Delegates from Public Research and Regulation Initiative (PRRI) and the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) held a half day forum on December 3 at the Cancun Convention Center, to prepare for COP13 Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Piet van der Meer of PRRI provided an introduction on the Biodiversity Convention and Biosafety Protocol and the Conference and Meetings of the Parties (COPMOPs), as well as the Topics of COP13, COPMOP8 and COPMOP2.

ISAAA and SEARCA Biotechnology Information Center held a bag design-making contest on biotechnology titled Tote-ally Biotech. The contest aimed to encourage students to know more about biotechnology and apply their learnings in creatively crafted designs for cloth bags. The awarding ceremony was held on November 25, 2016 during the closing ceremony of the Philippine National Biotech Week 2016 in Quezon City, Philippines.

The purpose of the TAC visit at NaCRRI was to explore the human, infrastructural and equipment capacity for the development of biotech products and for biosafety compliance especially in conducting safety assessment tests. TAC was also keen to see the progress with GM crop development and testing at NaCRRI and identify capacity gaps for ABNE's appropriate action.

About 50 media representatives and bloggers engaged with industry experts and state government officials concluding that while the value of millets is high, awareness is low and modern ways to use them are yet to be fully discovered. This was the first curtain raiser event to develop a campaign to popularize millets with new products ranging from millet ice cream to millet pasta and muffins on the menu and the agenda.

CGIAR, the world’s largest agricultural research for development partnership, today announced the appointment of Elwyn Grainger-Jones as Executive Director of the CGIAR System Organization – a pivotal part of the CGIAR System charged with overseeing the development and implementation of CGIAR’s Strategy and Results Framework.

In 2013, we wrote about Sukanti Swain, Sanjukta Naik, and Rabi Pradhan in the eastern Indian state of Odisha (See Breaking the barriers: from housewives to breadwinners). They overcame social obstacles and transitioned from being stay-at-home wives and mothers to being successful farmers, entrepreneurs, leaders, motivators and role models. In this piece, we nicknamed Sukanti Swain the “Leader,” Sanjukta Naik the “Machine,” and Rabi Pradhan the “Fighter.”

Soil and pulses can make major contributions to the challenge of feeding the world's growing population and combating climate change, especially when deployed together, according to Soils and Pulses: Symbiosis for Life, a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization released on World Soil Day.

There are many stress-tolerant rice varieties that have been released in India. However, seed producers and companies in the country’s eastern region urgently need to be more aware of their availability and ways to promote them. So, a varietal exhibition and a workshop were held recently in Birbhum to do just that.

Responding to the mounting impacts of malnutrition on public health and economic development — estimated to cost $3.5 trillion per year — via a shift to healthier diets and food systems will be the subject of a high-level symposium kicking off here today.The International Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition (1-2 December)

In a paper published in the November 14 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists at Washington University in St. Louis report that the enzyme GH3.5 can control the levels of two plant hormones, auxin and salicylic acid. GH3.5 is the first enzyme of its kind known to control completely different classes of hormones.