Researchers investigate the potential of low-input farming systems to benefit both farmers and the environment

As concern builds around the impact of rising food prices and new restrictions on rice exports from Asian countries hit by adverse climate conditions, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) announced today that African rice breeders have made critical steps towards ensuring self-sufficiency and boosting African rice production.

A six-year study of Amazonian small farmers and their responses to climate change shows the farmers are vulnerable to natural catastrophes and risky land use practices, say Indiana University Bloomington anthropologists Eduardo Brondizio and Emilio Moran.

The Indian government says it will spend billions of dollars to help farmers and revive the rural economy. As Anjana Pasricha reports from New Delhi, the promise comes ahead of general elections scheduled for next year.

Agricultural industry taxpayers, farmers and fishermen, who electronically file Form 1040 returns with Form 4136, Credit for Federal Tax Paid on Fuels, must wait until March 3 to e-file the newly-revised Form 4136.

Many fruit farmers in the United States rely heavily on "pick-your-own" (PYO) operations to realize profits and create repeat business. Pick-your-own fruit farms are an important market segment, and consumer satisfaction with the experience is critical to farmers eager to increase seasonal revenues.

Farmers and vineyard owners have a new weapon in their pest management arsenal. A commonly used parasitoid, or parasitic insect that kills its host, has proven to be quite effective in the control of fruit flies in vineyards.

In the face of growing pressure on one of Asia’s most important food production systems, experts are warning that farmers must get more help to make them more efficient.

New protocol and software developments are helping farmers put the precision back in “precision agriculture” by making it easier for growers to use previously ineffectual soil and environmental data to manage their crops.

With the world’s first global inventory of farm animals showing many breeds of African, Asian, and Latin American livestock at risk of extinction, scientists from the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) today called for the rapid establishment of genebanks to conserve the sperm and ovaries of key animals critical for the global population’s future survival.

A new molecular tool developedby Australian and Japanese researchers is expected to help farmers address what has become one of the major threats to conventional agricultural practices - herbicide resistance.

Expectations of higher corn prices are leading some farmers to neglect or ignore integrated pest management strategies, and their behavior could undermine the very technologies that sustain them, University of Illinois researchers report today at the American Chemical Society meeting in Boston.