Urban agriculture has the potential to improve food security through local, efficient, and sustainable food production. Examples of urban food systems include hydroponics, where plants grow in a nutrient solution without soil, and aquaponics, which combines hydroponics with raising fish in tanks. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign examines the use of aquaponics wastewater as a growth medium for lettuce in a hydroponic system. This practice can potentially create a circular ecosystem for organic waste recycling and…
Tool developed at the University of Bonn should enable yield forecasts, among other things, in the future. Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed software that can simulate the growth of field crops. To do this, they fed thousands of photos from field experiments into a learning algorithm. This enabled the algorithm to learn how to visualize the future development of cultivated plants based on a single initial image. Using the images created during this process, parameters such as…
At the intersection of plants and nanomedicine perhaps lies a solution to current unsustainable agricultural practices and meeting increasing global food demands. Nano-agriculture: Sustainable solutions for global food security Researchers in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University are using findings from nanomedicine and digital twin technologies to understand the new field of Plant Nanobiotechnology, address unsustainable agricultural practices, and meet increasing global food demands. Currently, agriculture accounts for 14-28% of global greenhouse gas emissions and…
Study headed by the University of Bonn analyses 9,000 varieties of maize around the world. Maize can grow successfully in very different local conditions. An international study headed by the University of Bonn has now demonstrated the important role of the plant root system. The researchers analyzed more than 9,000 varieties in the study and were able to show that their roots varied considerably – depending on how dry the location is where each variety was cultivated. They were also…
Plants adapt genetically over time to the special conditions of organic farming. This has been demonstrated in a long-term study conducted at the University of Bonn. The researchers planted barley plants on two neighboring fields and used conventional farming methods on one and organic methods on the other. Over the course of more than 20 years, the organic barley was enriched with specific genetic material that differed from the comparative culture. Among other things, the results demonstrate how important it…
In the RhizoTraits joint project, Bayreuth researchers are looking at old crop varieties, researching root characteristics and investigating whether a mixture of varieties can increase yield stability in the climate crisis. The second phase of the project, which has now started, is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with a total of €1.9 million, around half of which is going to Bayreuth. What for? It is undisputed that droughts and heatwaves are increasing due to the…
Drones monitoring fields for weeds and robots targeting and treating crop diseases may sound like science fiction but is actually happening already, at least on some experimental farms. Researchers from the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence at the University of Bonn are working on driving forward the smart digitalization of agriculture and have now published a list of the research questions that will need to be tackled as a priority in the future. Their paper has appeared in the “European Journal…
The Center for Digital Agriculture showcased the many advancements in digital agriculture during its annual conference. When the Center for Digital Agriculture (CDA) launched in 2018, they were looking forward to the future. Like many other areas of commerce and big tech, agriculture is a rapidly changing industry. Advancements in technology have transformed farming. In the five-plus years since its launch, CDA has risen to meet those needs by creating adaptable, interdisciplinary curriculums, research programs, industry partnerships and training opportunities for…
An international team of researchers discovers how microbes boost root growth. Tiny organisms such as bacteria and fungi help to promote the health and function of plant roots. It is commonly assumed that the composition of these microbes is dependent on the properties of the soil. However, an international team of researchers led by the University of Bonn has now discovered when studying different local varieties of maize that the genetic makeup of the plants also helps to influence which…
Amidst challenges like a booming global population and diminishing arable land, plant phenotyping offers a way to automate agriculture and improve crop diagnostics. However, translating the precision of controlled-environment phenotyping to field conditions remains a hurdle, particularly in accurately measuring leaf color due to sunlight glare. Existing solutions, ranging from light scattering simulations to 3D sensor fusion, often require complex, time-consuming, or impractical methods. In March 2024, Plant Phenomics published a research article entitled by “Mitigating Illumination-, Leaf-, and View-Angle…
…to outsmart treatments and adapt to new environments. A new study published in PNAS sheds light on how bacterial plant pathogens, like Pseudomonas syringae, rapidly evolve resistance to antibiotics and adapt to changing environments. This is particularly concerning as copper-based antimicrobials are commonly used in agriculture to control these very pathogens. The study reveals a previously unknown mechanism by which these bacteria gain new abilities due to mobile genetic elements called Integrative and Conjugative Elements (ICEs). Researchers identified a new…
EU-Project FORTUNA: The new European project, coordinated by JKI, points out how agronomic research supports the transformation of agriculture after 2030. The main goal of the EU Farm-to-Fork Strategy is to reduce the overall use and risk of pesticides by 50 per cent by 2030. The Horizon Europe project ‘FORTUNA – Future Innovation for Pesticide Use Reduction in Agriculture’ is a three-year initiative that seeks to identify knowledge gaps and challenges in plant protection beyond 2030, highlighting the need for…
Fabricated ecosystems created at Berkeley Lab will expedite microbiome research, and help underrepresented students in the classroom. A greater understanding of how plants and microbes work together to store vast amounts of atmospheric carbon in the soil will help in the design of better bioenergy crops for the fight against climate change. Deciphering the mechanics of this mutually beneficial relationship is challenging, however, as conditions in nature are extremely difficult for scientists to replicate in the laboratory. To address this…
To ensure that plants flower at the right time of year, they possess an internal clock, which enables them to measure the amount of daylight during a day. In a study published in the scientific journal Plant Physiology, biologists from Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) describe that the mutation of a specific gene makes the flowering time of barley almost entirely independent of day length. This mutation can be useful for breeding varieties adapted to altered climatic conditions with relatively…
New research finds that fungi that live in healthy plants are sensitive to climate change. Findings more than a decade in the making reveal a rich diversity of beneficial fungi living in boreal forest trees, with implications for the health of forests. Spruce, pine, fir and other trees tower across the frigid swaths of land that span North America, northern Europe and Russia in a great ring around the world. These boreal forests constitute the largest land ecosystem and the…
Mizzou’s new Digital Agriculture Research and Extension Center will enhance research, education and outreach in emerging digital technologies for farming. Nearly one-third of Missouri’s economy is tied to agriculture. That’s why the state’s flagship land-grant institution, the University of Missouri, has launched the Digital Agriculture Research and Extension Center (DAREC). The center aims to help farmers and other agricultural producers move toward a future of sustainable agriculture by leveraging emerging digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) for increased agricultural productivity,…
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