agriculture

Most high school biology students learn that plants use photosynthesis to turn light into energy. Associate Professor Berkley Walker said that’s only scratching the surface. Plants use that energy to capture carbon dioxide, or CO2, from the atmosphere and convert it into sugars. These sugars are the building blocks plants use to grow. From the … The post What if we could solve food sustainability…

EAST LANSING, Mich. — In 2013, funding challenges were at the forefront for Michigan State University AgBioResearch, weakening the ability to support efforts at its strategically located research stations around the state. The organization was still enduring the residual effects of the Great Recession, and difficult decisions were imminent. As a result, AgBioResearch leaders assembled a committee…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has opened applications for $32.4 million in grant funding… The post Apply Now: USDA Offers $32.4M Through Local Agriculture Market Programme appeared first on Agritech Digest .

Scientific Data, Published online: 25 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41597-026-07469-9 Within-hour incremental movement data of finishing pigs over 20 days using RFID–LoRaWAN technology

Carlo Petrini and Slow Food acolytes in Turin, 2016.   As a member of Slow Food USA, I received its notice about the death of its founder, Carlo Petrini, at age 76 in Bra, Italy. A visionary leader and public intellectual with a profound commitment to the common good, human relationships, and the natural world, […] The post RIP Carlo Petrini: a huge loss to the food world and to humanity appeared…

A recent United Nations report declares the world is facing a state of water bankruptcy that will force food and agriculture systems to adapt.   Across the globe, surface waters and glaciers are shrinking, wetlands have been liquidated, and groundwater has been depleted, the report states. As water insecurity grows, agricultural heartlands are running off a… The post The Path Forward from Global …

Simple and spicy, this dish is adaptable enough to become a firm favourite with all the family – and it will fill lunchboxes the next day, too This is one of those rare dishes that I can make both for us and for the children – reserving the kimchi topping and chilli peanuts for the adults, of course. I also like to add the kimchi just before serving for freshness (this helps to keep all the good …

The objective of this study was to develop calibration equations for a rising plate metrer (RPM) to estimate herbage mass in irrigated ryegrass/white clover (RGWC) swards with varying proportions of plantain. A 32-ha area, divided into 0.3-ha paddocks, was randomly allocated to three treatments sown with increasing plantain seeding rates: (i) RGWC with no plantain, (ii) RGWC + 3 kg/ha and (iii) R…

Soils in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are central to both agricultural productivity and human nutrition, yet increasing contamination from mining activities, wastewater irrigation, and agrochemical inputs has intensified the accumulation of toxic trace elements in food crops. This review synthesizes current evidence on the soil–plant–human transfer of toxic elements alongside essential nutrients, hig…

This study is the first to investigate the relationship between potentially toxic elements (PTEs) and soil fauna abundance across a chronosequence of minesoils in Moatize coal mine, Mozambique. Soil samples were collected (0.00−0.10 m layer) across a chronosequence of minesoils afforested for 0.5, 1.4, 5.3, and 10.6 years. One adjacent unmined soil was sampled as reference. The samples were analy…

Urban agriculture soils are commonly amended with compost to improve fertility, yet the functional responses of these systems to biochar additions across application rates remain poorly understood. We conducted a field experiment at Three Sisters Gardens (West Sacramento, CA, USA) to evaluate how biochar applied at 0, 10, 20, and 30 t ha−1 influenced soil physical, chemical, and biological indica…

Soil quality is a key determinant of plant growth and ecosystem functioning, yet conventional assessments often overlook it from the plant’s perspective. Here, we propose the Ease of Root Water Uptake Index (ERWUI), a dynamic index that quantifies the energy required by plants to extract water from the soil, based on soil water retention characteristics, rooting depth, and temporal changes. The i…

Sustainable intensification of horticultural systems requires effective weed management strategies that reduce reliance on synthetic herbicides while maintaining crop productivity. Agroecological practices, particularly the use of multispecies cover crops, are increasingly recognized as promising tools to reconcile weed suppression with environmental sustainability. This study assessed the effect…

Limited availability of high-quality organic resources, inconsistent nutrient content, and unestablished nutrient-release patterns hinder the effective utilization of organic materials for soil fertility management. To address this, the present study characterizes the total nutrient content of fourteen organic materials and analysed their NPK fertilizer value following standards established by th…

Soil acidity is a major constraint to agricultural productivity across sub-Saharan Africa, where highly weathered soils exhibit strong spatial heterogeneity in chemical reactivity. While soil pH identifies acidity status, it does not indicate how a soil will respond to corrective liming how strongly it resists pH change or how much amendment it ultimately requires. Soil buffering capacity fills t…

Water scarcity is a major challenge for agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions. This study evaluates the long-term effects of deficit irrigation (DI) and land management practices, including no-tillage (NT), crop genetics, crop types, and cover cropping (CC), on soil health and water infiltration. Field experiments were conducted from 2019 to 2024 at three sites in Utah, USA, to study the effe…

AIVA (Agriculture Innovation, Validation and Adoption Network) has officially launched in Canada, founded by Farm Credit Canada (FCC), EMILI, and WHIN to connect farmers with rigorously tested agricultural technologies. The post AIVA Launches National Network to Validate AgTech on Canadian Farms appeared first on iGrow News .