October Special
Biodiversity commitment builds hope for ‘living in harmony with nature’
During October 2021, there have been numerous write-ups on issues related to global, regional and country-wise status and the future of biodiversity conservation. The UN Biodiversity Conference (15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity -COP-15), the 10th meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CP-MOP 10), and the fourth meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization (NP-MOP 4)) in Kunming, China were held in two phases.
Phase one took place virtually, from 11 to 15 October 2021 and, Phase two will be an in-person meeting in Kunming, from 25 April to 8 May 2022. Known as the Kunming Declaration, adopted at the end of the UN Biodiversity Conference’s latest High-Level Segment (13 October), which took place in Kunming, China, calls on the Parties to act urgently on biodiversity protection in decision-making and recognise the importance of conservation in protecting human health More than 100 countries on 13 October committed to develop, adopt and implement an effective post-2020 global framework, that aims to put biodiversity on a path to recovery, by 2030 at the latest.
For more, see https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/10/1102942?utm_source=UN+News+-+Newsletter&utm_campaign=d6e7d9e018-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2021_10%E2%80%A6%201/4 Also https://www.carbonbrief.org/china-briefing-14-october-2021-instructions-to-tackle-power-shortages-cop15-opens-carbon-neutrality-standards
Access the Kunming Declaration at https://www.cbd.int/doc/c/99c8/9426/1537e277fa5f846e9245a706/kunmingdeclaration-en.pdf
Research Results
Plant compounds may protect bees from a deadly virus that makes them lose their way home
There is little doubt that honeybees are important for sustainable agricultural production as well as the production of honey. However, around the world, honeybees are dying in large numbers. This die-off or colony collapse is partly because of a deadly virus that can kill bees or impair their ability to return to the hives after foraging. Control and management of colony collapse that are available at present appear to be inadequate. Researchers led by Yueh-Lung Wu from the National Taiwan University, show that a cheap and naturally occurring chemical compound could prevent or reverse the effects of the virus in bees. They found that sodium butyrate (NaB) significantly increased survival and reversed the learning/memory impairment of deformed wing virus (DWV) -infected bees, DWV being a key cause for the die-off.
To investigate its effects on honeybees, researchers fed bees with NaB-laced sugar water for a week before infecting them with DWV. They found the bees that were fed with NaB before becoming infected were nine times more likely to survive the virus after five days. By monitoring hives in real-time, they also showed that bees that were fed the compound were more likely to return to the hive at the end of a foraging day. More than 90% of these bees were alive after five days, while 90% of the infected bees that did not get NaB died over the same period. It appears that the mechanism of how epigenetic regulation can resume the memory function of honeybees and suggest strategies for applying NaB to reduce the incidence of colony losses.
Access the full paper at https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(21)01024-5
Scientists can switch on plants’ response to light
Every aspect of plant growth and development is influenced by light. Plants can sense light and temperature with a protein called phytochrome B (PHYB). PHYB conveys information on light into the cell that changes the expression of genomes, altering plant growth. Then plants will use more energy for growing taller toward the light, but not necessarily for maximizing leaf growth and seed production. However, PHYB cannot interact directly with the plant’s DNA, and plant cells rely on a family of eight proteins viz., PHYTOCHROME-INTERACTING transcription FACTORs (PIFs). In addition to controlling the number of PIFs that accumulate in plant cells, scientists have learned that when PHYB is activated by light, it inhibits the activity of the PIFs.
“The activity of these PIFs is directly controlled by phytochrome,” said Meng Chen, lead author from the University of California, Riverside. Scientists have figured out how plants respond to light and can flip this genetic switch to encourage parts involved in producing food. The findings show that PHYB, and phytochrome A, controls the stability and activity of PIFs via structurally separable dual signalling mechanisms. It will be of interest in future work to investigate the transactivation mechanism by PIFs’ ADs and how the binding of PHYB inhibits such a mechanism. His discovery could help increase the food supply for an expanding population with shrinking opportunities for farming.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2021-10-scientists-response.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletterx
Access the full paper at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25909-5#Sec11
The new study captures sugar transport fundamental to plants
In plants, sugar transport proteins (STPs) handle sugar import into plant organs such as seeds, pollen and fruit and are essential for correct tissue development. Plants control sugar uptake through STPs and use it as a vital defence strategy against microbial infection, by effectively starving the microbes and competition for sugar and restricting their growth. Bjørn Panyella Pedersen and colleagues at the Aarhus University, Denmark report on the structure, molecular dynamics, and comprehensive biochemical characterization of STP10. They also supply evidence for a sugar uptake mechanism based on a well-defined glucose-binding site linked to a clear proton-binding site, using Arabidopsis thaliana as the model plant.
