Latest
CropsOnce a day labourer with no say over her family's 12 acres, Sunita Nehare of Pachod in Maharashtra now runs the farm, raising cotton yields from about 1 quintal an acre to 7.14 with soil and water conservation.
CropsAfter India's weakest monsoon since 2015, CropLife India has advised farmers on seed treatment, sowing timing, scouting before spraying and buying only genuine inputs for the 2026-27 rabi season.
EnvironmentOutdoor noise in Mumbai averages 65 to 85 decibels against a WHO guideline of 54 for traffic, and researchers say gaps in data and costly acoustic models make its health effects in India hard to study.
EnvironmentDefences built after Thailand's 2011 floods steer water away from Bangkok and industrial zones, but riverside villages in Ayutthaya now flood above head height for months, and families pay to raise their homes.
EnvironmentStanford scientists found that bleached coral fragments placed against healthy pieces of the same colony fused with them and regained their algae, with all five recovering within seven weeks.
AgrotechA light disc fertiliser shown at a Dutch demo day places liquid plant nutrition directly in the soil, and its backers want to build it into an electric robot that refills itself at a docking station.
IRRI and CIMMYT trained 63 farmers, machinery service providers and extension workers from eastern Uttar Pradesh in zero-tillage wheat and residue management as an alternative to burning rice straw.
CropsThe International Rice Research Institute and Wadhwani AI have signed an agreement to build and field-test AI tools, including pest and disease diagnosis in IRRI's PaddyMitra chatbot, for rice farmers in India.
AgrotechWith demand hard to predict, plant-based meat brands are moving away from dedicated plants towards contract manufacturing, shared infrastructure and repurposed meat-processing assets, industry experts say.
HealthThe World Society of Surgical Oncology and Nestlé will bring together 15 medical experts to write practical guidance on spotting malnutrition and feeding patients before and after cancer surgery.
AgribusinessCanadian start-up ClearCost, which lets farmers track fertilizer prices and contract deliveries, has closed a Series A round and will relaunch its platform across North America in early 2027.
VegetablesStart-up Airponix and Dyson Farming have begun a two-year, Defra-funded trial to see whether England can grow its own disease-free G0 seed potatoes in a fog-based system, at under half today's cost.
AgrotechPresenting a report on Europe's lagging crop output, Bayer argued that new genomic techniques could ease opposition to GM crops and called for a "fast lane" for new crop protection products.
AgrotechScientists at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University fermented okara, the pulp left from soy milk and tofu, with oyster mushroom mycelium, raising its protein to about 28-30% and multiplying its umami compounds.
AgrotechThe Ministry of Future Affairs has launched the New Foods RegLab to give 10 startups making cultivated meat and precision-fermented proteins pre-submission advice on EU approval, and will share findings with EFSA.
CropsA USDA Economic Research Service study comparing the US Heartland with Brazil's Mato Grosso finds Brazilian costs per acre far lower, mainly on land and double cropping, while US corn yields are nearly double.
AgribusinessCanada sold 1,626 tractors in September, down 15.1% on a year earlier, and 78 combines, down 37.6%, according to the Association of Equipment Manufacturers, a sign that farmers are conserving cash.
LivestockCornell University studies found that grazing two sheep per hectare at a solar farm raised beneficial insects by 38% compared with mowing, and produced a tool to help farmers plan solar grazing flocks.
LivestockRising consumer demand for dairy protein has erased Canada's structural butterfat surplus within five years, prompting changes to milk pricing, a Canadian Dairy Commission director said.
An Ethiopian smallholder who planted oats for seed on 0.25 hectares sold his first crop for ETB 45,000 and expanded the next year, part of an ILRI effort to turn forage seed into a business for farmers.
LivestockSouth Africa's Agricultural Research Council has spent R81.7 million over 15 years on a planned foot-and-mouth vaccine factory but says construction cannot start until the full R1.6 billion cost is funded.
CropsAhead of a likely strong El Niño, South African economists urged farmers to budget for three scenarios, avoid planting every hectare and talk to their banks early, warning that financial recovery can take years.
AgrotechFarmer cooperative Regen Farmers Mutual has built Farm Assistant, an AI tool that turns voice notes, photos and texts from the paddock into farm records, and 20 farmers are piloting it.
LivestockA 200-page CSIRO report on more than 80 farm emissions technologies finds that cost, delivery to grazing animals and market rewards, rather than technical performance, decide whether producers adopt them.
Watch
VideoIn the latest AgriView episode, agricultural economist Wandile Sihlobo asks whether the enlarged BRICS bloc is opening real markets for South African produce, or mostly producing talk.
VideoAt Bindhara in Panchbibi, Joypurhat, small dark-skinned Black Baby watermelons hang from bamboo trellises. The 60-day crop needs 50 grams of seed a bigha, yields 1,200 to 1,500 fruits or 4 to 4.5 tonnes, and at Tk 30 a kilo earns far more than other field crops.
VideoShykh Seraj examines the government's first 180 days in agriculture, from farm loan waivers and farmer cards to crop insurance and canal excavation.
In pictures
GalleryIn pictures: Sukhpara's betel vines yield leaves 11 months a year1 photos
GalleryA desert elephant carried a dead calf for hours, but it was not her own1 photos
GalleryDucks at play in Bogura's 'lotus pond', where the lotuses are long gone1 photos
GalleryGlimpse, 14 October: nets on Kaptai Lake, a bee on sponge gourd, a barbet on moringa1 photos
GalleryBefore winter, Rajshahi's sap tappers start shaving date palms1 photos
GalleryLate-autumn mist settles over Sylhet's haor in the afternoons1 photos
GalleryFrom a sack to a campus lake: 14 lesser whistling ducks freed in PabnaSection
FAO named 100 Women Heroes in Agrifood Systems and Rural Development from 609 nominations, completing the list with Yin Yuzhen, who helped restore nearly 5,000 hectares of desert land in China.
At the Rome Water Dialogue, FAO chief Qu Dongyu called for agriculture to reduce, reuse, recycle and replenish water, and FAO launched IRMA, a digital tool to show where irrigation is feasible and most needed.
EnvironmentThe Coastal Forest Department and Kuakata municipality put up a billboard on 12 October declaring protected a century-old banyan tree tied to the religious and cultural heritage of the Rakhine community.
A Khani Bangladesh and PRAAN study of 358 families who lost their homes to cyclones, floods and river erosion and moved to Satkhira town's slums found 74.9 percent severely food insecure and only 7.5 percent covered by social safety nets.
With no drainage in Chandshi village in Ghatail municipality, Tangail, hundreds of families are marooned and farmers cannot cultivate flooded land; the upazila chief says drainage will be arranged soon.
HealthIn a Facebook video, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman asked every family to spend 30 minutes to an hour at least twice a week cleaning their homes, surroundings and paths of places where Aedes mosquitoes can breed.
