AgriTech Review

You've got to scale up in steps before you start to build these large-scale facilities," says founder Daniel Tzvetkoff. The post Stacked Farm outlines the long game for vertical farming ahead of US expansion appeared first on AgFunderNews.

A full genome sequence of Acinetobacter lwoffii DJPGP01, isolated from rice rhizosphere soil in India, reveals genes for phosphate solubilisation, auxin synthesis, quorum sensing and stress tolerance, with laboratory testing confirming phosphate mobilisation.

A feasibility study of 107 dairy cows on four farms found that ankle-mounted accelerometer data predicted positive or negative mood with 61 percent accuracy compared with the gold-standard welfare assessment.

A new review maps how low-cost energy harvesting technologies could replace batteries in smart sensing and Internet of Things devices.

A global analysis of 904 metagenomes shows that methanogenic pathway potential across soils and sediments is tied to environmental gradients and methanogen guild composition.

A difference-in-differences study links China's Shan-Shui ecological restoration project to a small but robust increase in farm household livelihood resilience.

A new review in Carbon Research maps how lignin, the abundant aromatic by-product of pulping, can be converted into controlled-release fertilizers, soil amendments, pesticide carriers, mulch films and seed coatings, while flagging cost and field-validation hurdles.

A new review synthesizes evidence that plant-associated microbes directly and indirectly reshape the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites, with implications for crop resilience and drug discovery.

Untargeted metabolomics reveals that Bacillus siamensis SSVP1 produces distinct extracellular metabolite profiles when facing live versus heat-killed Fusarium and Macrophomina biomass.

A newly published study in Discover Artificial Intelligence proposes a machine learning framework designed specifically for this problem, combining a state space neural operator with genetic algorithm optimization to forecast power plant behavior more accurately, faster and with less memory than established recurrent and attention-based models.

A 30-day trial in Uganda's South-Western Cattle Corridor found that supplementing grazing cows with a locally formulated dairy meal significantly raised milk solids-not-fat and protein content compared with unsupplemented controls.

A new review synthesizes evidence that inhaled agricultural particulate matter may disrupt the intestinal barrier and gut microbiome through the gut–lung axis, potentially contributing to metabolic dysfunction.

A two-year study of three Kenyan highland plots links soil erosion and land management to shifts in bioavailable selenium, while crop uptake remains weakly coupled to soil supply.

An international study investigating why wild tomatoes are more resistant to the tomato leafminer (Phthorimaea absoluta) than cultivated varieties revealed that the secret lies in the spatial structure of a plant defense molecule. The researchers mapped the biochemical origin of this difference and demonstrated that altering four amino acids in a single enzyme is sufficient to alter the structure of the substance and increase its toxicity against the pest. This finding paves the way for creating resistant tomatoes through gene editing.

A survey of 169 Ugandan fish farmers finds aquaponics is the most sustainable system yet the least adopted, with gender, group membership, location, and land tenure shaping choices.

A new review in Bioscience Nanotechnology outlines how smart nanocarriers can deliver biostimulants with sustained, stimulus-responsive release to support sustainable crop production.

A laboratory study of peat from Ziro Valley, India, found that combining 15% cement with 12% rice husk ash raised unconfined compressive strength from 189 to 819 kilopascals after 28 days of curing.

A new review synthesizes global advances in sustainable Ulva biomass production, spanning physiology, genomics, seedling technology and farming systems.

A new CGE modelling study finds that a 50 percent cut in hazardous pesticide use would cost the EU agricultural sector billions in production and exports, but substituting low-risk dsRNA alternatives could eliminate more than half of those losses.

Female Telenomus remus wasps were attracted to eggs of three moth species, and seven egg-surface compounds elicited significant behavioral responses in Y-tube assays.

An international study shows that changing four amino acids in a single tomato enzyme flips the 3D shape of a defense molecule, making it far more toxic to the tomato leafminer.

A new narrative review argues that Salmonella persistence in poultry is governed by microbial communication networks spanning the gut, litter, waterlines and hatcheries, pointing toward ecosystem-based control strategies.

A study of 192 teat skin swabs from cows on eight Austrian dairy farms found that season and farm management shaped teat skin microbial diversity, while routine cleaning reduced clostridial gene copy numbers by a mean of 83.3 percent.

A new study suggests farmers and homeowners are inadvertently making weeds growing around the perimeter of their fields or lawns stronger.

To limit further climate change, researchers are exploring technologies that can convert atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) into useful products. In collaboration with BOKU University in Vienna (Austria), researchers at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) have demonstrated that electrochemical and microbial processes can be combined to capture CO₂ and produce itaconic acid, a bio-based chemical used in industry. According to the researchers, this new process demonstrates how CO₂ emissions can be converted into sustainable bio-based products, with the potential to produce a wider range of valuable chemicals by using different microorganisms.

