A type of soil called terra preta da Amazônia, or Amazon dark earth (ADE), promotes faster growth of trees and enhances their development in qualitative terms, according to an article published in the journal Frontiers in Soil Science.
It’s an elegant solution: Remove the habitat of a parasite-carrying aquatic snail and reduce the level of infection in the local community; all while generating more feed and compost for local farmers.
A study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and CIATEJ in Guadalajara, Mexico, explored the composition of seed coat extracts from black and pinto bean varieties unique to the Chiapas region of Southern Mexico.
Summertime is synonymous with fresh berries, and there may be no better place to be on a sunny day – besides the beach – than a berry-picking patch. Berry production is a $6 billion industry in the United States, and Virginia has been become a key contributor with a suitable climate and soil types for growing blueberries and blackberries, in particular.
Developing disease-resistant, high-quality improved crop varieties to benefit agricultural producers and consumers may seem like a “hairy” task, but Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists may have gotten to the root of the issue.
The dependence of residual feed intake on growth and tenderness of Brahman cattle, a common breed chosen for crossbreeding cattle along the southern U.S., including Texas, was the focus of a cattle feeding study published in Applied Animal Science journal.
In a multi-generation experiment, researchers from the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) found microbes helped plants cope with drought, but not in response to plants’ cries for help. Instead, the environment itself selected for drought-tolerant microbes. And while those hardy microbes were doing their thing, they just happened to make plants more drought-tolerant, too.
Reducing waste is one way to help combat hunger around the world, but stricter control over food loss and waste does not lead to better environmental outcomes, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and the University of Colorado Boulder. In a paper published recently in Nature Food, the scientists stress that curbing food spoilage increases the amount of produce in markets, which leads to lower costs.
Bat activity falls as farms make the transition to organic agriculture, new research shows.
Plant species become exotic after being accidentally or deliberately transported by humans to a new region outside their native range, where they establish self-perpetuating populations that quickly reproduce and spread.
Priming crop plants with a microbe sourced from the roots of desert plants could be a powerful tool to boost crop plant's resilience to drought.
Plant geneticists have identified a mutation in a gene that causes the “weeping” architecture – branches growing downwards – in apple trees, a finding that could improve orchard fruit production.
Ranches across the Show-Me State manage approximately two million cattle — a significant number of which are Angus, a top-tier breed that has unrivaled success in the commercial beef market.
CABI joined an international team of researchers from 57 institutions around the world to share its expertise in a ground-breaking study which highlights the urgent need to protect the world’s forests from non-native pests amid climate change.
Over half of forests in the United States are privately owned, especially in the Eastern part of the country. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at how family forest landowners in Maine and New Hampshire approach invasive species management and what factors influence their decisions.
Two computer modeling and big data researchers at the Texas A&M AgriLife Blackland Research and Extension Center at Temple were part of a team award from a U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary recognizing contributions to farm production and conservation.
Without intervention, the colorful but devastating Japanese beetle could make its way across the evergreen state within two decades, according to a study of their potential dispersion.
With less than 5% of native vegetation remaining on private properties and roadsides on the Yorke Peninsula of South Australia, University of South Australia researchers are calling for dramatic changes to land management measures in order to retain native ecosystems and prevent further biodiversity loss.
An invasion of apple snail could be “disastrous” for rice production and food security in Kenya as well as other rice growing regions across Africa, according to a new CABI-led study published in the journal Pest Management Science.
Grocery shoppers may have recently noticed that strawberries seem to be closer to the size of small apples. According to one Virginia Tech expert there are reasons for this change and it doesn’t include injecting them with chemicals to get the larger than life fruit. Jayesh Samtani, a small fruit expert at Virginia Tech, researches how to optimize berry production and determine the kinds that grow best in certain regions.
Approximately a third of all anthropogenic methane is emitted by ruminant livestock. These animals get nutrients through fermenting food in four-chambered stomachs found in cows, sheep, and goats.
Although wheat was among the first domesticated food crops, it remains a global dietary staple several millennia later.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service Disaster Assessment and Recovery, DAR, unit is expanding its statewide disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts following the appropriations to support the “Keeping Texas Prepared” initiative in the 88th legislative session.
Since the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) approved the use of ultrasound to promote the extraction of grape compounds back in 2019, its application for obtaining superior red wines has been studied extensively.
Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists are studying how pollen diversity affects the nutritional quality of honeybee diets, including asking foundational questions about how nutrition can sustain healthier colonies.
Researchers from the University of Notre Dame, in a study recently published in Nature, found that removing invasive vegetation at water access points in and around several Senegalese villages reduced rates of schistosomiasis by almost a third. As a bonus, the removed vegetation can also be used for compost and livestock feed.