“Combining these methods (i.e., biochemical characterization and molecular dynamics), we were able to not only identify key elements involved in the transport cycle within STPs but also provide new evidence for regulatory mechanisms conserved within the sugar porter family across all kingdoms of life,” says Pedersen. These results advance the understanding of monosaccharide (i.e., simple sugars like glucose) uptake, which is essential for plant organ development, and set the stage for bioengineering strategies in crops. It has also been shown that this regulatory mechanism is also found in human sugar transporters. Hence this could be a general scheme for kinetic control within the Sugar Porter family across life forms. By elucidating structures of a sugar transport protein that drives the transport of sugar in plants, the study supplies a comprehensive insight into sugar uptake into plant organs such as flowers, seeds and fruit.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2021-10-capture-sugar-fundamental.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41477-021-00992-0
Probing plant infections: how do germs infect crops?
Sometimes the pathogens that infect plants also affect people – through our pocketbooks. Therefore, plant pathologist Erica Goss, at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, USA spends a lot of time studying microbes that infect tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. Her team collected 585 Xanthomonas (that causes leaf spot disease) strains from seventy tomato fields in the Florida tomato production region and phenotypically and genotypically characterized them. Only X. perforans (XP) was found, and all strains except one were tolerant to copper sulphate and 25% of strains were resistant to streptomycin sulphate. Effector profiles were highly variable among strains, which could change the strains’ host range. Nonmetric multidimensional scaling and network analyses show how strains and strain traits were associated with production system variables, including anonymized farms and transplant facilities.
A study by Anju Sharma along with colleagues, including Erica Goss, studied the fitness benefit of the effector gene, xopJ2, by quantifying the effect of xopJ2 on the dispersal and evolution of Xp populations on tomatoes. They found that the wild-type bacteria were dispersed three times faster than the xopJ2 mutants.
Erica Goss and colleagues also studied population genomics to decipher pathogen movement and population structure because of complex agricultural production systems. The researchers used whole-genome sequences of 281 X. perforans strains collected in one tomato production season across Florida and southern Georgia and tested the population genetic structure associated with tomato production system variables. They found that the degree of genetic differentiation among components of Florida’s tomato production system varied between clusters, suggesting differential dispersal of the strains, such as through seed or contaminated transplants versus local movement within farms. Overall, the study shows that the genetic variation of a bacterial plant pathogen is shaped by the structure of the plant production system and the presence of a single gene can affect the dispersal of a bacterial pathogen and significantly alter its population dynamics.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2021-10-probing-infections.html?utm_source=nwletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-nwletter
Access all the three papers at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PHYTO-09-20-0402-R And https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1462-2920.15541 And https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-021-01104-8
World-first artificial synthesis of starch from CO2 outperforms nature
For the last decade also, investigations on synthesising food in the lab (such as meat from plants, starch from hydrogen, photosynthesis in the pert dishes) have been going on with a view to reducing pressure on the land that is needed for producing enough food for the growing global needs. Agriculture already covers around 40% of Earth’s land and consumes around two-thirds of freshwater withdrawals. Many blame agriculture for the warming planet and the loss of biodiversity, although the bulk of it is due to meat production (including the production of grain needed for its production). Hence, the emphasis on synthesising food in the lab. One recent study by Tai Cai and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tianjin, China, have reported success in developing a novel technology that turns CO2 into starch in a highly efficient manner, which could lead to massive savings when it comes to land and water use.
