Agricultural and Forestry Science

The EU response to recent declines in pollinators and consequent loss of pollination services has been the inclusion of pollinator-friendly management in agri-environment schemes. These comprise the promotion of semi-natural habitats, such as set-aside and field margin strips. Yet, mass flowering crops, such as oilseed rape, are assumed to be of little value to pollinators.

However, in an article soon to appear in Ecology Letters, C. Westphal, I. Steffan-Dewenter and T. Tscharntke show that

A team of Purdue University researchers has recently uncovered the genetic mechanism that prevents certain crop plants from growing tall – a finding that has future crop production applications since some grains produce greater yields if plants are kept short.

Guri Johal, assistant professor of botany and plant pathology, and his colleagues have identified the process that generates dwarfed corn and sorghum plants, which grow to roughly half the height of their normal counterparts. This disc

Millions of animals could be needlessly slaughtered and billions of dollars lost from economies, unless the world backs an international science team to develop new tools to fight foot-and-mouth disease (FMD).

A group of world-leading researchers aims to develop a more effective FMD vaccine and better diagnostic tests that would enable livestock disease control agencies to isolate and eventually eliminate the disease. The team of scientists from the United Kingdom, Canada, United States, and

Rees, a new drought tolerant wheat variety, was released today by CSIRO joint venture organisation, Graingene.

CSIRO Plant Industry scientist Dr Richard Richards says Rees has an advantage over comparable wheats in dry years, producing about five per cent more grain despite receiving the same rainfall.

“Rees is the second variety to be developed using scientific gene selection criteria based on measuring a plant’s carbon isotope signature,” Dr Richards says.

“By using

USDA Forest Service (FS) researchers are improving the use of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to study tree roots nondestructively. They are refining GPR’s processing capabilities by comparing results with those of more invasive methods.

GPR is an electromagnetic imaging technique that can be used to detect buried objects or hidden structures. GPR has been used for geological research, archaeology, forensics, and for assessing the integrity of roads and bridges. FS researchers soon reco

The Hessian fly changes wheat growth by injecting poisons into the plants, but a newly discovered resistance gene that can kill the insect may add a new defensive weapon for the grain crop.

Using the new gene in combination with other genes is expected to extend resistance time to the most economically damaging insect of wheat by as much as six times. Scientists from Purdue University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture—Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) mapped the new gene and