An international team of scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and other research organizations have sequenced the complete genome of the Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata. This pest attacks more than 260 fruit, vegetable and nut crops worldwide, causing billions of dollars annually in direct damage, export sanctions, lost markets, and other costs.

The United States Congress has ratified the historic International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture ("The Treaty") to strengthen American agriculture and enhance global food security. The Treaty was pending for nearly 15 years after it was first signed by President George W. Bush. Now ratified, it will ensure U.S. public and private sector plant breeders have secure access to global plant materials as they work to develop the next generation of plant varieties to meet the needs of a growing population.

International Plant Biotechnology Outreach of VIB, Ghent University and KU Leuven, in collaboration with Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO) and International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), conducted a 10-day banana research course for scientists and biotechnology regulators from East and West Africa. The program titled ‘Banana research in Africa: Modern breeding techniques, regulatory and biosafety issues' took place in Uganda's capital Kampala, and ran from September 19-30, 2016.

José Graziano da Silva, Director General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), said that the agricultural sector must transform itself not only to achieve food and nutrition security for all, but also to help address global challenges such as climate change and antimicrobial resistance. Speaking at the biannual meeting of FAO's Committee on Agriculture on September 26, 2016 at the FAO Headquarters in Rome, the Director General noted how "agriculture is at the very heart" of a recent series of ground-breaking international agreements, including the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

More than 20 farmers from ‘Eua Island in Tonga recently graduated from a Farmer Field School –in the Pacific to teach young farmers how to grow and sell more food with certified training.  Spending an entire season together, with the field as their classroom, participants exchanged knowledge and expertise while being provided with the tools they needed to analyse and identify ways to improve their farming techniques. Each graduate earned a certificate in horticulture.

WHO is calling on belligerents in Syria to allow for the immediate and safe evacuation of the sick and wounded from all areas affected by the conflict, including eastern Aleppo. The Organization is also calling for a halt of attacks on health care workers and facilities.

Dr. Akira Tanaka, the first physiologist at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), passed away on 28 August in Japan. He arrived at IRRI on 1 April 1962 to head the fledgling institution’s Physiology Department. Japanese researchers, such as Tanaka, played a key role at IRRI as it set the stage for the start of the first Green Revolution

Wax, cutin, and sporopollenin are vital in the formation of the anther cuticle and the pollen exine. Their precursors are produced by secretory tapetal cells and transported to the anther and microspore surface. Zhenyi Chang of the Shenzhen Institute of Molecular Crop Design, together with researchers from various institutions in China characterized a rice male sterile mutant osabcg26, to study the mechanisms involved in the formation of anther cuticle and pollen exine in rice.

The lack of good-quality seed is one the major constraints in rice production in many developing countries. In many poor rice-growing countries, the farmers rely heavily on farmer-saved seed for their crop production rather than commercial seed produced by the private sector.
 

Feeding the burgeoning world population will require significant improvements in agricultural productivity, above all in Africa, and mechanization and appropriate mechanization strategies have a large role to play, according to a new report from FAO. The opportunity must be guided in a way that meets smallholder farmers' needs.