The scientists produced a hybrid solution involving what they call a chemoenzymatic system and an artificial starch anabolic pathway. The entire process involves only eleven core reactions and produces starch from CO2 with 8.5 times the efficiency of corn. Scientists say that the resulting synthetic starch has the same structure as natural starch and could be produced using far less space. “According to the current technical parameters, the annual production of starch in a one-cubic-meter bioreactor theoretically equates with the starch annual yield from growing one-third of a hectare of maize without considering the energy input,” says Cai Tao, lead author of the study. The team believes the breakthrough offers a new scientific basis for recent technologies that manufacture industrial quantities of starch from CO2. (Note: However, it stays to be seen if such lab-produced food will be acceptable culturally. Nevertheless, even if it fails in our kitchens, can surely help reduce land needed to produce feedstocks for animals and fish production)
Access the abstract at https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh4049
Fungal transplants from close relatives help endangered plants fight off disease
The fungal pathogen myrtle rust (Austropuccinia psidii) has been devastating populations of the endemic tree, Eugenia koolauensis, along with other native and cultivated plants, threatening some of the native species with extinction. Endophytic fungi, which exist inside leaves, often protect plants from pathogens. In a paper, Chock, along with colleagues at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Hawaii, treated E. koolauensis plants with endophytic fungi isolated from the leaves of closely related plant species, then assessed the resistance of these inoculated plants against myrtle rust. Although some individual strains of fungi decreased the pathogen severity, plants were most protected against the pathogen when treated with a complex mixture of microbes prepared from homogenized leaves of these related plants.
Diseases pose one of the biggest challenges for endangered plants, especially since low genetic variation in their small populations limits efforts to breed for disease resistance. Their results show that transplanting an intact mycobiome community is more effective at reducing foliar disease resistance when compared with single-fungal-species inocula. The findings of this study prove the potential of whole-microbiome transplants as a powerful tool to inducing disease resistance and enhancing plant health within a conservation context. While Chock does not think the study’s findings show that microbiome transplants are “a silver bullet to stopping myrtle rust’s worldwide spread,” he thinks they may give an “Extra push for those plant species that are holding on to dear life due to the introduction of harmful pathogens.”
Access the full paper at https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/10.1094/PBIOMES-09-20-0065-R
Potential Crops/Technologies/Concepts
Nanopore technology and its applications in gene sequencing
Accurate sequencing of nucleic acids is important for biological research, which would be useful in medicine as well as agriculture. Since the last century, gene sequencing technology has developed dramatically, and now nanopore technology has taken a leading role in gene sequencing. The gene sequencing technology has been constantly innovating and evolving in the direction of lower cost, higher throughput, and faster speed. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has become a crucial tool in understanding genome structure and genetic variation. The MinION sequencing of Oxford Nanopore Technologies is an excellent approach for performing WGS and it has advantages in comparison with other Next-Generation Sequencing: It is inexpensive, portable, has simple library preparation, can be monitored in real-time, and has no theoretical limits on reading length.
Fusarium graminearum is a plant pathogen of global importance which causes significant yield loss and renders unfit for consumption as food or feed due to mycotoxins. Zhigang Hao from the China Agricultural University, Beijing, China sequenced F. graminearum isolate FG-12 (isolated from the roots of maize seedlings showing typical symptoms of blight growing in the Gansu province, China) using Oxford Nanopore Technology. Researchers found that the FG-12 isolate to have a 35.9 Mb genome made up of five scaffolds corresponding to the four chromosomes and mitochondrial DNA of the F. graminearum type strain, PH-1. Data produced in the current study supply an extremely useful resource for both intra- and inter-species comparative analyses as well as for gene functional studies and could advance our understanding of this important plant pathogen.
Researchers at the Institute for Biostatistics and Informatics in Medicine and Ageing Research, Rostock, Germany reported a similar study on nanopore-based complete genome sequencing of a Sri Lankan Cassava Mosaic Virus (Geminivirus) strain from Thailand.
For more and full paper, see https://www.mdpi.com/2079-6374/11/7/214
Also https://europepmc.org/article/med/33315321 and https://bsppjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ppa.12957 and https://www.mdpi.com/2309-608X/7/9/699 and https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/MRA.01274-19
How healthy is a farm’s soil? Check how active its microbes are
Soil health is complex and reflects the ability of soil to support both plant growth and other ecosystem functions. Soil health influences and in turn is influenced by microbial activity and the diverse microbial interactions that occur in soil microbiomes. Understanding of this phenomenon requires research on extracellular electron transfer processes in soil which could supply information and new ways of monitoring soil health. Abdelrhman Mohamed and colleagues from the Washington State University, the USA developed a bioelectrochemical soil reactor for electrochemical measurements using healthy and unhealthy soils. Although both soils showed similar physical and chemical characteristics, plant growth was higher in the area from where the healthy soil was taken.
