If you had to choose just one word that captures the essence of bean research in Sub-Saharan Africa it is ‘partnership’ – between researchers, farmers, policymakers, nutritionists, private sector service providers  and every other actor along the bean value chain.

The 3rd Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture is to be held in Montpellier, France, from 16 to 18 March 2015. This major event is intended to supplement and update the existing scientific knowledge of the range of issues surrounding climate-smart agriculture. It will serve to establish a future research agenda, support decision-making and propose action.

Lilium is one of the major bulb crops in the world and is a major part of the ornamentals industry. The fungus Botrytis causes extreme economic losses to a wide range of crops, including Lilium. The success of the ornamentals industry depends on the introduction of new individuals with key characteristics, such as disease resistance.

Starch is one of the important products in photosynthesis. It is also used in textile and paper industries. Despite its various uses, its formation is yet to be understood. Hence, a group of researchers from ETH Zurich conducted a study to understand how starch is produced. The researchers examined the photosynthesis process, specifically the amylose formation taking place in Arabidopsis thaliana.

A study conducted at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) is suggesting a novel strategy to enhance genome editing to increase the efficiency of making genetic improvements in a wide range of organisms. The new strategy is aimed towards improving an increasingly popular technique that grew from the recent discovery of CRISPR-Cas9.

Leaders of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and the World Food Programme (WFP) gathered in Rome, Italy on March 6, 2015 to celebrate the International Women's Day and highlight the role of women farmers in achieving food and nutrition security.

10 March 2015, Rome - An innovative partnership spanning five African countries is providing important lessons on how governments can procure food for public institutions, such as schools, directly from small-scale family farmers. Modelled on Brazil's achievements in fighting hunger and poverty, the Purchase from Africans for Africa programme (PAA Africa) helps promote local agricultural production while also improving livelihoods and nutrition.

Colorado potato beetle is one of the most destructive and hard to control insect pests due to its resistance against pesticides. Aside from pesticides, there are no other means of controlling the pest. An alternative control has been developed by researchers from Max Planck Institute. This was done by adopting the mechanism of RNA interference (RNAi) in protecting plant, fungi and insect against virus.

IFAD 4 MARCH 2015 – This year, the international community is commemorating the 20th anniversary of the landmark Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in September 1995. International Women’s Day 2015, observed on 8 March, is therefore a special occasion to celebrate achievements made since Beijing and to take action on meeting the remaining challenges to women's empowerment and gender equality.

A team led by Tetsuya Sakurai from RIKEN Research developed a new database that will aid scientists in identifying the unknown functions of plant genes. This was done through analyzing protein structures encoded by the unknown genes. Using six plants representative of plant species, Arabidopsis thaliana, Glycine max (soybean), Populus trichocarpa (poplar), Oryza sativa (rice), Physcomitrella patens (moss) and Cyanidioschycon merolae (algae), the researchers conducted a computational modeling to predict the physicochemical and structure properties of their genome's proteins.