Agricultural and Forestry Science

It may be possible to alter plants so they are more nutritious and easier to process without weakening them so much they fall over, according to Purdue University researchers who found a new twist in a plant formation biochemical pathway.

Decreasing the amount of two acids in plant cell walls may enhance livestock feed digestibility for better nutrition, while increasing the potential uses of various plants, said Clint Chapple, Purdue biochemistry professor.

The findings, published

Researchers in the Netherlands have investigated the molecular structure of plant proteins that must provide alternatives for the animal proteins in our food over the next 10 years. They discovered that proteins with a similar chemical structure behaved differently after heating. The behaviour of the proteins after heating plays an important role in the development of a new type of meat substitute product.

Francesca O’Kane used various proteins from peas and soya for her research. After h

Research in the Netherlands has revealed that under sub-otpimal conditions, the best way for rice breeders to improve the rice harvest is to produce varieties whose performance is not fertiliser dependent. However, specifically modified varieties need to be developed for rice growing under saline conditions.

Gambian researcher Baboucarr Manneh investigated variations in the rice yield and the possibilities for increasing this under a variety of environmental circumstances by means of plant

Adding small amounts of seaweed to contaminated soil could prove to be a natural and effective way of breaking down the toxic pesticide DDT, according to new research in the Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology. A British biologist, Ian Singleton, worked with colleagues in Australia and Thailand to find the right formula to use. Too much seaweed hindered biodegradation, but the most effective mix – 0.5% seaweed added to waterlogged soil – managed to remove 80% of the DDT present over si

New research on untreated green olives has found that products with a stated shelf-life of 2-3 years can be ‘unacceptable’ long before their sell-by date. The study, published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, looked at the growing trend towards using polyethylene pouches which are vacuum-packed, filled with brine or packed in ‘modified atmospheres’. Only the vacuum pouches gave promising results, producing a shelf-life of nearly two years, while those packed in ordinary air had

Planter size has a significant impact on per acre costs, according to a University of Illinois Extension study examining planter costs with different farm sizes.

“Planting more hours per day could result in a smaller planter size having lower costs,” added Gary Schnitkey, U of I Extension farm management specialist who conducted the study.

The study’s objective was to determine the planter size that had the lowest cost for a given farm size. Farm sizes from 400 to 4,000 acres