Using carbon cloth electrodes installed in these soil reactors at different depths, scientists studied the electrochemical signals in these two soils and the distinct differences between healthy and unhealthy soils. Scanning electron microscopy images showed the presence of microbes attached to the electrode for healthy soil but not for unhealthy soil. The addition of glucose-stimulated current in both soil types and caused differences in cyclic voltammograms between the two soil types to converge. These tests give farmers an idea of how fertile their soil is or estimate how tiny microorganisms in the soil are responding to changing environmental conditions. In general, soil microbes include anything from helpful bacteria to symbiotic fungi; there could be up to 10,000 bacterial species a gram of soil. Researchers noted that while those microbes covered thickly like moss growing all over a tree, the microbes from the unhealthy soil presented more like a small patch. “A scenario where this tool could work well is to assess the impact of a management strategy on soil health or soil microbial activity, like quantifying the effect of a pesticide or fumigant on soil biological activity,” Kao-Kniffen of Cornell University, who was not involved with the study, says. Since the health of the soil to grow better crops can be easily detected by looking at the thick growth of soil bacteria, this method can be widely used in diverse types of soils.
For more, see https://www.wired.com/story/how-healthy-is-a-farms-soil-check-how-active-its-microbes-are/
Access the full paper at https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/ac1e56/pdf
India’s heirloom rice can supplement infant nutrition
About five hundred million tons of rice are produced annually, with China the leading producer, followed by India and Indonesia. India’s indigenous rice varieties are a rich source of fatty acids vital for undernourished infants says Sandipan Ray who lead the study, along with colleagues from different agencies in India, USA and Canada. Researchers claim that traditional rice varieties are cheaper and more nutritious than industrially fortified, high-yielding varieties. Researchers analysed three modern high-yielding varieties and one local high-yielding farmers’ variety. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of fatty acids (FAs) based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometric analysis of these varieties revealed their significant contribution to the daily diet.
Scientists considered two case studies based on individual FAs and nutritionally correlated FA parameters of the rice cultivars to isolate the most promising landraces, by clustering through linear discriminant function. These folk rice landraces may add important precursors to essential FAs in the staple diet and can support FA requirement in normal brain development in infants. Researchers suggest the incorporation of these landraces into India’s food and agriculture policy, both for conserving the vanishing landraces and for ensuring nutritional security of the economically marginalized people.
Access the full paper at https://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/121/05/0660.pdf
Grain size discovery boosts sorghum potential
In Australia, the use of the drought-resilient sorghum summer crop is constrained due to its small grain size. Researchers at The University of Queensland are optimistic that they can improve the value and versatility of one of the world’s top crops following the discovery of genes that could increase the grain size of sorghum. Professor David Jordan from the University of Queensland, Australia along with Yongfu Tao and other colleagues, who studied the relationship between grain size and yield report that the situation will change soon. Yongfu Tao initially mapped the sorghum genome to help find which genes were associated with grain size, narrowing the search with existing genetic information for rice and maize. Researchers analysed 125 regions in the sorghum genome and found where variation in the DNA sequence was associated with grain size and response to environmental conditions.
The analyses included wild relatives of domesticated sorghum and Australian native sorghum. Genes for the new variants with larger grain size and weight are strongly inherited, with genes accounting for as much as 80% of the grain size characteristics. This finding was further supported by functional enrichment analysis and co-location analysis with known grain number quantitative trait loci (QTL) and candidate genes. Researchers conducted RNA interference and overexpression experiments to confirm the function of one of the identified genes, SbDEP1, which is shown to positively regulate grain number and negatively regulate grain size by controlling primary branching in sorghum. Increased understanding of grain size variation to assimilate availability presented in this study will help sorghum improvement and have implications for other cereal crops.
Access the abstract at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/tpj.15437
Amplicon technology: a new way to detect tobacco whitefly resistance
Tobacco whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) is a harmful pest distributed globally that can cause severe damage to vegetable production. Its resistance to crop protection chemicals is one of the difficulties in practice. Individual B. tabaci is small, with a body length of less than 1mm and analysing them for mutations in resistant gene poses major problems. The traditional single-head sequencing operation is difficult, and often a small amount gDNA that is obtained does not give reliable results. As detecting mutations in the resistance gene can help in pest management, sequencing the gene reliably is very important. Amplicon sequencing, a highly targeted approach that enables researchers to analyse genetic variation in specific genomic regions is, is a reliable and efficient method to detect the frequency of mutations linked with insecticide resistance.
