News & Events

Drought is one of the most widespread and damaging of all environmental stresses, affecting 23 million hectares of rainfed rice in South and Southeast Asia alone. Rice is normally grown during periods of high rainfall, the time of year commonly referred to as the rainy season. However, rice is often subjected to periods of severe moisture stress because of the marked variation in time and intensity of rainfall in India. Thus the ability of the crop to withstand drought is essential in most tropical rice-growing areas.

Cassava is a staple food crop in sub-Saharan Africa; it is a rich source of carbohydrates and proteins which currently supports livelihoods of more than 800 million people worldwide. However, its continued production is at stake due to vector-transmitted diseases such as Cassava mosaic disease and Cassava brown streak disease. Currently, the management and control of viral diseases in cassava relies mainly on virus-resistant cultivars of cassava

Of the 12 interventions identified for agriculture by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA) in its September report, ‘Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience’, research and development has a role to play in nine interventions. That is just about the number of interventions involving policy and markets, and two more than those that require financial input.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is working closely with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) to assist member countries and research communities in identifying potential animal hosts of this virus and reduce spillover events to humans.

The Evening Complex (EC), composed of the DNA binding protein LUX ARRHYTHMO (LUX) and two additional proteins EARLY FLOWERING 3 (ELF3) and ELF4, is a transcriptional repressor complex and a core component of the plant circadian clock. In addition to maintaining oscillations in clock gene expression, the EC also participates in temperature and light entrainment, acting as an important environmental sensor and conveying this information to growth and developmental pathways.

The pioneering neuroscientist Bruce McEwen died on January 2, 2020 at the age of 81 following a brief illness. He was the Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Millikin Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University. Born in Fort Collins, Colorado, Bruce grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in an academic household; his father George was a Professor of English in the University of Michigan’s Engineering School

Teamwork is an essential component of science. It affords the exchange of ideas and the execution of research that can entail high levels of complexity and scope. Collaborative science also leads to higher-impact publications relative to single-authored research projects (1). Published articles are a key product of scientific work, bearing considerable impact on researchers' academic stances and scientific reputations (2).

A set of 44 rice cultivars were evaluated for yield traits and amylose content under controlled  reproductive  stage  drought.  Drought  tolerance  indices  viz.,  leaf  rolling, leaf drying, levels of drought tolerance were measured. For leaf rolling, 38 cultivars showed  0  to  3  score.  Forty  cultivars  showed  scores  between  0-2  for  leaf  Twenty cultivars have shown drought tolerance scores of 0 -3Six

On behalf of the ICRISAT Governing Board, I am announcing a change in plans for the future Director General. I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Jacqueline d’Arros Hughes as incoming Director General for ICRISAT. She will be able to join us soon on 1 June 2020.

This yearly report, published by UN-Water/UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme, aims at informing the water and climate community about the challenges, opportunities and potential responses to climate change through water. FAO contributed to the report with expertise on agriculture and food security.

Marine microbes form the base of ocean food webs and drive ocean biogeochemical cycling. Yet little is known about the ability of microbial populations to adapt as they are advected through changing conditions. Here, we investigated the interplay between physical and biological timescales using a model of adaptation and an eddy-resolving ocean circulation climate model.

Peatlands cover only 3 percent of the world's surface yet contain as much carbon as all of its vegetation, dramatically underscoring their pivotal role in global climate regulation. Their degradation, by drainage or fire or other forces, triggers their conversion from slow carbon sinks into fast sources capable of releasing carbon stored over millennia in a few decades.