News & Events

Extreme poverty and fragility are increasingly converging, and so must the policies and financing designed to address them. This was the central message of an October 17 policy seminar, Tackling Extreme Poverty and Financing for Food Systems in Africa, organized by IFPRI on the margins of the 2025 World Bank-International Monetary Fund (IMF) Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C.

Low-sulfur nutrient stress severely affects yield and quality in soybean production. However, genetic studies related to soybean tolerance to low-sulfur conditions are insufficient. Here, soybean tolerance to low-sulfur conditions was evaluated according to ten traits at the seedling stage. A total of 72 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and 103 quantitative trait nucleotides (QTNs) related to low-sulfur tolerance in soybean seedlings were detected via linkage analysis and genome-wide association analysis (GWAS) in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population and a natural population, respectively

In October 2025, the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) made a groundbreaking commitment to global food security by donating 4,417 rice seed samples to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This historic deposit represents PhilRice's inaugural contribution to the vault and the first time in 40 years that duplicates of their invaluable seed collections have been secured outside the Philippines. Such actions are crucial in safeguarding these resources against the escalating threats of natural disasters and climate change.

QU Dongyu visited Mexico on a two-day trip during which he met senior government ministers and made field visits to local institutions. A highlight was the Director-General’s visit to Metepantle in Españita, Tlaxcala state, where he visited the Metepantle, a recently-designated FAO Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) site. Accompanied by Julio Berdegué Sacristán, Secretary for Agriculture and Rural Development, and local authorities, Qu praised Metapantle as a powerful example of long-term agricultural resilience in fragile mountain environments.

Herbicides are pivotal for modern agriculture, but challenges like weed resistance and crop rotation issues necessitate the development of herbicide-resistant genetic resources. This study focused on acetolactate synthase (ALS), a key enzyme targeted by numerous herbicides. Using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) and combining with whole-stage selection, we induced mutations in the OsALS gene of indica rice and identified novel in-frame mutations at the P171 and S627 sites, respectively. Among them, one mutation at the P171 site, the triple mutation P171T/R172G/M174L (ALS-TM) conferred broad-spectrum resistance to Imidazolinones Pyrimidinylthiobenzoates Sulfonylaminocarbonyltriazolinones and Sulfonylureas herbicides.

With the recent typhoons this year and the El Niño in 2024, the writing on the wall is very clear: Philippine agriculture must accelerate adoption of technologies to increase productivity and attain resiliency, and lift more farmers out of poverty. Typhoons and droughts have a telling effect on agricultural lands. For one, floods can wipe out a farmer’s single cropping, and make it hard to plant anew if floods do not subside.

Rice is humanity’s most vital food source—feeding over 4 billion people, more than half of the world’s population, and supporting 150 million farmers across 100 countries. Since IRRI’s founding in 1960, global rice production has tripled to 776 million tonnes annually. Sustaining this growth to meet future demand presents unprecedented challenges. Despite advancements, rice cultivation continues to contribute 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes 30% of global freshwater.

Rice bacterial leaf blight (BB), caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo), leads to severe yield losses in rice. Resistance breeding is a sustainable approach to mitigate the impact of this disease. In this study, a novel BB resistance gene, Xa50(t), was identified in the germplasm line CX315. Genetic analysis revealed that the resistance is conferred by a dominant resistant gene, tentatively named Xa50(t), which provides broad-spectrum and robust resistance to multiple Xoo strains.

Researchers from Hainan Bolian Biotechnology Co. in China successfully generated broad-spectrum resistance to herbicides in rice using CRISPR-Cas9. Their findings are published in the journal Rice. Weed resistance and crop rotation issues are some of the challenges in modern agriculture; thus, there is a need for herbicide-resistant genetic resources. This led the researchers to use CRISPR-Cas9-mediated non-homologous end joining (NHEJ) together with whole-stage selection to develop herbicide-resistant indica rice by mutating the acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene.

The High-level segment of the First International Green Cities Conference, held during the World Food Forum 2025, produced two significant outcomes – a Communiqué and the Green City Principles and Criteria – to guide the next steps in advancing global efforts to make cities greener, more resilient, and inclusive. Co-organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and UN-Habitat, the Conference united mayors, city practitioners, national authorities, civil-society and private-sector actors to explore practical strategies for sustainable urban development.

Rice, a major staple food for half of the world’s population, has been a significant source of nutrition. India is the second-largest producer and consumer of rice globally. Rice aroma is considered one of the most important traits as it is a key factor determining market price and is related to local and national identity. The genetic basis underlying aroma synthesis is well-explored in rice, and it is controlled by a recessive mutation in the betaine aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (OsBADH2) gene that results in the synthesis of 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (2AP)

Experts from Yichun University in China discovered that SlWRKY75 plays a crucial role in helping tomatoes fight bacterial wilt, a devastating disease caused by Ralstonia solanacearum. The study, published in Frontiers of Plant Science, provides new insights into how this gene enhances disease resistance, offering potential pathways for developing stronger, more resilient tomato varieties. In this study, the researchers observed that the SlWRKY75-overexpressing tomato lines show enhanced resistance to bacterial wilt.