4 billion people worldwide, rice provides 27% of the calories in developing countries.