#Water thermostat could help engineer drought-resistant cropsduke University researchers have identified a gene that could help scientists engineer drought-resistant crops.
A dry spell at a crucial stage of the growing season can cut some crop yields in half.
--in addition to improved farming practices and traditional plant breeding--will add to the arsenal of techniques to help crops withstand summer's swelter.
and related genes and see how those plants respond to drought--information that could lead to crops that respond more quickly and efficiently to dehydration.
and improve crop yields. Boron deficiency was known already to cause plants to stop growing but our study showed that a lack of boron actually causes a problem in the meristems
When tassels are stunted crop yields are reduced Mcsteen said. The research evaluated a group of plants stunted by its ability to grow tassels.
crops in boron deficient zones Mcsteen said. Researchers at the University of Georgia and at California State university Long beach also contributed to this study.
For the U s. Department of energy which is developing biomass crops for biofuels production this knowledge could determine which genotypes--genetic makeup of an organism--of biomass crop may thrive better than others in certain environments.
when the demand for water for crop production exceeds available water supplies from precipitation surface water and sustainable withdrawals from groundwater said Forrest Melton a research scientist in the Ecological Forecasting Lab at NASA Ames Research center in Moffett Field California.
If farmers of rain-fed crops know soil moisture they can schedule their planting to maximize crop yield said Narendra Das a water and carbon cycle scientist on SMAP's science team at NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena California.
Brigitte Poppenberger at TUM's Institute of Biotechnology of Horticultural Crops--has been able to show for the first time that the concentration of CES protein increases in certain nuclear regions following brassinosteroid activation.
and increase crop yields in horticulture and agriculture for decades now says Poppenberger. But we have leveraged never the potential of brassinosteroids.
and other non-food crops and in agricultural waste can be used to make advanced biofuels that could substantially reduce the use of the fossil fuels responsible for the release of nearly 9 billion metric tons of excess carbon into the atmosphere each year.
The JBEI researchers tested the effectiveness of their bionic liquids as a pre-treatment for biomass deconstruction on switchgrass one of the leading potential crops for making liquid transportation fuels.
Leaf area measurements are essential for estimating crop yields water usage nutrient absorption plant competition and many other aspects of growth.
It also gives scientists new insight into ways to fight parasitic weeds that wreak havoc on food crops in some of the poorest parts of the world.
and other crops that help feed some of the poorest regions in Africa and elsewhere said Julie Scholes a professor at the University of Sheffield U k. who is familiar with Westwood's work
and digestate can be useful nutrient sources for crops in conditions low in nutrients. Ash is rich in micro and macro-nutrients.
The technology can be extended easily however to other crops such as maize. Rice and maize are two main crops that depend on hybrid breeding said Shizhong Xu a professor of genetics in the UC Riverside Department of Botany
and Plant sciences who co-led the research project. If we can identify many high-performance hybrids in these crops
and use these hybrids we can substantially increase grain production to achieve global food security. Genomic prediction uses genome-wide markers to predict future individuals
and other crops might be improved genetically without the need to introduce foreign genes according to researchers writing in the Cell Press publication Trends in Biotechnology on August 13th.
The simple avoidance of introducing foreign genes makes genetically edited crops more natural than transgenic crops obtained by inserting foreign genes said Chidananda Nagamangala Kanchiswamy of Istituto Agrario San Michele in Italy.
So far editing tools have not been applied to the genetic modification of fruit crops. Most transgenic fruit crop plants have been developed using a plant bacterium to introduce foreign genes
Fruit crops are but one example of dozens of possible future applications for genetically edited organisms (GEOS) Kanchiswamy and his colleagues say.
That would open the door to the development of crops with superior qualities and perhaps allow their commercialization even in countries in which GMOS have met so far with harsh criticism and controversy.
Transfer of foreign genes was the first step to improve our crops but GEOS will surge as a natural strategy to use biotechnology for a sustainable agricultural future.
New research published today reveals how the release of genetically engineered male flies could be used as an effective population suppression method â#saving crops around the world.
which causes extensive damage to crops. It is controlled currently by a combination of insecticides baited traps biological control
and causes extreme damage to crops all around the world. â#oeof all of the current techniques used to control these flies SIT is considered the most environmentally friendly as it uses sterile males to interrupt matings between wild males and females.
