Ian Godwin, The University of Queensland and Yuri Trusov, The University of Queensland
When politics meddles with science, it can lead to tragedy, as was the case with Stalin’s favourite agricultural biologist Trofim Lysenko and his rival Nikolai Vavilov.
Smallholder soybean farmer in Malawi.
Mitchell Maher/Flickr
Reflections on World Wetland Day on how this precious resource can be used sustainably to reduce rural poverty, improve food security and strengthen livelihood in the face of climate change.
Inspecting seeds in Uganda. US development organisations need to understand that today there is considerably greater local expertise.
TAO/Flickr
Get a taste of a drone-enabled future by looking at innovations and explorations from researchers, students and employees at one of the nation’s largest university systems.
Researchers are developing biological tools that can boost crop yields to feed a growing world population without harming human health or the environment.
A new report finds that 35% of the fish stocks assessed in the Western Indian Ocean are fully exploited and 28% are over-exploited.
Flickr/AMISOM
Australia’s wheat harvest has stalled over the past 26 years, and worsening weather is to blame.
Children walk through a maize plantation in Zimbabwe, one of the countries in which irrigated areas might be double the officially-recognised area.
Reuters/Philimon Bulawayo
Official statistics in Tanzania do not capture small-scale irrigation, meaning that it’s impact is unclear. Yet new research reveals that it’s two to three times greater than previously thought
Cassava makes up nearly 50 percent of the diet in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where populations are projected to increase by more than 120 percent in the next 30 years.
CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture
Cassava is a key food source in tropical countries, but yields have been flat for decades. New genetic research is identifying many options for boosting production of this valuable staple crop.
Soybean farmer in Malawi.
IFPRI/Mitchell Maher via Flickr
How can we feed a growing world population while protecting the environment? One key strategy is to improve yields on small farms, which produce much of the food in the world’s hungriest countries.
Malawi is a country that’s particularly vulnerable to the impact of drought and flood.
Shutterstock
Understanding the connections between basic food demands and accessibility to water and energy is important when it comes to climate change and its impact on agriculture and livelihoods.
A family dairy farm in Gilmanton Ironworks, New Hampshire.
AP Photo/Jim Cole
The case of bovine leukemia virus shows how scientists monitor health risks in our food supply and why it’s critical to revisit scientific conclusions when new technologies become available.
Managing Director, Triple Helix Consulting; Chief Executive Officer, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research; Professorial Fellow, ANU Fenner School for the Environment and Society, Australian National University