Papped snaffling in the jungle, a striking set of photos reveal the secret lives of Amazonian crop-raiding animals.

Access to wood fuels for cooking must be considered when formulating policy to deal with food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers who advocate expanding the effort to improve wood-fuel systems and make them more sustainable.

Twelve-foot metal poles with long outstretched arms dot a Midwestern soybean field to monitor an invisible array of light emitted by crops. This light can reveal the plants’ photosynthetic performance throughout the growing season, according to newly published research by the University of Illinois.

Soil pathogen testing – critical to farming, but painstakingly slow and expensive – will soon be done accurately, quickly, inexpensively and onsite, thanks to research that Washington State University scientists are sharing.

The city of Cape Town, South Africa is under extreme water rationing and heading towards complete depletion of its municipal water supply. When Day Zero — the day the tap runs dry — arrives, it will be the first major city in the world to run out of water.

Enhanced rock weathering involves adding minute rock grains to cropland soils which dissolve chemically taking up carbon dioxide and releasing plant essential nutrients.  Unlike other carbon removal strategies enhanced rock weathering doesn’t compete for land used to grow food or increase the demand for freshwater.  Other potential benefits include reducing the use of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides, lowering the cost of food production and increasing farm profitability.

The Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), a lepidopteran pest that feeds on leaves and stems of as many as 100 plant species, is able to hop between different crops and cause serious damage due to its resistance to both insecticides and transgenic plants that are genetically engineered to express proteins with insecticidal action obtained from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner (Bt).

University of Lethbridge student Katie Quinn had the opportunity recently to complete an applied study at Lethbridge County that focused on agricultural superclusters and how one would best contribute to the county. Her research culminated in a special presentation to Lethbridge County Council.

Perhaps you missed the news that the price of hummus has spiked in Great Britain. The cause, as the New York Times reported on February 8: drought in India, resulting in a poor harvest of chickpeas. Far beyond making dips for pita bread, chickpeas are a legume of life-and-death importance—especially in India, Pakistan, and Ethiopia where 1 in 5 of the world’s people depend on them as their primary source of protein.

Spraying weeds with chemicals has always been costly. Now it is costly and ineffective, with resistance to herbicides pervasive and demanding a new strategy to protect crops.