Although they account for just 7% of the Earth's land surface, island ecosystems harbor almost 20% of the world's biodiversity. From sea-level rise to biological invasions, islands are facing multiple pressures associated with ongoing global change, and yet they are still overlooked in global biodiversity conservation strategies.

Russian Minister of Agriculture Oksana Lut said Moscow can educate partners by organizing online schools of farmers in line with the terms of reference from a specific country

Syngenta is preparing for California’s upcoming winter produce season while anticipating the potential introduction of new crop protection technology in 2027. During an interview with “The Ag Meter” host Nick ... Read More The post Syngenta Prepares New Crop Protection Technology for California Growers in 2027 appeared first on AgNet West.

On Oct. 7, Wooriga Green Farm, a cherry tomato smart farm in Seobuk District in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, was filled with rows of tomato vines stretching nearly to the greenhouse ceiling. Ripe red tomatoes hung in clusters along both sides of the aisles. They were the last fruits of the summer growing season. The farm’s owner, Woo Min-jae, 32, is considered one of the region’s leading young farmers. He worked for a subcontractor of a major company in the Seoul metropolitan area from 2017 until late 2019, but lost his job when the factory relocated to China. Six years after leaving his job, Woo has transformed himself into a full-fledged farmer, operating a greenhouse operation covering 1,900 square meters. His farm generated 150 million won ($110,000) in revenue last year. Young people like Woo are becoming increasingly scarce in rural areas. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, the rural farming population plunged from a little over 3 million in 2010 to just

Sergey Ryabkov noted that Russia had built up key expertise in ensuring food sovereignty

A national survey analysis found that just 7.2 percent of rural South African women small-scale farmers had household internet access, with age, race, marital status and location among the associated factors.

An experimental mRNA–lipid nanoparticle vaccine encoding the H5 hemagglutinin of a bovine H5N1 virus elicited neutralizing antibodies and reduced viral shedding in milk roughly 1,000-fold in a small challenge study of eight lactating dairy cows.

A ten-year Chinese field trial shows biochar and maize stover build soil organic carbon through distinct molecular pathways, with biochar favoring long-term stable storage and stover driving active microbial carbon cycling.

A national survey of 2,161 urban Chinese consumers shows tofu, not novel plant-based meat, drives simulated dietary shifts, with carbon labeling raising plant-protein market share from 8 to 36 percent.

A newly classified Bacillus cereus group species from Maryland forest soil inhibited all eight tested fungal phytopathogens in direct plating assays, yet showed no insecticidal activity against four pest species and no disease protection in apple or coffee leaf tests.

Hackers threatened to install ransomware on user devices, but they never did.

Andrew Glester talks to Graham Farmelo, author of a new authorized biography of Stephen Hawking The post Graham Farmelo: ‘What’s really striking is Stephen Hawking’s colossal determination and stubbornness’ appeared first on Physics World.

A year of field surveys and DNA metabarcoding of beetle gut contents show that Chilocorus kuwanae is a key predator of the tea green leafhopper Empoasca onukii in Chinese tea plantations.

A complete genome sequence from Korean greenhouse soil reveals Cupriavidus sp. PB-02 as a novel species candidate carrying 20 putative PBAT-degradation genes.

To support climate adaptation, we have to first invest in smallholder farmers. The post From climate finance to AI’s impact on smallholders, here’s what to expect at COP31 appeared first on AgFunderNews.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of 21 studies reports a pooled Toxoplasma gondii prevalence of 29.0 percent in African poultry, with diagnostic method a significant source of heterogeneity.

A new comment in Discover Food examines how Mexico's 2026 withdrawal of erythrosine authorisation, based on a domestic exposure assessment, reflects a widening global divergence in synthetic food dye regulation and product formulation.

GMO Internet Group has rejected a $1 million ransom demand after hackers claimed to release customer information linked to a breach of its Onamae.com Desktop Cloud service.

A six-year post-fire study in a Chinese subalpine forest found that low- and high-severity fires increased soil organic carbon while moderate-severity fire reduced it.

Transitioning to cage-free egg production requires treating farmers as vital partners, supporting them with technical training, financial solutions, and guaranteed market demand to build economically viable, scalable, and sustainable farming systems.

A new review proposes that engineered nanocarrier surfaces and release kinetics could reprogram root exudation to recruit beneficial rhizosphere microbes.

A 44-year field trial shows farming history, not drought, is the main driver of functional genes in the wheat rhizosphere microbiome.

Loading redox-active manganese onto biochar boosted soil DNRA rates 2.9-fold and cut nitrous oxide emissions in a 22-day paddy soil incubation study.

A 14-year study of 333 Chinese cities finds agricultural insurance significantly increases crop carbon absorption by shifting planting toward staple crops and raising cropping intensity.