Similar schemes are used in continental Europe where harriers breeding in crops are threatened by harvesting. The next step is for grouse managers
Corn Growing Degree days or GDDS will show producers how their crops are developing in lieu of this year's planting delays
Farmers can track month by month how these oscillations have influenced temperatures precipitation and subsequently crop yields. These and other online tools can be found by going to the U2u website at http://www. agclimate4u. org
Farmers are producing crops under more variable conditions so these tools can be critical to both food safety
Lauren Quinn an invasive plant ecologist at U of I's Energy Biosciences Institute recognized that most of the news about invasive biofuel crops was negative
She and her colleagues set out to create a list of low-risk biofuel crops that can be grown safely for conversion to ethanol
and Maryland) that have any laws relating to how bioenergy crops can be grown and that include any language about invasive species
Goldsmith explained that in tropical systems where the farming season lasts much longer than in the United states the more intensive production results in two crops a year on the same plot of ground--soybeans followed by corn.
Dr. Sievenpiper said another bonus from eating pulses is that they are Canadian crops. That means eating local being more sustainable
One of the biggest moves in agriculture Vierstra says is to be able to grow plants at higher density allowing producers to plant more crops in a given area thus saving space and other resources.
or row crops or citrus groves doesn't help them the same way; they need those natural areas she said.
Hardy high-yield crops will become increasingly vital for human survival as the world faces the environmental effects of climate change and an ever-growing global population he added.
and air pollution--specifically ozone pollution which is known to damage crops. A new study involving researchers at MIT shows that these interactions can be quite significant suggesting that policymakers need to take both warming and air pollution into account in addressing food security.
The study looked in detail at global production of four leading food crops--rice wheat corn
and that some of the crops are much more strongly affected by one or the other of the factors:
and reduce crop yields nobody has looked at these together. And while rising temperatures are discussed widely the impact of air quality on crops is recognized less.
The effects are likely to vary widely by region the study predicts. In the United states tougher air-quality regulations are expected to lead to a sharp decline in ozone pollution mitigating its impact on crops.
But in other regions the outcome will depend on domestic air-pollution policies Heald says. An air-quality cleanup would improve crop yields.
Overall with all other factors being equal warming may reduce crop yields globally by about 10 percent by 2050 the study found.
But the effects of ozone pollution are more complex--some crops are affected more strongly by it than others
--which suggests that pollution-control measures could play a major role in determining outcomes. Ozone pollution can also be tricky to identify Heald says
Potential reductions in crop yields are worrisome: The world is expected to need about 50 percent more food by 2050 the authors say due to population growth and changing dietary trends in the developing world.
Because of these interactions the team found that 46 percent of damage to soybean crops that had previously been attributed to heat is caused actually by increased ozone.
but substantially increased risk over the next two decades of a major slowdown in the growth of global crop yields because of climate change new research finds.
Climate change has increased substantially the prospect that crop production will fail to keep up with rising demand in the next 20 years said NCAR scientist Claudia Tebaldi a co-author of the study.
Lobell and Tebaldi used computer models of global climate as well as data about weather and crops to calculate the chances that climatic trends would have a negative effect of 10 percent on yields of corn and wheat in the next
and by the U s. Department of energy (DOE). More crops needed worldwideglobal yields of crops such as corn and wheat have increased typically by about 1-2 percent per year in recent decades
and the U n. Food and agriculture organization projects that global production of major crops will increase by 13 percent per decade through 2030--likely the fastest rate of increase during the coming century.
However global demand for crops is expected also to rise rapidly during the next two decades because of population growth greater per-capita food consumption and increasing use of biofuels.
and during specific times of the year that coincide with the most important times of the growing seasons for those two crops.
