NICHE WHEATS ARE ON THE WAY Last winter, Paul Sproule read an article regarding niche wheats being developed by Arcadia Biosciences, a Davis, California, agricultural biotechnology firm. “When I researched it, I got excited. I got on an airplane and went to California,” says the Grand Forks, North Dakota, farmer. “It was an opportunity to share our story of North …

Project Receives Additional $13 Million To Accelerate Progress To Redesign Photosynthesis This week, families across the U.S. will gather around Thanksgiving tables in a traditional celebration of the season’s bounty. By improving how key crops transform sunlight into yield, Realizing Increased Photosynthetic Efficiency (RIPE) will one day help farmers put food on more tables worldwide, especially where it is needed …

Tropical Fish Adapt To Cold Temperatures In Coordination With Their Microbiome Scientists have discovered that tropical fish can control their gut microbes to better survive extremes of temperature, a study in eLife reveals. The results add further weight to the concept of a ‘hologenome’ – where a living organism is not viewed as an individual animal or plant but as …

Intelligent Sprayers Poised To Transform Nursery Industry KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Producers of landscape trees, shrubs, vines and perennials, all of which are known as nursery crops, are poised to adopt an industry-wide change that will benefit all of society. Researchers with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture are among the agricultural scientists to help test a newly developed technology …

Recent Study Documents Damage To Rice Crops By Three Fall-Applied Residual Herbicides WESTMINSTER, Colorado – November 15, 2018 – Fall-applied residual herbicides are a commonly used control for glyphosate-resistant Italian ryegrass – one of the most troublesome weeds in Mid-South row crops. But research published in the journal Weed Technology shows rice growers need to be cautious. Some residual herbicides …

Plant Root Hairs Form Outward Due To Shank Hardening A group of international researchers has discovered how plant root hair grows straight and long. Many studies of root hair growth have been performed, however, the molecular mechanism for the suppression of growth on the sides of root hair had not been clarified until now. Root hair increases the surface area …

Lumpfish threatened by salmon sector The salmon farming industry must look into ways of only using sterile lumpfish that have been produced from captive broodstock in order to retain the volume and genetic integrity of local stocks, according to a new study. Lumpfish – which are currently largely derived from eggs obtained from wild-caught broodstock – are widely stocked in …

Researchers develop transgenic rice with reduced arsenic accumulation Lucknow-based CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute researchers developed transgenic rice by inserting a novel fungal gene, which results in reduced arsenic accumulation in rice grain Arsenic accumulation in rice grains is one of the serious agricultural issues in India. To address this, researchers at Lucknow-based CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute have developed transgenic rice …

Soy source is critical for sustainable feeds The Round Table on Responsible Soy Association (RTRS) has held a workshop outlining how feed producers can produce Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certified feed. The event, organised with Salmofood, brought together 50 leaders interested in incorporating the Round Table for Responsible Soy Association principles and criteria into their value chains to promote sustainable …

Feed firm backs African aquaculture The Danish aquafeed firm Aller Aqua has singed a three-year sponsorship deal with the African Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (WAS). In recent years Aller Aqua has grown significantly in the African markets and now has factories in both Egypt and Zambia, as well as subsidiaries in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria. They distribute feeds …

How to improve aquaculture production A new aquaculture management guide, published today, offers zonal management best practice tips for sustainably-minded seafood farmers. The free guide – Best Practices for Aquaculture Management: guidance for implementing the ecosystem approach in Indonesia and beyond – was created by the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), Conservation International, and the University of California Santa Barbara’s Sustainable …

New project for sustainable squid fishing launched in China A new project aimed at improving the sustainability of existing fishing practices for Japanese flying squid (JFS) has been launched at the China Fisheries and Seafood Expo in Qingdao, China, according to a press release. The East China Sea and Yellow Sea Squid fisheries improvement project (FIP) intends to improve the …

Key Gene Find Could Enable Development Of Disease-Resistant Crops Discovery of a gene that helps plants control their response to disease could aid efforts to develop crops that are resistant to infection, research suggests. The findings could lead to ways to fine-tune the gene’s activity to boost disease resistance, pointing towards more resilient crop breeds or new treatments for infections. …

Too Many Fishers In The Sea: The Economic Ceiling Of Artisanal Fisheries A new study shows that even if fishers used the most efficient and sustainable known practices, they wouldn’t generate enough revenue to maintain a living above poverty level. Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego and the University of British Columbia found …

Half of any fish caught ends up as waste or by-product, EUMOFA study Researchers from the European Market Observatory for Fisheries and Aquaculture Products (EUMOFA) have determined that over 50 per cent of any fish caught or farmed is not consumed directly and that in the case of tuna, as much as 70 per cent of the animal ends up …