A study of more than 123,000 online rice reviews links consumer concerns to corporate quality credit records and finds that transparency, certification and packaging technology are associated with higher review-based market activity.

A new review examines how Streptomyces bacteria could produce polyhydroxyalkanoate bioplastics, highlighting omics insights, bioprocess optimization and the barriers still blocking industrial scale-up.

An enhanced RT-DETR-ResNet18 framework raises detection accuracy for camouflaged soybean pests, reaching 77.4% mAP@0.5 across 12 pest categories.

A systematic review of 23 empirical studies finds that cluster-based farming in Ethiopia offers social, economic, ecological, institutional and political opportunities, but faces constraints ranging from farmer resistance and weak coordination to political instability.

Nigerian researchers optimised L-asparaginase production from two soil microbes, reaching 19,047 U/mL with a fungal isolate.

A study of raw cow milk from four Ethiopian dairy areas found that fat and other physicochemical quality indicators fell as milk moved from farms to consumers.

Researchers have formally described two novel actinobacterial species, one from a German drinking water reservoir and one from Tunisian soil, both rich in biosynthetic gene clusters and one showing broad antimicrobial activity.

A new comprehensive review argues that food additives remain essential for safety and shelf life while chronic exposure to certain synthetic agents raises unresolved health concerns.

Invasive alien brambles have been spreading across South Africa since the early 1900s, having come from North America and Europe. All brambles fall within the genus Rubus. Their common names in South Africa are braam (Afrikaans), ijingijolo (isiZulu) and monoko-metsi (seSotho).

A bibliometric review of palmyra palm sap research finds Indonesia, Thailand and India leading a small literature spanning fermentation, preservation, bioethanol, food safety and experimental solar materials.

A German study of 41 Holstein calves found that with standardized colostrum feeding and near ad libitum milk allowance, artificially reared calves matched dam-reared calves in growth, immunity transfer, and health.

Whole-genome sequencing of 333 Campylobacter jejuni isolates shows that episodic surges of fluoroquinolone resistance in Finnish broilers came from regionally clustered clonal spread, not vertical transmission.

A new global assessment identifies crushed basalt spread on acidic croplands as the most practical form of enhanced weathering, with a theoretical capacity of about 18.84 gigatonnes of CO2.

Climate change and shifts in land use are affecting habitats and, consequently, plant diversity. To better understand the consequences of these developments, long-term and comprehensive data are essential. The "Floristic Mapping of Baden-Württemberg," coordinated by the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History, provides a foundation for this. The data collected over five decades as part of this citizen science project document significant changes in the flora of southwestern Germany, drawing on more than 2.5 million plant observations. They also provide insights into changes in plant diversity in Germany and Central Europe.

Syngenta was ranked 6th among science-driven companies globally. The Group has been recognized as among the top 10 since 2019. The post Syngenta Named Agriculture’s Leading Employer by Science Magazine for 10th Successive Year appeared first on CropLife.

A new review in Frontiers in Physiology maps how diet, gut microbes and mucosal immunity interact in livestock, while warning that gut changes alone do not prove production or product-quality benefits.

Smallholder rice farmers in Tanzania's Kilombero valley floodplain perceive widespread soil health deterioration linked to commercial, agrochemical-intensive farming, according to a mixed-methods study.

The tech utilizes tiny bacterial extracellular vesicles, which have a natural affinity for intestinal cells and can be loaded with bioactives. The post BioClé tackles bioactives’ bioavailability challenge with novel delivery tech appeared first on AgFunderNews.

Researchers used environmental DNA metabarcoding in the Rioni River to detect 34 fish taxa, identifying three invasive alien species and a new country record for the ninespine stickleback.

A study of 200 plots in northeast Greenland found that soil eDNA and visual vegetation surveys largely agreed on plant genera, environmental responses and plant-microbe associations.

A flower strip is established along the edge of a field. A wetland is restored. More seminatural habitats are created. The expectation is simple: give nature more space, and biodiversity will increase. But reality is often not so simple.

As winter approaches, many of us start clearing leaves and tidying up our gardens. But these jobs can remove vital winter habitats for wildlife, particularly with increasingly volatile weather conditions.

In experimental Brassica rapa populations, pollen competition for ovules was the main arena of sexual selection, while reduced pollinator abundance increased selection on mate acquisition.

A survey of 385 Thai livestock farmers found that only 20 percent followed comprehensive brucellosis prevention practices despite 65.5 percent showing satisfactory knowledge, with farm certification strongly linked to better behavior.

