Scientists at the University of California, Davis have sequenced the genome of a commercial walnut variety, Chandler, the first reference genome sequence for a nut crop. The information will help accelerate the rate of breeding and variety improvement in walnuts and help breeders select for desired traits such as insect and disease resistance, and drought tolerance.

Stakeholders from Busia County in Kenya, comprising of farmers, ginners and policy makers, have called on the government to lift the ban on GM food imports and allow commercialization of GM cotton.

Nobel Laureate and molecular biologist, Richard John Roberts said that GM foods are probably safer than traditional food. He said this during his talk at the centenary lecture series of the University of Mysore in India. He also stressed the potential of some GM crops to address malnutrition.

Researchers at Umeå University and the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences have discovered that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere have shifted photosynthetic metabolism in plants over the 20^th century. The first study worldwide, it deduced biochemical regulation of plant metabolism from historical specimens.

Molecular biologists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMassAmherst) have discovered a "double agent" peptide in an alfalfa that promises to improve crop yields without increasing fertilizer use. The UMassAmherst team together with colleagues from the Noble Foundation, report that alfalfa appears to use an advanced process for putting nitrogen-fixing bacteria, rhizobia, to work more effectively after they are recruited from soil to fix nitrogen in special nodules on plant roots.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) announced the extension of deregulation of herbicide tolerant corn MZHG0JG developed by Syngenta. The same GE trait has been previously reviewed and deregulated in other GE corn plants.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA APHIS) granted the request of JR Simplot Company to extend the determination of non-regulated status of V11 Snowden Potatoes. The GE potato has low acrylamide potential and reduced black spot traits.

Improved varieties of sorghum, groundnut, vegetables, fruit and fodder trees and sustainable production technologies for improving nutrition and incomes captured the attention of visitors at an Open House organized at ICRISAT-Mali.

FAO 4 December 2015, Rome - The world's soils are rapidly deteriorating due to soil erosion, nutrient depletion, loss of soil organic carbon, soil sealing and other threats, but this trend can be reversed provided countries take the lead in promoting sustainable management practices and the use of appropriate technologies, according to a new UN report released today.
 

FAO 4 December 2015, Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the CGIAR research program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM) today launched a new initiative to enhance global cooperation on measuring and reducing food loss and waste. The G20 agriculture ministers requested FAO and IFPRI to launch this initiative in Istanbul, Turkey, this past May.