Researchers led by Chen Luo, Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, China have set up a method to detect gene mutation frequencies in whiteflies using amplicon technology and detected the frequency of two pyrethroid resistance-related point mutations of sodium ion channel genes in the Bemisia tabaci population. The amplicon sequencing method based on the next-generation sequencing technology performs centralized detection of many samples. The frequencies of genes L925I and T929V in the para-type voltage-gated sodium channel associated with pyrethroid resistance were detected in this study, which could supply foundational data for resistance management of B. tabaci.
For more, see https://www.hortidaily.com/article/9342279/amplicon-technology-a-new-way-to-detect-tobacco-whitefly-resistance/
Access the abstract at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ps.6327
Concentrate farming to leave room for species and carbon, better than ‘eco-friendly’ agriculture
There is little doubt, with the increasing demand for housing and other developmental activities on the rise across the globe, the total arable land to produce food and other agricultural needs can no longer be expanded; such arable land only becomes less available in future. Climate change-induced changes to production systems may further worsen the situation affecting wildlife and other forms of biological diversity. Given in this major limitation, there is a certain section of researchers advocating a serious rethink about concentrating/intensifying agriculture in less land thus freeing up land for other uses.
Andrew Balmford and colleagues from the University of Cambridge, UK developed a method that compares externality i.e., costs and benefit and land costs per unit of production. By applying this framework to diverse data sets of four major farm sectors reveal that, rather than involving trade-offs, the externality and land costs of alternative production systems can covary positively: per unit production, land-efficient systems often produce lower externalities. So far there have been very few studies that report externalities alongside yields since important externalities and farming systems are inadequately measured. Realizing the environmental benefits of high-yield systems typically requires added measures to limit farmland expansion. ‘Our results suggest that trade-offs among key cost metrics are not as ubiquitous as sometimes perceived’ say the authors. However, they caution that support for high-yield techniques must be tied to saving or restoring habitats—and not exploited to increase profit. Linking financial support for smallholders or access to high-value markets with land-use restrictions that preserve forests has already proved successful in India and the Brazilian Amazon. Similar approaches are possible in other regions of the world.
For more, see https://phys.org/news/2018-09-high-yield-farming-environment-previously-thoughtand.html and https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2021/10/to-feed-the-world-and-protect-nature-should-we-share-agricultural-land-or-spare-wild-habitat/?ut%E2%80%A6%202/8
Access the abstract at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-018-0138-5
Adapting crops for future climate conditions
With crops, farmers will adapt—they always have and always will. To help adaptation, researchers are using artificial intelligence modelling to decide what traits in cultivars will need to be successful under changing climatic conditions. Texas A&M AgriLife team, USA researchers, led by Srinivasulu Ale, completed an assessment of climate change impacts on cotton yield and irrigation water use. The team designed ‘virtual’ cotton cultivars with greater drought and heat tolerances, higher yield potential and longer maturity. Researchers compared these virtual cultivars to a reference cultivar and assessed climate change impacts on cotton yield, irrigation water use and on different genotype-specific traits for climate change adaptation.
Scientists found that the high-yielding cultivar, characterized by higher potential leaf size and increased partitioning to seed, was desirable for irrigated cotton production. The long-maturity cultivar, with earlier flowering and longer reproductive duration, was found suitable for dryland cotton production. Heat-tolerant cultivars would be another safe choice, especially for the warmer southern High Plains region of Texas. The evaluated models can help scientists to assess the climate change affects aspects of crop production such as crop yield, irrigation water requirement and water-use efficiency and guide breeders to develop varieties with traits -ideotype – that will help in better adapting to changed climatic conditions in the future. For example, For dryland conditions, the long maturity ideotype simulation resulted in maximum yield gains. Such models can be developed and evaluated in many regions so that such analysis can be useful to better understand crop response to different management needs for different climatic conditions.
Access the abstract at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378429021002070?via%3Dihub
News:
A climate-smart success story for African agriculture
Despite efforts made in agricultural research and extension in the past, food and nutrition security continue to be a major challenge in Africa. This is, among other things, due to inefficient implementation and exchange of technologies and knowledge to end users along with limited access to markets. The Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO)-coordinated EU-Africa H2020 InnovAfrica project has helped to improve the food and nutrition security of thousands of smallholders in six Sub-Saharan African countries. This was possible by actively involving stakeholders and integrating relevant agri-food systems with proper institutional and extension services. The project promoted diverse cropping systems and improved the value chains of these systems.
