The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu arrived in Maldives today on an official two-day visit to reaffirm support for and cooperation with Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in driving agrifood systems transformation and inclusive growth. This is Qu’s first visit to the Maldives since taking office. Upon his arrival, the Director-General met with the Minister of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture, Hussain Rasheed Hassan, in the capital Malé.

Scientists found evidence that Salt Tolerance5 (ThST5) from Thellungiella halophila is a promising candidate to improve salt tolerance in cotton. These findings can take salt-tolerant cotton research to new levels. ThST5 was previously isolated by the scientists from the halophyte T. halophila, an ortholog of Arabidopsis SPT4 which encodes a transcription elongation factor. However, previous evaluations did not confer SPT4-2's salt tolerance in crops. For this study, the scientists were able to record evidence that SPT4-2 increases salt tolerance in cotton plants.

Researchers from National Crops Resources Research Institute, Uganda, conducted a study to analyze the performance of Bt maize MON810 in controlling maize stem borers. The results are published in Crop Protection journal. African stem borer (Busseola fusca) and the spotted stem borer (Chilo partellus) are among the major insect pests of maize in Uganda.

Australia's Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) has received license application DIR 190 from BASF Australia for commercial cultivation of genetically modified (GM) Indian mustard line RF3 modified for herbicide tolerance. GM Indian mustard RF3 has been produced by conventional breeding of non-GM Indian mustard with GM canola containing the RF3 modification. The GM Indian mustard contains genes for herbicide tolerance and for male fertility restoration.

Experts from the Chinese Academy of Sciences reported the successful development of fragrant cultivated sorghum using CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology. Their findings are published as a breakthrough report in the Journal of Integrative Plant Biology. Soghum is the fifth largest crop with high economical value because it is used as a staple food and raw material for liquor and vinegar brewing. It is also used as a silage source due to its high biomass and quality.

Quebec City-based biopharmaceutical company Medicago and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) have announced that Health Canada has granted approval for the plant-based virus-like particles (VLP), recombinant, adjuvanted COVIFENZ® COVID-19 vaccine. Health Canada based its decision on scientific data shared by Medicago. COVIFENZ® COVID-19 vaccine uses coronavirus-like particle (CoVLP) technology

A genome-wide expression analysis of rice root tips from two varieties helped scientists identify candidate genes for water stress adaptation. The two varieties reacted differently to water stress, providing more options for candidate genes potentially involved in root system architecture modification to be investigated further. A team of scientists from Iran and Australia analyzed the transcriptome response of rice root tips to water stress using IR64 and Azucena varieties.

The Crop-to-Food Innovation Program led by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln will give undergraduate students from across the United States the opportunity to be mentored in the fields of biological sciences, chemistry, food science, engineering, and other related majors to enhance their capabilities for cross-disciplinary, cutting-edge research which can help them start their careers after graduation.

Scientists at the Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation (CABBI) have created CROPSR, the first open-source software tool for genome-wide design and evaluation of guide RNA (gRNA) sequences for CRISPR experiments. "CROPSR provides the scientific community with new methods and a new workflow for performing CRISPR-Cas9 knockout experiments," said developer Hans Müller Paul, a molecular biologist and Ph.D. student with co-author Matthew Hudson, Professor of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Scientists from Rothamsted Research have engineered a plant to produce a range of important chemicals used in manufacturing common everyday items which are usually obtained from fossil fuels. The chemicals are from a group of molecules called 4-VPs (vinyl phenols) that are widely used in food and makeup and even include plastic used in television and mobile phone screens.