Collaborate Disseminate
A new artificial intelligence (AI) app developed by researchers from Africa’s Bioversity International led by Michael Selvaraj allows banana farmers to identify and combat outbreaks of pests and diseases. Designed to be used with a smartphone… Continue reading AI mobile app to tackle banana disease and pest outbreaks
As crop plants “breathe” through the pores in their leaves, they release an assortment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. A new smartphone-connected device analyzes those chemicals within a matter of minutes, detecting and ide… Continue reading Smartphone device identifies plant diseases on the spot
Living in the soil, roundworms can infect plants via their roots, which is why many plants have evolved to produce an immune response when the worms are detected. Now, scientists have harnessed that response to create an eco-friendly form of … Continue reading Wormy chemicals used to trick crops into protecting themselves
For the last few years a cold war has been brewing in the world of food-labeling. Sensing the oncoming market disruption from alternative and plant-based meat substitutes, traditional meat-producing industries have been lobbying to pass laws … Continue reading The burger battle: The lawsuits challenging restrictions on plant-based meat labels
Tempted as you might be to grab one of these for the impending zombie-apocalypse, the TF-19 Wasp from Ohio-based Throwflame is a serious piece of kit with potentially life-saving applications. From clearing critical infrastructure to pest man… Continue reading Drone flametherower spits out a 25-foot-long, targeted stream of fire
A team of engineers, from the University of Cambridge, has developed a vegetable-picking robot that can autonomously identify and harvest iceberg lettuce, one of the more manually demanding crops for human pickers. Vegebot was trained using a… Continue reading Machine learning helps robot harvest lettuce for the first time
Fossil fuels cop the brunt of attention for reducing climate-changing emissions, but they’re far from the only culprit – livestock like sheep and cows are responsible for huge amounts of methane being released into the atmosphere. Now, an int… Continue reading Manipulating gut microbes in livestock could cut their methane emissions
When a cotton gin is used to separate cotton fibers from their seeds, a lot of lint is produced as a waste product. Currently, much of that cotton lint is just burned or put in landfills. Thanks to recent research out of Australia, however, i… Continue reading Cotton waste finds new life as eco-friendly plastic
We’ve all had that surreal experience of looking down out of the window from a plane and suddenly seeing familiar environments from completely new and strange perspectives. This gallery features the work of several photographers who turn larg… Continue reading Gallery: Aerial photography turns large-scale farming into abstract art
When farmers find sickly plants in their crops, it’s important that they find out which malady is responsible, as quickly as possible. New microneedle technology could help, paving the way for a handheld device that would provide the answer w… Continue reading Microneedle patch makes for speedy identification of plant diseases