Agricultural and Forestry Science

Recent EU research discovered that tomato waste is full of untapped, nutritious goodness, and suggested how to make the most of it. Instead of using the excess tomatoes for animal feed or simply discarding them, the EU TOM(ato) project suggests using the tomato waste as a natural food additive. Every year, around 4 million tonnes of tomato by-products are disposed of in Europe alone. These dregs, especially the seeds, are an excellent source of nutrient-rich substances such as carotenoids, proteins

The growing of cereal crops without recourse to fertiliser application or weeding, but alternatively rotating with vetch and fallow, together with returning the straw to the soil after the harvest, increases the production yield two-fold with respect to the conventional mode of growing crops, with its use of chemical additives and herbicides. Moreover, the profitability of this ecological system can be multiplied by four when an ecological market exists. This is what Gabriel Pardo Sanclemente from th

A CSIRO irrigation research laboratory at Griffith in NSW will provide ground-breaking knowledge, skills and technology to the world’s biggest and most intensive irrigation regions under a new United Nations program.

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has appointed CSIRO Land and Water’s Sustainable Irrigation Systems group in Griffith as the HELP (Hydrology, Environment, Life and Policy) Regional Coordinating Unit for the Australasian reg

While cities provide vital habitat for human beings to thrive, it appears U.S. cities have been built on the most fertile soils, lessening contributions of these lands to Earth’s food web and human agriculture, according to a study by NASA researchers and others.

Though cities account for just 3 percent of continental U.S. land area, the food and fiber that could be grown there rivals current production on all U.S. agricultural lands, which cover 29 percent of the country. Marc Imhoff,

Possession isn’t necessarily nine-tenths of the law, especially if the purchase is a wheat variety protected by the Plant Variety Protection Act. This misunderstood and often-ignored law may soon become more stringently enforced, largely due to the stepped-up use of DNA plant testing.

Gary Bomar, Texas Cooperative Extension agricultural agent for Taylor County, said the practice of “catching” or keeping some of the current crop’s production for planting the following season has lo

CSIRO Livestock Industries and animal health company, Imugene Limited, have started research work designed to develop a vaccine for chickens at risk of contracting the deadly strain of avian influenza now causing havoc in Asia.

The research team aims to deliver a trial vaccine against the virulent H5N1 strain of the disease, within a matter of months. Once developed, the vaccine could be used to safeguard Australia’s poultry industry.

CSIRO’s Dr Chris Prideaux says that ev