A study published by Associate Professor Yanfei Li’s team from Hunan Agricultural University in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering provides an innovative solution to this challenge (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2025613).

Shuai Feng and Chunling Chen’s team from Shenyang Agricultural University, have developed a novel vegetation index—the Rice Blast Index (RBI)—using drone-based hyperspectral remote sensing technology, offering a solution to this challenge. The study has been published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024576).

A study led by Professor Hui Liu from Central South University, published in Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024599), introduces a hybrid deep learning model named “ICEEMDAN-LZC-BVMD-SSA-DELM”, which significantly enhances the prediction accuracy of soybean futures prices. By integrating multi-stage data preprocessing and intelligent optimization algorithms, the model addresses limitations of traditional methods in noise handling, parameter tuning, and generalization capabilities, offering new insights for risk management in agricultural financial markets.

Food scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign found the optimal conditions for fermenting five types of legume pulses, which not only extended the shelf lives of the raw foods but increased their antioxidant and antidiabetic properties. The research holds potential for improving the functional properties of health-promoting foods and the sustainability of plant-based diets to address global problems with food insecurity.

A new study from Waseda University reveals that the motor protein myosin XI is essential for helping plants absorb boron under nutrient-deficient conditions. Researchers found that myosin XI maintains the correct positioning of the boric acid channel AtNIP5;1 in root cells by supporting endocytosis. Without myosin XI, plants fail to localize this channel properly, leading to poor boron uptake and stunted growth. The findings could inform strategies to improve crop resilience in boron-deficient soils.

For the first time, researchers have demonstrated in an intact plant a long-contested process that allows some plants to rebound from extended drought. Scientists say understanding this trait could improve agricultural productivity and food security.

Findings from a new archaeological survey challenge long-held assumptions that intensive agriculture in North America was limited to centralized societies or favorable environments. The findings reveal an extensive precolonial agricultural landscape in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, suggesting Indigenous American communities cultivated maize intensively between 1000 and 1600 CE, despite a cold climate and marginal growing conditions. Indigenous American communities across what is now the United States increasingly relied on intensive maize cultivation, an agricultural shift that accompanied profound social and environmental transformations. Yet in marginal regions like northern Michigan – characterized by dense forests, a cold climate, and a short growing season – the scale of maize cultivation and the level of agricultural intensification remains uncertain, especially given the abundance of wild rice. Direct evidence of precolonial intensive agriculture across much of the eastern United States is exceedingly rare because most indigenous agricultural landscapes have been irreversibly altered by colonial European and American plowing, settlement, and industrial activities. However, the Sixty Islands archaeological site in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula preserves rare evidence of complex precolonial raised, ridged agricultural fields and maize cultivation. According to the authors, the Sixty Islands site stands as the only known preserved precolonial field site in Michigan, though it is currently under threat from proposed mining activities.

 

To better understand the scope and nature of these ancestral agricultural practices, Madeleine McLeester and colleagues conducted drone-based lidar surveys and excavations at the Sixty Islands site. The findings reveal a remarkably well-preserved and expansive system of raised garden beds spanning over 300 hectares, representing the most extensive known example of ancestral Native American agriculture in the eastern United States. Radiocarbon dates indicate that the ridged fields were actively used between 1000 and 1600 CE, overlapping with the Little Ice Age – a period marked by cooler temperatures. Despite the harsh climate, limited labor pools, and the presence of wild alternative food staples, ancestral farmers cultivated maize and other crops with notable success. Moreover, McLeester et al. uncovered evidence of advanced soil management, including the incorporation of composted domestic refuse and nutrient-rich wetland soils to enhance fertility. In addition to agricultural structures, the survey also revealed a host of associated archaeological features, including burial mounds, ceremonial earthworks, and habitation sites, suggesting that farming was well integrated into the broader cultural landscape. Contrary to long-standing assumptions that intensive agriculture is tied to centralized political power and large populations, the authors show that this complex system was created by small-scale, egalitarian communities.