Growers with infected crops can expect up to 25%reductions in yield and the barley may also be downgraded from high quality malting barley to that of feed quality with an associated loss in market value.
and widely used during the 1970s as a safer replacement for DDT It was used on crops ornamental plants livestock and pets.
or full-grown crops neonicotinoids can be applied to the seed before planting. The use of treated seeds in the United states has increased to the point where most corn
If climate change affects the yield of tropical crops and pastureland there will be significant economic consequences for Brazil
Small-scale farming is the main livelihood for many people in the region who depend on rainfall to water their crops.
and changes in actual crop yields which is more complex because yield trends are influenced by numerous political and economic factors in addition to farming practices.
what these changes in water supply and demand mean for crop production he said. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Princeton university.
and fertilizing the crops fed to milk cows-as well as the relative inefficiency of cows in comparison to other livestock-jacks up the cost significantly.
But according to a new report by researchers at the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment focusing efforts to improve food systems on a few specific regions crops
The report published today in Science focuses on 17 key crops that produce 86 percent of the world's crop calories
and Eastern europe. 2. Grow crops more efficiently. The study identified where major opportunities exist to reduce climate impacts
and water to grow crops. Agriculture is responsible for 20 to 35 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions largely in the form of carbon dioxide from tropical deforestation methane from livestock and rice growing and nitrous oxide from crop fertilization.
what crops need to grow. China India and the U s.--and three crops rice wheat and corn--are the biggest sources of excess nutrient use worldwide so offer the greatest opportunity for improvement.
With respect to water rice and wheat are the crops that create the most demand for irrigation worldwide
and India Pakistan China and the U s. account for the bulk of irrigation water use in water-limited areas.
Boosting crop water use efficiency the researchers found could reduce water demand 8 to 15 percent without compromising food production. 3 Use crops more efficiently.
and environmental protection relate to making more crop calories available for human consumption by shifting crops from livestock to humans and reducing food waste.
Although cultural preferences and politics limit the ability to change this picture the authors note that shifting crops from animal feed to human food could serve as a safety net
By focusing on areas crops and practices with the most to be gained companies governments NGOS
when they eat fruits vegetables and other important crops. It's these summer activities that have prompted efforts to reduce their populations.
and vegetables crops and also when are collected and are on sale for the final consumer.
#Fungicides for crops: Worrying link to fungal drug resistance in UK, warns scientistscrop spraying on British farms could be aiding a life-threatening fungus suffered by tens of thousand of people in the UK each year.
and fungicides used on crops. Experts warn their findings now published are significant and raise serious implications for transplant patients those with leukemia
'With crops like wheat it's not yet possible for us to unravel the'before and after'of the associated genetic changes but with maize we can chart how these gene copies were acquired first then put to work
'and'non-duplicated'descendants of ancient maize something that is not yet possible with other duplicated crops like wheat.
However once domestication by humans began plants grown as crops had to cope with a new set of artificial selection pressures such as delivering a high yield and greater stress tolerance.'
'Understanding the complete trajectory of duplication and how copied genes can transform a plant is relevant for current efforts to increase the photosynthetic efficiency of crops such as the C4 Rice Project c4rice. irri. org/.
/Our study is great evidence that optimizing photosynthesis is really important for creating high-yield crops
and pollinating a wide range of crops from apples to cherries and clover. Unfortunately bees all over the world are under pressure from pesticides mites viruses bacteria fungi and environmental changes among other things.
and crops have a suite of advantages over their conventional counterparts including more antioxidants and fewer less frequent pesticide residues.
Most of the publications covered in the study looked at crops grown in the same area on similar soils.
In general the team found that organic crops have several nutritional benefits that stem from the way the crops are produced.
As a result the harvested portion of the plant will often contain lower concentrations of other nutrients including health-promoting antioxidants Without the synthetic chemical pesticides applied on conventional crops organic plants also tend to produce more phenols
Overall organic crops had 18 to 69 percent higher concentrations of antioxidant compounds. The team concludes that consumers who switch to organic fruit vegetables
While crops harvested from organically managed fields sometimes contain pesticide residues the levels are usually 10-fold to 100-fold lower in organic food compared to the corresponding conventionally grown food.