A new study led by Kumar Venkitanarayanan, dean of the College of Agriculture, Health and Natural Resources (CAHNR), has shown that plant-based antimicrobials are a promising path toward controlling antibiotic resistance in foodborne pathogens. The research is published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

Lab-grown protein that mimics the color, taste and texture of meat. Egg white substitutes used for baked goods. Food colorants that replace beta-carotene extracted from carrots. Those are some of the products created with precision fermentation, an emerging technology that can develop tailored food ingredients in the laboratory. If adapted to large-scale production, it can potentially contribute to reducing global food insecurity by creating affordable, sustainable products supplementing those delivered by traditional agriculture.

A study of Adiantum ferns on China's Karst and Danxia landforms finds a two-phase diversification driven first by bedrock-mediated soil differentiation and later by microclimate and leaf magnesium adaptation.

The defense contractor aims to fully bring back laptop manufacturing on U.S. shores, with its first BlueChip laptop prototypes having 90% procurement cost coming from suppliers in the U.S. and other allied countries.

A paired soil and crop survey in Nagarkanda, Bangladesh, found arsenic above guideline limits in all fifteen sampled fields and identified cadmium as the leading ecological risk.

Global efforts to preserve habitat and the planet's most endangered species urgently need to be stepped up, according to a new report from Map of Life, the flagship initiative of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.

A systematic review of 77 studies synthesizes how extreme drought, flooding and rapid drying-rewetting cycles disrupt soil microbial biomass, enzyme kinetics and carbon cycling, and evaluates how biochar and cover cropping may buffer these effects.

A new policy brief maps how Europe's farms could serve older adults, urging systematic collaboration between public health and agriculture.

Researchers in Bavaria released two benchmark datasets of dusty tractor-camera images and found that the best dust removal methods are not the ones that best improve person detection.

A modelling study finds that replacing livestock products with plant-based meat alternatives could shrink agricultural land expansion and greenhouse gas emissions, while increasing the risk of micronutrient inadequacy.

A two-season field trial in Goiás, Brazil, found that residues from Quênia guinea grass, whether grown alone or intercropped with maize, raised soil enzyme activity, organic carbon, and succeeding soybean yields of up to 5,158 kilograms per hectare compared with bare-soil cultivation.

A new review details how stress-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria can help rice withstand drought, salinity, flooding, and heavy metals while cutting methane emissions from paddy fields.

A laboratory comparison shows that copper-needle and carbon-fibre brush emitters produce different corona currents, deposition patterns and fog-collection rates, with no single spacing or maximum-current condition proving universally optimal.

The first survey of soil bacteria and fungi on Mount Toubkal shows fungal richness declining with elevation while bacterial diversity stays stable.

Utah officials kept a bird flu outbreak at a private mink farm under tighter restrictions than other livestock cases, prompting concerns over transparency, surveillance and mutation risks.

A landscape genetics study finds agriculture is the primary barrier to gene flow among sloth bears in India's fragmented Central Terai.

A systematic review of IoT and AI-enabled microclimate regulation in poultry farming demonstrates that predictive climate management can achieve thermal stability of ±0.5 °C, leading to improved welfare and production efficiency.

A Chinese field study finds that rotating sorghum with potato, common vetch, or green pea shoots improves soil nutrients, restructures microbial communities, and enriches beneficial microbial functions compared with continuous sorghum cropping.

A field experiment in Inner Mongolia's Horqin Sandy Land shows that continuous cropping of the medicinal herb Atractylodes chinensis lowers yield and bioactive compound content while degrading soil chemistry and disrupting rhizosphere microbial communities.

A case report describes a 58-year-old cattle farmer whose seronegative inflammatory arthritis, sicca symptoms and suspected cervical spondylitis were attributed to probable systemic brucellosis, while microbiological confirmation and long-term outcomes remained uncertain.

Whole-genome sequencing traced livestock-associated MRSA ST398 from German pig farms through slaughter into fermented ready-to-eat sausage, where it survived the full seven-day shelf life.

A new perspective in Discover Plants proposes that nitrogen limitation can decouple leaf-level photosynthetic performance from canopy resource capture, using potato as an illustrative case.

A study in Shandong Province, China, used quantile regression forests to map soil salinity across five depth intervals down to 125 cm, finding accuracy declines with depth and that spectral drivers give way to hydro-topographic and climatic controls.

Climate change is amplifying extreme weather conditions across southern Africa. Dry seasons are getting hotter and drier, while rains are becoming heavier and more concentrated. This means greater swings between production surplus and scarcity for rural communities that make their living from the land.

Researchers at HZI and HIPS activated silent bacterial genes to discover myxoglucamides, unusual natural products that bind the cancer-associated enzyme AKR1C3.

A comparative study of sugar beet and maize seedling imagery found that a custom CNN outperformed classical classifiers, while U-Net localized weeds with a reported mean IoU of 87.6%.

An experimental study found that sealing stabilized construction soil before aeration can improve strength without adding neutralization capacity.