While the majority of Midwestern farmers rotate corn and soybeans, commodity prices and corn yield advantages compel some to plant corn year after year. Although research on the benefits of corn-soybean rotation goes back decades, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scientists are addressing holistic questions about crop yield, environmental impacts, and economic returns under various crop rotation scenarios. 

A team led by Prof. Zhenke Zhu from Ningbo University analyzed 261 soil samples across China to systematically compare the impacts of different legume crop rotations on soil properties and microbial communities, revealing the unique advantages of faba bean (Vicia faba) rotation in enhancing soil multifunctionality and its microbial-driven mechanisms. The relevant paper has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025604).

A study published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024598) by Vipul Kumar from Lovely Professional University, India, and Rachid Lahlali from the National School of Agriculture of Meknès, Morocco, provides an answer to this question.

Professor Zhiqiang Chen from Fujian Normal University and colleagues provide a scientific answer to these questions through a study covering 2002–2022. The relevant paper has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024594).

A study by Professor Yinhua Huang’s team at China Agricultural University has for the first time constructed a “graph-based pan-genome” for chickens, providing a new tool for efficient mining of genetic variations in chickens. The relevant study has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024591).

Research led by Hiromi Shiraishi, researcher at Chuo University, has revealed that, in addition to Japanese Eel (Anguilla japonica), American Eel (Anguilla rostrata) is now widely distributed in processed eel products sold at retail stores across Japan. While eel farming in Japan relies primarily on Japanese Eel, two-thirds of eel consumption in the country depends on imports of live adult eels and eel products, which include several species of anguillid eels. As the world’s largest importer and consumer of eel, Japan is in a position to contribute to the sustainable use of anguillids beyond Japanese eel.