Genes that could lead to improvement of beef cattle are identified Beef cattle improvement programs have focused for decades on promoting the rapid growth of calves. Now, the goal is to improve other traits, such as meat tenderness or ribeye muscle area. Researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil who are studying the genome of the Gir breed …

Krill-based projects land funding A pair of research projects that aim to shed more light on krill stocks in the Southern Ocean have been awarded funding. The projects – one of which focuses on the role of fish in the Scotia Sea food web and the other on the estimation of krill biomass using new acoustic modelling – have been …

Improved sales on software and at sea AKVA group reports improvements in performance in its cage-based and software divisions, which led to its revenue in Q3 reaching NOK 637 million, up from NOK 484 million in Q3 2017, and an EBITDA of NOK 71 million (NOK 61 million). Third quarter EBITDA margin was 11.1 percent (12.6 percent). The net profit …

Commercial breakthrough for insect-based aquafeeds Skretting Norway’s factory in Averøy has produced commercial salmon feed that contains insect meal for the first time. The first batch of this pioneering feed will be fed to 360,000 salmon fry at a facility operated by Nordlaks. “We expect it to be as good as our regular feed and hope that the commercial test will …

£۱ million fund for small scale fisheries The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has announced a £۱ million fund and initiative to support small scale fisheries, and those in the Southern Hemisphere, become more sustainable. The MSC has been engaged with fisheries in the Southern Hemisphere since its inception and has built up a solid knowledge of the constraints these fisheries …

Grass genes tapped to breed better crops Researchers from Cornell and the United States Department of Agriculture will tap into genetic information found in more than 700 species of related grasses, in hopes of making maize and sorghum more productive and resilient to extreme weather brought about by climate change. The investigation of the Andropogonae tribe of grasses – which …

BASF Will Use CRISPR to Gene-Edit Crops and Microbes The German chemical giant BASF has obtained a non-exclusive license from the US Broad Institute for the use of CRISPR-Cpf1 gene-editing technology in agricultural and microbiological applications. CRISPR-Cas9 is a fast and easy technique for editing the genome that has gained worldwide fame. It has the potential for use in many applications such …

Plants respond to environmental stress by ‘tagging’ RNA molecules they need to withstand the difficult conditions The future looks challenging for plants. Climate change is forecast to bring widespread drought to parts of the planet already struggling with dry conditions. To mitigate the potentially devastating effects to agriculture, researchers are seeking strategies to help plants withstand extreme environmental hazards including …

Researchers advance understanding of key protein in photosynthesis Moss evolved after algae but before vascular land plants, such as ferns and trees, making them an interesting target for scientists studying photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight to fuel. Now researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have made a discovery that could shed …

Fracking Wastewater Accumulation Found In Freshwater Mussels’ Shells Elevated concentrations of strontium, an element associated with oil and gas wastewaters, have accumulated in the shells of freshwater mussels downstream from fracking wastewater disposal sites, according to researchers from Penn State and Union College. “Freshwater mussels filter water and when they grow a hard shell, the shell material records some of …

Intensive processing helps Vietnamese shrimp gain competitive edge Intensive processing has served as an effective tool for Vietnamese shrimp exporters to improve their competitive capacity in the context of a steep increase in the global supply which brought down the price and demand for shrimp in major markets. By Vietnamplus According to Ho Quoc Luc, former Chairman of the Vietnam Association …

New GM canola varieties on way New genetically modified canola varieties could be commercially available in Australia by March next year, just shy of a decade since Roundup Ready was first grown in WA in 2010. TruFlex technology has been designed to eventually phase out Bayer’s Roundup Ready counterpart, which Bayer Crop Science regional business manager Hugh Trenorden said was …

Big Agriculture eyeing genetic tool for pest control A controversial and unproven gene-editing technology touted as a silver bullet against malaria-bearing mosquitos could wind up being deployed first in commercial agriculture, according to experts and an NGO report published Tuesday. So-called “gene drives” force evolution’s hand, ensuring that an engineered trait is passed down to all or most offspring, and …

How will access to data boost agricultural productivity? The Global Open Data for Agriculture (GODAN) and the Open Data Charter have launched a guide for governments to open agricultural data Launched today, 16th October on World Food Day, the Open Up Guide for Agriculture aims to help governments to prioritise and publish relevant datasets for agricultural development. GODAN supports the proactive sharing of …

How plants bind their green pigment chlorophyll Whenever you see green color out in nature, you are likely to look at chlorophyll. This is the pigment used by all plants to do photosynthesis. There are two versions, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b. These are structurally very similar to one another but have different colors, blue-green and yellowish green, respectively. Both …