NEPAD Agency African Biosafety Network of Expertise (ABNE), together with Michigan State University (MSU), the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Bejo Sheetal Biosciences Foundation (BSBF), and South Asia Biotechnology Centre (SABC) in India, has successfully conducted a study tour of New Delhi, Aurangabad/Jalna, and Hyderabad in India on January 17-27, 2016.

On Wednesday, February 24^th, a project will be launched in Ma village, in Vietnam’s northern Yen Bai District, as part of a region-wide initiative to tackle climate change in agriculture. The Climate-Smart Village of Ma is one of two climate-smart villages in Vietnam, chosen due to its vulnerability to specific climate challenges in the region including drought, cold snaps and declining soil fertility.

An important FAO-supported rural development project (GCP/RAS/281/FRA) funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) in Viet Nam will establish an operational system to control three geographical indications of two key products.
 

FAO 23 February 2016, Clark, Philippines/Rome - Community-based forestry has shown itself to be a potent vehicle for promoting sustainable forest management, reducing poverty and generating jobs and income for rural communities, but unlocking its true potential will require greater support by governments through policy reforms and other measures.

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science and the University of Tokyo in Japan recently proved that DPB3-1, a transcriptional regulator from Arabidopsis, can enhance heat stress tolerance without any negative effects on growth.

In addition to water, fertilizer is also an important input in rice production on the irrigated lowlands of Asia. But, unlike water, which usually flows naturally for even distribution onto farmers’ fields, the uniform application of fertilizer is laborious and difficult.

Indiana University scientists led by Roger Innes have modified a plant gene that normally fights bacterial infection to confer resistance to a virus. Plants detect pathogens indirectly by sensing the damage they cause within a cell. Once a pathogen is detected, plants mount a strong defense response. Innes' Lab found that plant proteins (sensors) that sense this pathogen-induced damage are highly specific, and previous efforts to broaden their specificity had little success.

Farmer leaders from all regions of Uganda have formed a grassroots forum supporting agricultural biotechnology during a three-day workshop organized by the Science Foundation for Livelihoods and Development (SCIFODE) on February 3-5, 2016. Workshop activities included plenary presentations on biotechnology and visits to laboratories and field trials of genetically modified crops. The participants were farmer leaders from the National Farmers' Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (NAFFAB).

Representatives of the European Union (EU) visited CIAT headquarters yesterday, getting a glimpse of how Colombia can transition to a post-conflict era through productive, profitable and sustainable agriculture. The prospect of an imminent end to the country’s long-running civil war means there are new opportunities for farmers across the country to sustainably increase production and access high-value markets at home and abroad.

Oregon State University researchers discovered the first-ever fossil specimen of an "asterid", a family of flowering plants where potato, tomatoes, tobacco, petunias and coffee came from. But these two 20-30 million-year-old fossil flowers, found in a piece of amber, belong to the genus Strychnos, which gave rise to some of the world's most famous poisons. Two poisons from plants in the Strychnos genus became famous, strychnine and curare.