Take a walk on the wild side of tomatoes

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Picture copyright McDANIEL et al.

Industrial farming with intensive breeding has deprived most crop food varieties of their resistance to pests, diseases and climate stresses. Wild relatives of these crops may possess genes that confer enhanced resistance. Such genes of resistance can subsequently be introduced into commercial varieties. McDaniel et al assessed a wild species of tomato for resistance to the glasshouse whitefly. They found several resistance mechanisms present in the wild tomato that are potential targets for introduction into the commercial tomato genome.

The four concepts of climate-smart agriculture

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Picture copyright URRUTY et al.

Food production is actually facing issues of climate change, unstable markets and complex public policies. Agronomists and farmers therefore need new ideas to design alternative farming systems. Urruty et al. explain the four concepts of climate-smart agriculture : stability, robustness, vulnerability and resilience. They present methods to evaluate farming management using these concepts.

GPS navigation for plant and food : bon appétit !

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Picture copyright LUVISI

Major issues of food security such as the lack of food in developing countries, food wasting, and food contamination could be solved if food could be traced efficiently from production to dishes. A review of Luvisi shows how development of radio frequency identification solutions  and sensors are improving automated systems in agriculture and the role of traceability in corporate food regime sustainability.

Crops adapted to climate change and weed competition

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Picture copyright KORRES

Crop yield depends on atmospheric CO2 levels, temperature, drought and competition with weeds. There is therefore a need to forecast which plant traits are important to sustain yield under a changing climate. Agronomists Korres et al. review the effect of climate on crops and weeds to disclose resilient plant traits and cultivars.

Sorghum solutions for food in Africa

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Picture copyright BIRUMA

Food production in Africa is difficult due to poor soil fertility and limited farmer access to inorganic fertilizer. This issue is exacerbated by climate change. A potential solution is to improve sorghum farming because sorghum is tolerant of both drought and water logging. Agronomist Tonitto and Ricker-Gilbert reviewed sorghum management scenarios. They found inorganic fertilizer amendment increased yield by 47-98 %, while organic nutrient amendment increased yield by 43-87 %. Therefore, facilitating access to fertilizers and diversified rotations should increase grain yield in Africa, a recommendation in line with current Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) techniques promoted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) .

Weeds are good for agriculture, yes they are!

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Picture copyright Hanzlik and Gerowitt

In industrial agriculture weeds have been considered solely as undesired plant species that should be removed with pesticides. Now scientists have found that weeds could help farming by, e.g., pollination, preventing water and soil runoff, and attracting predators of crop pests. There is therefore a need of weed surveys across Europe. Agronomists Gerovitt and Hanzlik reviewed the methods of weed surveying in 43 surveys, mainly in Europe, covering up to 4423 fields.

 

Is urban farming really green?

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goldstein
Picture copyright GOLDSTEIN et al.

Is urban agriculture more environmentally friendly than conventional food production? Urban agriculture is believed to decrease environmental impacts by reducing transport and packaging, recycling food waste and wastewater, and mitigating the urban heat island effect. Goldstein et al. review the various practices of urban agricuture to find support for the claimed benefits. The authors propose a taxonomy of urban farming systems.

The fragile weed-bee affair

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rollin
Picture copyright ROLLIN et al.

A million-years old relationship has been established between bees and weed flowers. Weeds indeed provide food to bees in the form of tasty pollen, and bees carry pollen from plant to plant to ensure pollination, weed reproduction and diversity. This win-win relationship is endangered by industrial agriculture practices such as weed control and the use of insecticides. Scientists Rollin et al. review agricultural practices that modify weed-bee long-standing collaboration.

 

Micronutrients for healthy food production

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Picture copyright WEBER, INRA
Picture copyright WEBER, INRA

Industrial agriculture has favoured almost solely the production of for-profit high-yield crops by selecting high-yield cultivars, and adding massively mineral NPK fertilisers and pesticides. Such an approch has led to many negative consequences, such as food and water contamination, pest- and climate-sensitive crops, and food depleted in micronutrients (and taste). Dimkpa et al. review the role of micronutrients such as iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and Zinc (Zn), for crop protection against pest and drought.

 

Major agricultural issues in Central Asia

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Copyright WEBER, INRA
Copyright WEBER, INRA

Climate change is forecasted to impact deeply agricultural and food production in the next decades. Actually there is few knowledge on the major issues faced by farmers in Central Asia. Therefore agronomists Hamidov et al. reviewed 362 scientific papers published from 2008 to 2013. They classified the papers into three categories: environmental, economic and social issues. They found that the major issues of land use are the quality of air, soil, minerals and water; ecosystem services for fertilisation and food production; and biomass and energy.