Food crops – News, Research and Analysis – The Conversation

Harald Tittel/picture alliance via Getty Images

October 30, 2023

Fire-smart farming: how the crops we plant could help reduce the risk of wildfires on agricultural landscapes

Tim Curran, Lincoln University, New Zealand; Md Azharul Alam, Lincoln University, New Zealand; Tanmayi Pagadala, Lincoln University, New Zealand, and Thomas Maxwell, Lincoln University, New Zealand

Redesigning agricultural landscapes to plant fire-retardant crops could help mitigate wildfires in an increasingly fire-prone world.

May 24, 2023

Australia is in a unique position to eliminate the bee-killing Varroa mite. Here’s what happens if we don’t

Scarlett Howard, Monash University; Alexander Mikheyev, Australian National University; Emily Remnant, University of Sydney; Simon Tierney, Western Sydney University, and Théotime Colin, Macquarie University

Australia is the last continent to be invaded by the dangerous honey bee parasite, and has an opportunity to be the first to eradicate it.

January 30, 2023

What’s driving the potato chip shortage and when will it pass?

Flavio Macau, Edith Cowan University

As with so many staples and foods in the past two years – lettuce, milk and eggs to name a few – the problem is a temporary imbalance between supply and demand. Here’s what’s happening with potatoes.

Farmers in Northern Ghana are among the poorest in the country. Wikimedia Commons

December 8, 2022

Why farmers in northern Ghana go to bed hungry

Balikisu Osman, York University, Canada

Climate change is affecting the availability of food to the families of farmers in Ghana.

Heavy metals can be toxic to plants - and humans, too. Andrii Yalanskyi/Shutterstock

September 26, 2022

Some plants can short-circuit the toxic effects of metals – now scientists are trying to harness their power

Marshall Keyster, University of the Western Cape

Plants have evolved several ways to deal with heavy metals that might otherwise poison or kill them.

Most maize production relies on natural rainfall, making it vulnerable to changing rainfall patterns. Shutterstock

April 28, 2022

Rising atmospheric CO₂ may benefit maize crops: first experiment in African conditions

Brad Ripley, Rhodes University and Susanne Vetter, Rhodes University

Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may be a boon for maize crops in tropical growing regions like those found in much of Africa.

The red mangrove is among the species already selected for genome sequencing. Busara/Shutterstock

April 19, 2022

Why African scientists are studying the genes of African species, and how they do it

Anne Muigai, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology; Appolinaire Djikeng, The University of Edinburgh, and ThankGod Echezona Ebenezer, European Bioinformatics Institute

The African BioGenome Project is a pan-African project that seeks to sequence Africa’s endemic and indigenous plants and animals.

A major war between the United States and Russia could make global fish catches fall by as much as 30 per cent. (Pexels)

November 9, 2020

After a nuclear war, the world’s emergency food supply could be seafood — if overfishing stops now

Eric Galbraith, McGill University and Kim Scherrer, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Marine fish could serve as a crucial global emergency food supply in times of crisis, if marine ecosystems were in a healthy state to start with.

Hands-on monitoring is key to fighting many plant diseases. Edwin Remsberg/VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

June 10, 2020

Why it’s so critical to continuously monitor and manage plant diseases

Bernard Slippers, University of Pretoria; Jolanda Roux, University of Pretoria, and Marinda Visser, University of Pretoria

Plant diseases require as much attention now as ever to ensure that food systems are in place in the next season. There are also serious implications for forestry and the environment more broadly.

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