The Australian Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) invites comments from the public to assess license application DIR 149 from Nuseed Pty Ltd for a field trial of genetically modified (GM) Indian mustard. The trial is proposed to take place between April 2017 and May 2022, with trial sites selected from 99 possible local government areas in New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland.

Scientists from the University of California Davis are leading a new project to study the genetic adaptation of maize to different environmental conditions. The team is looking at the genetic basis of maize adaptation to high-elevation environments, to find out how wild and domesticated maize populations adapt to new climates.

University of Virginia economics professor Federico Ciliberto leads the largest-ever study of the environmental impacts of genetically modified (GM) crops in the U.S. Alongside Edward D. Perry of Kansas State University, David A. Hennessy of Michigan State University, and Gian Carlo Moschini of Iowa State University, the four economists studied annual data from more than 5,000 soybean and 5,000 maize farmers in the U.S. from 1998 to 2011

The South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC) is inviting the public to submit comments in favor of the barnase-barstar technology and genetically engineered (GE) mustard hybrid DMH-11 to the Indian Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF). The barnase-barstar technology and GE mustard hybrid DMH-11, rigorously assessed for biosafety over the last decade by regulatory agencies in India, is as safe as conventional mustard, and does not raise any public health or safety concerns for human beings or animal or environment.

The Department of Agriculture and Food of Western Australia is field testing new wheat lines developed by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). Senior research officer Dr. Bob French said the new lines contained alternative dwarfing genes that had a longer coleoptile length, the pointed protective sheath that encases the emerging shoot as it grows from the seed to the soil surface.

FAO today welcomed an agreement by Indonesia and the European Union (EU) to issue the world's first Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) timber license as a major achievement in the fight against illegal logging.

The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) in Uganda, Hon. Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye has commended agricultural researchers at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in Namulonge for using modern biosciences to innovate products to support national development and uplift lives of Ugandans. The products include: disease-resistant, nutrient-enhanced, and drought-tolerant crops developed using genetic engineering, biodiesel, biodegradable packaging material, biopharmaceutical starch, starch glue, and protein enhanced-flour, all made from cassava starch.

Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), has been awarded the inaugural Africa Food Prize during the African Green Revolution Forum in Nairobi, Kenya on September 7, 2016. Dr. Nwanze was recognized for his visionary leadership and passionate advocacy to place African smallholder farmers at the center of the global agricultural agenda,

For more than 200 years, physicists have wanted to understand why electricity flows through some materials and not others. In some of the first experiments aimed at understanding conductivity, at the start of the 18th century, British autodidact Stephen Gray observed that materials like metals (and some vegetables) conduct electricity, whereas others, like silk or wool, don’t.

Infectious diseases continue to pose a major public health threat in South Sudan. Adding to the chronic burden of disease, regular outbreaks further threaten people's health. In a conflict setting, WHO and partners are responding to multiple outbreaks including cholera, malaria, measles, suspected hemorrhagic fever, and kala-azar.