Food waste is a major problem around the world. In the United States, an estimated 30 to 40% of edible food is lost or wasted, costing billions of dollars each year.
Dana Porter, PE, knew from an early age, living and working on her family’s farm in the Texas Panhandle, how agriculture production impacted the world around her.
The Wells Fargo Innovation Incubator (IN²), a technology incubator and platform funded by the Wells Fargo Foundation and co-administered by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), announced today it selected seven startups to participate in the program’s 12th cohort.
The 69th annual Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course in Bryan-College Station will offer some cutting-edge information and ranch technology, along with basic beef cattle production information.
Plant roots have their own thermometer to measure the temperature of the soil around them and they adjust their growth accordingly.
For those whose primary experience with corn is the butter-drenched cob variety, it might come as a surprise that other forms of sweet corn are in trouble. A new University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign analysis shows sweet corn production for frozen and canned products has been steadily shrinking in the U.S. over the past 27 years, particularly in rainfed portions of the Midwest.
The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University will host United States Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack at the Universal Food Forum on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.
Reduced fertility prolongs the interval from calving to conception in dairy cows, resulting in significant economic losses to dairy farms.
The ability of crops to withstand heat is critical to our food system’s resilience to climate change.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, through its organics program, will lead the Texas Transition to Organic Partnership Program, or Texas TOPP, designed to recruit, train, mentor and advise farmers who want to transition to organic production.
How will future climate change affect nitrogen loss, and will cover crops still be effective in removing nitrogen from drainage water? A new study investigating near- and far-term climate change in Illinois suggests cover crops will still be beneficial, but not to the same degree. The report also forecasts major declines in corn production across the state in the future.
The School of Agricultural Resources, Chulalongkorn University, organized the opening ceremony of the “Innovation Center for Research and Development of Sustainable Thai Cocoa: ISTC” on Thursday, May 18, 2023, at Room 702, Chaloem Rajakumari 60th Anniversary Building (Chamchuri 10 Building), Chulalongkorn University. Prof. Dr. Chakkaphan Sutthirat, Vice President for Chula Research Affairs, presided over the event and delivered the opening speech. During the event, a speech titled “Passion & Vision in ISTC” was given, after which Asst. Prof. Dr. Tansiphorn Na Nan, Head of the “Innovation for Cocoa Value Chain Management in the Cocoa Business Ecosystem, Nan Province” project discussed the missions of ISTC.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has funded a new Texas A&M AgriLife Research project expected to bring researchers even closer to developing the “holy grail” of tomatoes.
With a push to the future for farmers to grow renewable energy plants, limited water is a challenge. A Texas A&M AgriLife-led team is addressing that issue by evaluating biobased feedstock cropping systems with both water and carbon resiliency.
Researchers investigated how large-scale urbanization and irrigation in the United States affect the three dominant types of summer precipitation in the mid-Atlantic region. They found that urbanization suppresses all three types of precipitation. Irrigation enhances non-convective and isolated deep convection precipitation, and its effects on mesoscale convective systems (MCS) depends on whether an MCS formed locally or remotely.
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is partnering with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes to modernize the Fort Hall, Idaho-based irrigation system.
Exploding populations of wild pigs and macaque monkeys in Southeast Asia are threatening native forests and disease outbreaks in livestock and people, according to research led by The University of Queensland.
A new study revealing that huge expansions of extensive large-scale agriculture is making the South American plains more vulnerable to widespread flooding should act as a “wake-up call”, say researchers.
The Vidalia onion is a trademarked variety of sweet onion that can only be grown in several counties in Georgia by law.
The joint research team of Dr. Namgoo Kang from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) and Dr. Minseok Kang from the National Center for Agro Meteorology (NCAM) developed a novel technology that enhances the reliability of measurement of methane emissions from rice paddy fields.
In its simplest form, popcorn is pretty uncomplicated. Most supermarket varieties offer the choice of two kernel colors, yellow or white, and two kernel shapes, pointed or pearl. When popped, the flake typically expands into one of two shapes: mushroom or butterfly. But there’s more to popcorn than meets the eye. New research from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign reveals a wealth of untapped diversity lurking in popcorn’s genetic code.
Multiflora rose may sound like a bountiful variant of the classic flowering bush, but its unexpected white blooms and red berries conceal one of Mother Nature’s sinister surprises: The invasive shrub is a thorny foe that threatens native plants in more than 40 states, including West Virginia and neighboring Pennsylvania.
Northeastern and central Illinois are now experiencing severe drought, as dry conditions persist across the state in the second week of June, causing soil moisture levels to drop and record-low water levels in some areas of the Illinois River.
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