News Overview

This opinion piece published in Frontiers in Plant Science briefly presents the breeder’s equation and highlights the terms that can be manipulated to increase genetic gain per time and per dollar invested. The authors also present some guidelines recommended by the Excellence in Breeding (EiB) Platform to optimize the selection response in a classical breeding scheme to create an

There is a demand for high-oleic groundnut varieties particularly by the food processing industry for its enhanced shelf-life benefits and by consumers for health benefits. To contribute to the CGIAR sub-IDO “Increased availability of diverse nutrient-rich foods”, a collaborative genetics and variety development work was undertaken by ICRISAT, ICAR-Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh Agricultural University in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu Agricultural

Looking ahead, food system researchers and national governments around the world are concerned about achieving Sustainable Development Goal #2 – Zero Hunger – by 2030. Moreover, they are apprehensive about our ability to achieve this goal without increasing agriculture’s impact on the environment.   Improved crop breeding and seed delivery are two innovations that herald great promise for solving this challenge. This morning, in a virtual panel… The post Crops to End

Researchers identified a region of the Nile tilapia genome associated with viral resilience, which can be used to support the breeding of disease-resistant fish. Read more

Looking ahead to the next 50 years, potato researchers and farmers have significant concerns about producing enough food under the stressors of climate change. However, a potential solution exists within the potato “family.”  Crop wild relatives of potatoes are genetically-related to potatoes that we grow and consume and they contain valuable traits that can be built into consumer varieties to help ensure reliable yields and high-quality potatoes for shoring up food and nutrition… The post Food system sustainability

Experts in remote sensing shared the latest innovations in digital data with insurance professionals at a virtual training workshop held recently. This new knowledge will enable insurers to build better products that help more farmers in Sri Lanka cope with climate risk. Most Sri Lankan farmers are smallholders and have faced incessant onslaughts of floods and droughts, which have destroyed

A review of the actions needed to enhance the contributions of fish and aquatic foods to Zambia’s sustainable development ahead of the UN Food Systems Summit. Read more

Biodiversity is a vital factor in agricultural landscapes, with an importance that cuts across the environment, the climate, human livelihoods and nutrition. Yet governments and institutions still struggle to recognize this importance in concrete ways, with concrete strategies. In 2020, the European Union (EU) took a historic step with two of its Green Deal strategies. The EU Farm to Fork