In the project, stakeholders consisting of policymakers, farmer organizations and both private and public small and medium enterprises have been actively engaged through six Multi Actor Platforms (MAP), one in each case study country. Dr Agnes Mwang’ombe, Professor, University of Nairobi and Chair of InnovAfrica’s Advisory Board, said that the project has succeeded in exploring all possible avenues for scaling and institutionalization of the innovations, e.g., farmer-led experiments, stakeholder engagements and policy dialogues.
Urbanization affects how people perceive and benefit from ecosystem service bundles in coastal communities of the Global South
Drivers of environmental change, such as urbanization, seldom affect the provision of ecosystem services in isolation because ecosystem services are co-produced by ecological and socio-economic processes that result in ecosystem services bundling together. Ecosystem service bundles are understood as ‘sets of ecosystem services that repeatedly appear together across space or time’. However, there is limited understanding of how people perceive the benefits they receive from
ecosystem service bundles change with urbanization, particularly in the Global South. Examining changes in perceived ecosystem service bundles offers a valuable perspective on the implications of social-ecological change for ecosystem service demand and human wellbeing. Marie Lapointe, James Cook University, Australia and her colleagues studied drivers of ecosystem services by using used a paired sampling design to contrast urban and rural dwellers’ perceptions of ecosystem service bundles associated with local ecosystems in the Solomon Islands, a rapidly urbanizing Small Island Developing State.
Researchers have shown that urbanization simplified the composition of perceived ecosystem service and disservice bundles. The consequences for people’s wellbeing might be more important in the Global South where poorer people are more directly reliant on local ecosystem services. Authors conclude that more research is needed on the effects of urbanization on the distribution of ecosystem service bundles and the relative roles of ecosystem service supply and demand, especially in the Global South where most urbanization will occur in the future.
Access the full paper at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/26395916.2021.1890226
Is India spending enough on agricultural innovations?
The latest report shows how even when India spends US$3 billion (about ₹22,500 crores) annually on agricultural innovation (about ₹187.50 -US$2.5 per capita), only 4.0% has an explicit environment and social sustainability, however, only nearly 4-5% of this funding has clearly defined sustainability outcomes (measured as a combination of environmental, social, and human outcomes) and is estimated to be US$120 million annually, most of it driven by the government. India needs to improve on agriculture methods with innovations and bring in sustainability in agriculture production that can ensure minimum damage to the environment.
The latest study by the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification (CoSAI) conducted on its behalf by Dalberg Advisors has analysed investments in agriculture innovation and sustainable agriculture for India and recommended significantly larger budgets for sustainable agriculture in India. “Keeping in mind the environmental challenges of growing more food in India, substantially more innovation investments for sustainable agriculture are needed. Mandating frequent reporting of sustainable agriculture investments by different players in a format that is transparent, consistent, and verifiable would be the first step towards ensuring that we meet our climate and food security goals in parallel,” said Partner at Dalberg Advisors, Nirat Bhatnagar.
For more, see https://www.sify.com/news/is-india-spending-enough-on-agricultural-innovations-news-national-vkflOtbijaagd.html
For a global picture see https://wle.cgiar.org/cosai/innovation-investment-study
NGOs & Foundations want to dictate Africa’s agricultural destiny-A critique
Across Africa, farmers and governments are struggling to feed growing populations. However, many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Foundations, focusing on environmental and pro-peasant farmer rhetoric of the organic-only agroecology movement, make this onerous job difficult. Groups like the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and the anti-trade and anti-technology movement La Via Campesina work overtime to keep African farmers from using safe pesticides, fertilizers, hybrid seeds, and genetically modified crops and other advanced agricultural tools. These agencies advocate agroecology idealizing peasant labour and retrograde subsistence farming.
In Kenya, RTFI is working with local organic farming advocates to ban more than 160 approved, safe agricultural pesticides. To make this retrograde, inefficient and potentially high-cost agriculture (economically feasible for German and European farmers), competition from high yield, high efficiency, low-labour farming must be limited. The author, James Njoroge, urges the activist NGOs and foundations must be more transparent (be more realistic and reduce the burden on African farmers and minimize the hunger of the people of Africa). He calls on African governments to do more to put farmers and African self-sufficiency and food security first.
