A new study unveils an advanced drone-based system that offers, for the first time, a smarter way to monitor sesame health. By combining hyperspectral, thermal, and RGB imagery with deep learning, researchers have developed a powerful method for detecting simultaneous nitrogen and water deficiencies in field-grown sesame. This innovative approach leverages cutting-edge UAV-imaging technology and artificial intelligence to improve the accuracy of stress detection in crops. The integration of multiple data sources enables identification of combined nutrient and water-related deficiencies. This significant step forward in the field of precision farming not only enhances crop management but also supports more sustainable and efficient use of water and fertilizers, key components in building climate-resilient food systems.

A new CABI-led study investigated smallholder farmers’ knowledge, attitudes and practices towards parthenium and biological control in Pakistan.

The study brings attention to important gendered aspects of parthenium impact. It also highlights smallholder farmers’ significant role, through their on-farm management practices, in improving the establishment and effectiveness of biological control agents.

In a first-of-its-kind pilot project, researchers from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Indonesia’s Ministry of Agriculture and Arizona State University tested the novel integration of a handheld DNA sequencing device within Indonesia’s national antibiotic resistance surveillance system across six chicken slaughterhouses in the Greater Jakarta area. They collected samples from both wastewater and surrounding rivers.

The goal: to determine whether portable DNA sequencing could improve national efforts to track drug-resistant E. coli, a key indicator of antibiotic resistance.

The transition to agriculture and a sedentary lifestyle is one of the great turning points in human history. Yet how this Neolithic way of life spread from the Fertile Crescent across Anatolia and into the Aegean has been hotly debated. A Turkish-Swiss team offers important new insights, by combining archaeology and genetics in an innovative way.

Rice is showing to have many benefits in brewing beer, including making nonalcoholic beer taste more like its full-strength counterpart, according to recently published research out of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture in collaboration with the Research Institute for Raw Materials and Beverage Analysis, officially known as Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei — or VLB — in Berlin, Germany. The research also shows that some rice varieties have lower gelatinization temperatures, which opens up its use to more craft brewers, and that rice breeding programs are developing rice with qualities that contrast with factors that aid in brewing efficiency and sustainability.

A collaboration between Aston University and RAD Global will help small farmers in East Africa keep food fresher for longer, preventing food waste and improving livelihoods. Working with other partners they have developed pioneering cold storage boxes which can keep food fresh without access to grid electricity.