News & Events
A team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) reveals that genetic lines of corn have inherent compounds called flavonoids that serve as insecticides, protecting them from the corn earworms that feed on them. Corn earworm causes losses of more than 76 million bushels of corn in the United States annually. Increasing extreme weather events and temperatures will exacerbate the damage done to agricultural output by insect pests, according to previously conducted studies.
A study conducted by researchers from FLAME University, Arkansas Tech University, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln explored the role of knowledge, trust, and information in consumer acceptance of gene-edited food. The study focused on wheat flour developed using CRISPR to produce lower levels of the potentially carcinogenic compound acrylamide.
The potato family includes a highly diverse cultivar repertoire and has a high potential for nutritional yield improvement and refinement but must in line with other crops be adapted to biotic and abiotic stresses, for example, accelerated by climate change and environmental demands. The combination of pluripotency, high ploidy, and relative ease of protoplast isolation, transformation, and regeneration together with clonal propagation through tubers makes potato highly suitable for precise genetic engineering
The 2024 NARES-IRRI Joint Advancement Meeting in Zanzibar, Tanzania, reaffirmed a shared commitment to tackling food security challenges in East and Southern Africa (ESA). Hosted by the Zanzibar Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), the Tanzania Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), the meeting served as a platform to assess progress, exchange insights,
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was conferred with the Cross of Friendship medal by the government of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) for its “excellent work contributing to research on rice varieties” through the Prime Minister’s Decree Letter dated January 22, 2025. Dr. Linkham Douangsavanh, Minister of the Lao PDR Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) presented the award to IRRI Director General Dr. Yvonne Pinto during the Lao PDR delegation’s visit to the IRRI headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines on February 6, 2025.
Ornamental pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) is an economically important plant with extensive genetic diversity (Zhang et al. 2020). In September 2022, symptoms of wilt and fruit rot were identified in approximately 0.02 hectares of an ornamental pepper plantation in Haikou, Hainan Province, China (110°32' E, 20°06' N). Disease severity reached 85%, with an incidence rate of 90%.
Food security is about peace, stability, and human dignity, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, told G20 Foreign Ministers gathered in Johannesburg to discuss the global geopolitical situation. According to the latest UN figures, 733 million people worldwide face chronic hunger, 2.3 billion are food insecure, and 2.8 billion lack access to healthy diets.
Unfinished biodiversity negotiations are back on the table. After a groundbreaking session in Cali, Colombia, delegations are reconvening in Rome to tackle unfinished business that will be critical for biodiversity action – with transforming agrifood systems emerging as a central element for global success. The resumed session of the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) will take place at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) headquarters in Rome from 25–27 February 2025.
Cashew (Anacardium occidentale L.) is an important tree grown worldwide for its edible fruits, nuts and other products of industrial applications. The ecologically sensitive cashew-growing region in coastal Kenya is significantly affected by rising temperatures, droughts, floods, and shifting rainfall patterns. These changes adversely impact cashew growth by altering flowering patterns, increasing pests and diseases, and causing postharvest losses
The CGIAR Nature-Positive Solutions had several successes in India. Most of the Initiative’s key activities happened in tribal areas in Maharashtra State. As with much of NATURE+’s work –
particularly on neglected and underutilized species, or NUS – traditional knowledge was key to the Initiative’s activities on crops, trees and nature-positive agriculture in India.
CGIAR’s Nature-Positive Solutions Initiative made substantial progress in Northern Vietnam, alongside rural, Indigenous communities who were the Initiative’s main partners. The hilly landscapes are rich in threatened and understudied agrobiodiversity, which some communities still successfully cultivate. To help landholders address soil degradation and unsustainable agricultural intensification,
Ripening is crucial for the development of fleshy fruits that release their seeds following consumption by frugivores and are important contributors to human health and nutritional security. Many genetic ripening regulators have been identified, especially in the model system tomato, yet more remain to be discovered and integrated into comprehensive regulatory models.