For more, see https://www.europeanscientist.com/en/features/ngos-foundations-want-to-dictate-africas-agricultural-destiny/
What can international agricultural research for development learn from the Andhra Pradesh chickpea revolution
A study of the widespread uptake of improved chickpea varieties by farmers in the state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) in Southern India during the 2000s reveals a success story that has its origins in strategic research choices that were made decades before there was a demand for chickpea varieties in this eco-region of India. Improved chickpea varieties, promotion efforts by ICRISAT and partners, the decline of chickpea cultivation in northern India, failure of cash crops and commercialisation of suitable machinery – encouraged Andhra farmers to plant improved chickpea varieties. Andhra Pradesh once considered an unfavourable state for chickpea cultivation, has today the highest yields for chickpea in India, with an average yield of 872 kg/ha.
The chickpea story serves as a reminder of the role of public international agricultural research organisations, which is not only to respond to present circumstances but future projects as well. One can note that the success is not due to the targeted goal but a result of over three decades of effort. Current funders want rapid uptake of research results. However, the story of chickpea in AP highlights the importance of basic plant breeding – the eventual success of chickpea breeding was built upon generating a broad range of potentially useful and effective technologies starting in the 1970s. It also shows the importance and value of diversifying the research portfolios enough to allow short-term investments to meet present needs (e.g., product profiles) and longer-term funding to support more innovative research. Long-term research is essential to prepare for uncertain future scenarios, especially those appearing from the impending climate change scenarios.
GE canola that produces DHA passes food and feed safety study
Scientists from the United States and Australia studied the effects of consumption of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) canola, a genetically engineered Brassica napus variety. The use of DHA canola allows for sustainable, scalable, and stable production of omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA) that addresses not only the increasing market demand, but also the complex interplay of agriculture, aquaculture, and human nutrition.
The vector used to produce its desired oil profile has the expression of cassettes of seven genes in the DHA biosynthesis pathway and researchers designed it to convert oleic acid to DHA in its seed. They also carried out a full characterization of the DHA canola, which includes a detailed nutritional analysis of the seed, meal, and oil as part of the food and feed safety evaluation. Fish feeding studies were also done to confirm the nutritional value and safety of the DHA canola. The results from these studies show it is safe to use products derived from DHA canola in human foods, nutraceuticals, or animal feeds.
For more, see https://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=19059
Access the full paper at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2021.716659/full#h3
Grand challenges in weed management
The current global population of 7.9 billion is expected to reach over nine billion by 2050. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, world food production will need to be increased by 70 to 100% to feed this population. All the increase will have to come from an increased yield per unit area (Note: see the Item no. X under Potential Crops/Technologies/Concepts – WILL PROVIDE THE NUMBER LATER). There are biotic and abiotic constraints to crop production and weeds are the most important biotic constraints to agricultural production in both developing and developed countries.
Crop yield losses due to weeds depend on factors such as weed emergence time, weed density, type of weeds, and crops, etc. According to Bhagirath Singh Chauhan, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, to develop effective and sustainable weed management tactics, knowledge of weed biology and ecology is important. Based on such understanding, strategies to deplete weed seed banks (i.e., the reserve of viable weed seeds present on the soil surface and scattered. throughout the soil profile) by influencing weed seed germination could be included in management programmes. Reduced seed numbers are always preferred by growers as such strategies progressively deplete weed seeds eventually if integrated with other weed management tools.
Access the full paper at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fagro.2019.00003/full
Events
1. ICSAI 2022: International Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification
05-06 May 2022, Singapore
For more, see International Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification ICSAI in May 2022 in Singapore (waset.org) )
2. ICOAH 2022: International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Horticulture
05-06 May 2022, Rome, Italy
For more, see International Conference on Organic Agriculture and Horticulture ICOAH in May 2022 in Rome (waset.org)
3. ICSSAB 2022: International Conference on Seed Science and Agricultural Biotechnology.
16-17 May 2022 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
For more, see International Conference on Seed Science and Agricultural Biotechnology ICSSAB in May 2022 in Amsterdam (waset.org)
4. ICAIWC 2022: International Conference on Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Conservation
16-17 May 2022, Sydney, Australia
For more, see International Conference on Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Conservation (ICAIWC)
5. ICCCCSA 2022: International Conference on Climate Change and Climate-Smart Agriculture
23-24 May 2022, Montreal, Canada
For more, see International Conference on Climate Change and Climate-Smart Agriculture (ICCCCSA) – Montreal, Canada
6. ICAEEF 2022: International Conference on Agricultural Ecology and Ecological Farming
26-27 May 2022, Tokyo, Japan
For more, see International Conference on Agricultural Ecology and Ecological Farming (ICAEEF)
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Access the full paper at https://acsess.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/agg2.20164
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