In a surprising finding the team concluded that conventional crops had roughly twice as much cadmium a toxic heavy metal contaminant as organic crops.
and irrigated crops over the Ogallala Aquifer. However the sandier soils of the South Plains allow more infiltration
Raine and Gill studied the effects of two pesticides--imidacloprid one of three neonicotinoid pesticides currently banned for use on crops attractive to bees by the European commission
#Climate change provides good growing conditions for charcoal rot in soybeanswith over 100 diseases that can attack soybean crops why would charcoal rot rise to the top of the most wanted list?
and other crops said Osman Radwan a U of I molecular biologist. If we look at diseases of soybean we find that soybean cyst nematode (SCN) is at the top
Radwan emphasized that it's not just soybean crops at risk. The fungus causes charcoal rot in about 500 other host plants including corn sorghum sunflower and other important crops.
This fungus also grows in high concentrations of salt which isn't much of a problem to growers in the United states
which includes some 1500 species of mostly poisonous plants including nightshades but also three economically important global food crops:
Their discovery should help biologists better understand how the steadily increasing levels of CO2 in our atmosphere (which last spring for the first time in recorded history remained above 400 parts per million) are affecting the ability of plants and economically important crops to deal with heat stress and drought.
and crops that can deal with droughts and high temperatures like those now affecting the Southwestern United states. â#oefor each carbon dioxide molecule that is incorporated into plants through photosynthesis plants lose about 200 hundred molecules of water
and shares many of the same genes as other plants and crops he and his team of biologists discovered that the proteins encoded by the four genes they discovered repress the development of stomata at elevated CO2 levels.
and genes have the potential to address a wide range of critical agricultural problems in the future including the limited availability of water for crops the need to increase water use efficiency in lawns as well as crops
and concerns among farmers about the impact heat stress will have in their crops as global temperatures
#Old ways help modern maize to defend itselfmany modern crops have high productivity but have lost their ability to produce certain defense chemicals making them vulnerable to attack by insects and pathogens.
of crops is the only effective strategy to address the problem. About 35%of the world's seven billion people depend on wheat for survival says project leader Dr Tim Sutton.
and agricultural crops plants are being subjected to higher levels of soluble salts which can ultimately cause salt stress in plants.
and other crops. Because cover crops can provide weed and erosion control determining the best method for establishing a uniform and dense cover crop stand as soon as possible after planting is a critical first step.
The authors of a new study say that determining optimal planting strategies that accelerate cover crop emergence
and reduce light penetration to weeds should be a primary focus. Eric Brennan and Jim Leap from the U s. Department of agriculture Agricultural research service (ARS) coauthored the study published in the April 2014 issue of Hortscience.
Brennan and Leap evaluated the effectiveness of three secondary tillage implements for soil incorporation of broadcast cover crop seed compared with drilled seed using legume-rye cover crop mixtures.
Our study was motivated by the need for effective strategies that will enable small-scale growers who do not have access to drills to grow uniform
and weed-suppressive cover crops on beds the authors said. Both drilling and broadcasting methods are used commonly to plant cover crops.
In vegetable and strawberry systems in the central coast region of California grain drills are used commonly by medium-to large-scale farms
whereas smaller-scale organic farms with fewer resources often broadcast cover crop seed onto the soil surface
Brennan and Leap explained that few studies have compared the two methods for their efficacy with planting cover crops.
The experiments were conducted in Salinas California with winter-and spring-sown cover crops for establishing rye mixed with either purple
According to the authors drilled cover crops had greater uniformity and faster emergence characteristics that would likely increase their ability to suppress weeds that emerge with the cover crop.
The main problems with the broadcasting methods were delayed emergence and lower cover crop stands that were likely the result of greater variability in seeding depth the authors said.
The data showed that the best methods for incorporating broadcast seed into the bed were a rototiller
and business will drastically improve crop yields generate new jobs and bring new knowledge and infrastructure to often deprived areas.
In their study the researchers from the Politecnico di Milano Italy and University of Virginia US quantified the maximum amount of food that could be produced from crops grown on acquired lands
Taking into account the proportion of crops that can be used for food production as well as the amount needed for a balanced diet the results showed that between 300 and 550 million people could be fed by crops grown in the acquired land compared with between 190 and 370 million
Such investments would lead to substantial improvements in crop yields mainly in African countries. At the moment there are still open questions
Were these lands already used for agriculture prior to the acquisition and (if so) for the cultivation of what crops?
