Land use is at the heart of the many emergencies facing our world today: climate change, biodiversity loss, social injustice and food insecurity. These – exacerbated by unsustainable practices such as industrial agriculture – combine to create simultaneous and interconnected crises. To overcome these challenges, large parts of the Earth's surface must meet several demands at the same time – from species conservation and food production to human well-being. This is where multifunctional landscapes come in, because they can meet many ecological, social and economic goals at once. Researchers at the Universities of Göttingen and Kassel have evaluated how using land in such ways can support nature conservation and ecosystem restoration. Their review article shows ways to redesign land use and nature conservation using integrated approaches. This was published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity.

In recent years, digital agricultural technology extension services (DATES), leveraging Internet platforms such as WeChat official accounts and mobile applications, have gained popularity, providing a new pathway for agricultural technology dissemination. This service overcomes the temporal and spatial limitations of traditional agricultural technology extension, enabling farmers to conveniently access planting knowledge. Then, can DATES effectively encourage farmers to adopt OMF and contribute to the green transformation of agriculture? Professor Minjuan Zhao from the College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, and her team addressed this question through a survey of farmers in major apple - producing areas in China. The related research has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024590).

A research team led by Professor Yumei Zhang from the Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP) at China Agricultural University, in collaboration with Dr. Issa Ouedraogo from the Alliance of Biodiversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), has conducted a study that reveals the structural characteristics and emission reduction potential of agrifood system carbon emissions in China and Africa. The related article has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025609).

Findings from the University of Kansas could offer important context for farmers who want to use beneficial microbes to improve yields. Today, microbial commercialization in agriculture represents an expanding multibillion dollar sector.

If we all ate more vegetables and less meat, and cut down on bananas, chocolate and coffee, we could free up significant areas of land for restoration and save hundreds of the world’s species from extinction, finds a new Cambridge study.

Excessive fluoride accumulation in tea leaves poses a potential threat to consumer health. 

Strawberry fruits are prized for their rich flavor and health-promoting antioxidants, yet the molecular machinery behind their tannin synthesis has remained largely elusive.