News tagged with global agriculture

How to avoid a global food crisis

The world faces a major challenge in the coming decades as global food demand is poised for unprecedented growth.

Space & Earth / Environment

created May 16, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Shedding light on debate over organic vs. conventional agriculture: Study calls for combining best of both approaches

(Phys.org) -- Can organic agriculture feed the world?

Biology / Other

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

How the ecological risks of extended bioenergy production can be reduced

For years experts have discussed the ecological impact of the extended cultivation of energy crops. Scientists have now developed a computer model that allows assessing the impacts and comparing the effectiveness ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 23, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Team identifies water vulnerability in border region

The Arizona-Sonora region has been called the front line of ongoing climate change, with global climate models projecting severe precipitation decreases and temperature increases coupled with vulnerability ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Tackle fungal forces to save crops, forests and endangered animals, scientists say

More than 600 million people could be fed each year by halting the spread of fungal diseases in the world's five most important crops, according to research published today in the journal Nature.

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Long-term research reveals causes and consequences of environmental change

As global temperatures rise, the most threatened ecosystems are those that depend on a season of snow and ice, scientists from the nation's Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network say."The vulnerability o ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 06, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Fertilizer use responsible for increase in nitrous oxide in atmosphere

University of California, Berkeley, chemists have found a smoking gun proving that increased fertilizer use over the past 50 years is responsible for a dramatic rise in atmospheric nitrous oxide, which is a major greenhouse ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Researchers report breakthrough on salt-tolerant durum wheat

A team of Australian scientists has bred salt tolerance into a variety of durum wheat that shows improved grain yield by 25% on salty soils.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 11, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Sustainability threatened by rising demand for livestock products

Global demand for meat, milk and eggs has tripled in the past four decades and is expected to double by 2050. Increased global livestock production has great impacts on the environment and increases global warming. A major ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 09, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Food crops damaged by pollution crossing continents

(PhysOrg.com) -- Man-made air pollution from North America causes Europe to lose 1.2 million tonnes of wheat a year, a new study has found.

Biology / Other

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (17) | comments 21 | with audio podcast

Climatic warming-induced change in timings of 24 seasonal divisions in China since 1960

Changes of seasonal cycles are important to social and economic activities, agricultural planning in particular. Qian et al. quantified changes in the timings of 24 seasonal divisions conventionally known ...

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jan 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 1

Seeding strategies help Rangelands recover from fire

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) are making sure that money spent on sustaining and repairing arid rangeland ecosystems is spent on programs that work.

Biology / Ecology

created Jan 23, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers outline food security-climate change road map in Science

While last month's climate negotiations in Durban made incremental progress toward helping farmers adapt to climate change and reduce agriculture's climate footprint, a group of international agriculture experts, writing ...

Other Sciences / Other

created Jan 19, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Breeding better grasses for food and fuel

Researchers from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) Sustainable Bioenergy Centre (BSBEC) have discovered a family of genes that could help us breed grasses with improved properties for diet ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Discovery of plant 'nourishing gene' brings hope for increased crop seed yield and food security

University of Warwick scientists have discovered a "nourishing gene" which controls the transfer of nutrients from plant to seed - a significant step which could help increase global food production.

Biology / Biotechnology

created Jan 13, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 1 | with audio podcast