In Brazil the demand for alternative energy sources has led to an increase in biofuel crops. A new News and Views paper in Nature Climate Change co-authored by Woods Hole Research center scientists Marcia Macedo
crops. Compared to corn soy and palm oil the rapid growth rate of sugar cane has put it at the forefront of biofuel crops.
Brazil's national commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions along with rising gasoline prices has led to the world's largest fleet of flex-fuel vehicles fueled by the over 36 million tonnes of sugar cane currently grown in the country.
The challenge for Brazil lies in identifying optimal lands for expanding sugarcane while still meeting demands for food crops and conserving native forests and savannas.
Unlike the Amazon which remains over 80%forested over half of the Cerrado has been cleared for agriculture including sugar cane biofuel crops.
which includes using degraded pastures for a combination of reforestation expansion of biofuel and food crops and intensification of cattle production.
#Reorganization of crop production, trade could save Chinas water supplychina's rapid socioeconomic growth continues to tax national water resources--especially in the agricultural sector--due to increasing demands for food.
One solution to these growing problems however might be to reorganize the country's crop production
These provinces all use large volumes of water to produce crops that are exported later to wetter regions.
Crops like corn rice and wheat thrive best in these drier regions but rainfall is limited
Water used during crop production is referred to as virtual water. Through food trade these water resources are transferred across borders in
While growing crops in the wetter regions would be more water efficient land in those places is either urban or industrial or difficult geographically (mountainous terrain etc.
The researchers found that irrigation accounts for about 25 percent of water used to produce crops
However those numbers skyrocket in Xinjiang Ningxia and Inner Mongolia where irrigation water is used predominantly for crop production (85 percent 69 percent and 49 percent respectively.
Our work highlights opportunities for addressing water scarcity in China by adjusting where water intensive crops are grown
crops known for their durability versatility and healthful attributes. Both grains have high levels of protein fiber and beta-glucan.
Grasslands are converted easily to farmland for row crops such as corn and soybeans said Egan Grassland species with few exceptions cannot survive on these intensive agricultural lands.
California is the top agricultural producing state in the nation grossing $38 billion in revenue from farm crops in 2010.
These irrigation systems distributed water to crops and may have triggered the beginning of the enormous disease burden that schistosomiasis has caused over the past 6000 years.
Under normal circumstances they are not suitable for crop production. Major agronomic problems common to these soils include Al toxicity decreased availability of phosphorus nutrient deficiencies and iron toxicity.
Many crops such as almonds and other tree nuts berries fruits and vegetables depend on pollination by honeybees.
Over the past 25 years we have reduced soil erosion by over 40%mainly by conservation practices such as conservation tillage terracing cover crops and grass waterways.
when their crops need the most water they can plant accordingly said Keith Ingram an associate scientist in UFÂ##s agricultural and biological engineering department part of the Institute of food and agricultural sciences.
In a recent study scientists used ARID to predict crop yields by quantifying water loss for cotton soybeans corn
A winter drought may not affect crops as much as a summer drought because plants need less water during the cool short days of winter.
#Thieving chimps changing the way African farmers feed their familieslight-fingered chimpanzees are changing the way subsistence farmers make a living in Africa by causing them to grow different crops
Through crop raiding a form of human-wildlife conflict hundreds of thousands of marginalized farmers are losing edible crops to damage from these troublesome animals each year.
In addition by guarding their existing crops during the night farmers are exposed increasingly to malaria carried by mosquitos and soil-based worms
Unsurprisingly nonhuman primates are quite fond of the food crops we grow! The chimps are basically imposing a'natural tax'on farmers growing crops near the nutrient-rich soils of the forest said Shane Mcguinness lead author on the research
and Phd student in Geography at Trinity who conducted the interview-based study with the help of the Great apes Trust and local conservation workers.
Farmers changed the crops they were growing to reduce the risk of crop raiding without needing to be prompted by conservation organisations.
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