On 7 March 2023, the CGIAR Research Initiatives on Livestock and Climate and Climate Resilience, along with the CGIAR Hub for Sustainable Finance, organized a multi-stakeholder session at the Global Landscapes Forum 6th Investment Case Symposium in Luxembourg. The session, titled ‘Sustainable livestock value chain investments for rangeland restoration’, presented two investment cases supported by the CGIAR initiatives which highlight the importance of rangelands and their restoration. 

Reversing the upward trend in acute food insecurity seen throughout 2022 requires boosting investment in anticipatory action and agriculture-based livelihoods of the people affected by crises, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, said today at a high-level virtual event to release the seventh Global Report on Food Crises.

Scientists from Pusan National University in South Korea found a gene that can help regulate the progression of leukemia, a type of blood cancer that affected about 2.3 million people in the world in 2015. One type of leukemia is known as acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which progresses rapidly. According to the research highlights, Surfeit 4 (SURF4) is a gene that is highly expressed in AML patients, yet its effects remain a mystery.

Experts from Danforth Plant Science Center discovered a plant protein complex that controls temperature response by the circadian clock. With the impact of climate change in daily and seasonal temperature trends, it is vital to comprehend how plants read and respond to varying temperature signals. The findings are published in the journal Plant Physiology. “The circadian clock in Arabidopsis is well-studied.

In an effort to mitigate climate change, a team of scientists from three University of California (UC) campuses are proposing to use the gene editing tool CRISPR on microbes in the cow's gut. Their vision is to deliver gene-edited microbes as oral treatments for calves that will take effect in the gut microbial systems. The calves can carry this into adulthood, which can reduce their methane emissions for the rest of their lives.

Washington State University (WSU) made history in the United States (US) by becoming the first university to release meat derived from gene-edited livestock pigs into the market. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) determined that the meat, in the form of German-style sausages, is safe for human consumption. WSU's pigs were gene-edited to become surrogate sires. Using CRISPR technology, the gene NANOS2 was knocked out to make the male pigs sterile.

Water, and the international water management agenda, is also a key, cross-cutting element in CGIAR’s mission to deliver science and innovation that advance the transformation of food, land, and water systems in a climate crisis. The UN 2023 Water Conference ended with the adoption of a new Water Action Agenda that aims to unite the world for action on water, bringing cross-cutting solutions for sustainable development.

Miyazaki, Japan - With hunger levels rising and domestic food prices inflation soaring in much of the world, collective actions are necessary to meet immediate and longer-term global food security objectives, QU Dongyu, Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said today at the G7 Ministers of Agriculture Meeting. “We need to work together in an efficient, effective and coherent manner to address the challenges, and identify the solutions needed for concrete actions leading to tangible results on the ground,” he said.

Mr. Shuichi Tokumoto, an exemplary farmer, solely founded the Japan Biotech Crop Network (JBCN). Mr. Tokumoto wants to practice sustainable agriculture in Japan and partner with professional local and international farmers, as well as other stakeholders, including researchers, journalists, manufacturers, and retailers, to bring together their knowledge and promote exchanges on the latest in agriculture such as biotechnology and no-tillage farming, and also discuss proposals for policies.

Researchers at the Earlham Institute in Norwich have turned tobacco plants into solar-powered factories for moth sex pheromones using genetic engineering techniques. The team engineered Nicotiana benthamiana to produce moth sex pheromones. The team at Earlham Institute worked with scientists at the Plant Molecular and Cell Biology Institute in Valencia, Spain to engineer N. benthamiana, a species of tobacco, to produce the sex pheromones of two moths.