news

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 14.10.2021

Sustainable farming: There’s no one solution
Sustainable agriculture will not be achieved by one universal solution. A meta-analysis by the University of Basel shows that the current focus on no-till farming does not achieve the desired results. A sustainable system of agriculture must be designed for local needs and in dialog with local farmers.

Economics / Business - Agronomy / Food Science - 11.10.2021

An efficient and low-cost approach to detecting food fraud
Fraudulent practices in food production, especially false claims of geographical origin, cause billions of dollars in economic damage every year. Botanists at the University of Basel have now developed a model that can be used to determine the origin of food in an efficient and low-cost manner. Strawberries from Switzerland or olive oil from Italy can be sold at much higher prices than the same products from other countries.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 21.09.2021

Canada’s nitrogen footprint shows regional variation
New accounting of national nitrogen emissions shows impacts of provincial wastewater treatment, agriculture, and use of fossil fuels Reactive nitrogen emissions contribute to greenhouse gases, as well as air and water pollution. For the first time, researchers from McGill University have calculated Canada's nitrogen footprint (akin to a carbon footprint) - at both national and provincial levels.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 21.09.2021

Canada’s nitrogen footprint shows great regional variation
New accounting of national nitrogen emissions shows impacts of provincial wastewater treatment, agriculture, and use of fossil fuels Reactive nitrogen emissions contribute to greenhouse gases, as well as air and water pollution. For the first time, researchers from McGill University have calculated Canada's nitrogen footprint (akin to a carbon footprint) - at both national and provincial levels.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 16.09.2021

Changing diets to tackle climate change ’unattainable’ for minority groups
Making food more affordable for ethnic minority groups is crucial to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from our diets, scientists have suggested. According to a new study of food habits in the US, a healthy diet with lower environmental impacts is achievable for a large portion of the population. But it is unaffordable for up to 38% of Black and Hispanic individuals in the lowest income and education groups, twice the percentage of white individuals in the same group.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 08.09.2021

Hand pollination of crops is of major importance
Research team at the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim analyses use in worldwide commercial cultivation Pollinators - such as bees, butterflies and birds - are essential for agricultural production. However, natural pollination can also fail or be insufficient, which can lead to lower yields and poorer quality.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 07.09.2021

Urgent need for new approach to combat global grassland degradation
Global grasslands are a source of biodiversity and provide a host of benefits to humans, including food production, water supply, and carbon storage. But their future looks bleak without action to halt their degradation and promote their restoration, according to the authors of a new paper published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment .

Agronomy / Food Science - Life Sciences - 01.09.2021

Which potatoes thrive despite insufficient phosphorus?
Göttingen University research team analyses different cultivars of tuber Phosphorus is an essential plant nutrient that is becoming increasingly scarce around the world. This means the fertiliser has to be used as efficiently as possible and any loss of nutrients due to leaching and erosion must be minimised.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 24.08.2021

Bird communities threatened by urbanization
Research team led by Göttingen University investigates farmland birds in an Indian megacity Urbanization is one of the most drastic forms of land-use change, and its negative consequences on biodiversity have been studied extensively in temperate countries such as Germany. However, less research has been conducted in tropical regions from the Global South, where most of the ongoing and future urbanization hotspots are located, and little is known about its effects on agricultural biodiversity and associated ecosystems.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 04.08.2021

Promoting biodiversity-friendly landscapes - beyond organic farming
Research team led by the University of Göttingen calls for paradigm shift Is organic farming the only alternative to conventional agriculture to promote biodiversity in agricultural landscapes? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen questions this.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 30.07.2021

New Oxford University research will help optimize environmentally friendly ways of fertilising plants
New research from the University of Oxford's Departments of Plant Sciences and Engineering, as well as collaborators at VU Amsterdam, uses both mathematical modelling and experimental validation to study the metabolic processes controlling how bacteria provide ammonia to legumes, which is vastly important for sustainable agriculture Ammonia-based fertiliser is commonly used in industrial agriculture, and since the early 20 th  C.

Agronomy / Food Science - Life Sciences - 23.07.2021

Blushing plants reveal when fungi are growing in their roots
Scientists have created plants whose cells and tissues 'blush' with beetroot pigments when they are colonised by fungi that help them take up nutrients from the soil. We can now follow how the relationship between the fungi and plant root develops, in real-time, from the moment they come into contact.

Life Sciences - Agronomy / Food Science - 28.06.2021

Optimising nature
Today, molecular genetic methods can be used to breed sustainable crops - such as multinutrient rice. Researchers are calling for the risk of new plant varieties to be assessed not on the basis of the breeding method, but on the basis of their characteristics. When it comes to food, many people yearn for nature in its most pristine state.

Agronomy / Food Science - Environment - 24.06.2021

Nanotech and AI could hold key to unlocking global food security challenge
'Precision agriculture' where farmers respond in real time to changes in crop growth using nanotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI) could offer a practical solution to the challenges threatening global food security, a new study reveals. Climate change, increasing populations, competing demands on land for production of biofuels and declining soil quality mean it is becoming increasingly difficult to feed the world's populations.

Agronomy / Food Science - Environment - 24.06.2021

Mixed cultures for a greater yield
What holds true for meadows would seem to apply to arable land, too: mixed cultures are more fruitful than monocultures. This was the outcome of an ETH Zurich research project led by Christian Schöb. Monocultures dominate arable land today, with vast areas given over to single elite varieties that promise a high yield.

Life Sciences - Agronomy / Food Science - 21.06.2021

A check-up for the ground
Intense agricultural use is causing soil degradation in many areas. Now researchers at ETH Zurich have developed a rapid test for measuring soil quality on site. This should allow farmers to monitor the health of their land themselves in the future. Many of us pay hardly any attention to the ground and simply stride across it unseeing.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 16.06.2021

Most rivers run dry - now and then
A new study led by researchers from McGill University and INRAE found that between 51-60% of the 64 million kilometres of rivers and streams on Earth that they investigated stop flowing periodically, or run dry for part of the year. It is the first-ever empirically grounded effort to quantify the global distribution of non-perennial rivers and streams.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 01.06.2021

The waters of the Zambezi: time to act
The Zambezi River Basin in southern Africa is a high-quality waterscape. But current rapid development threatens the waters of the Zambezi, particularly its tributaries. The challenge will be to ensure that mitigation measures keep up with population and economic growth to avoid degradation of water quality degradation.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 26.05.2021

Atmospheric inputs of nutrients to soil to decrease in the future
The shift from fossil to renewable energy sources is essential for climate mitigation but will also significantly reduce the atmospheric input of the nutrients sulphur and selenium into soils. Sustainable solutions are therefore needed to supply intensively used agricultural soils with sufficient nutrients and to ensure a safe and healthy diet for the world's population.

Agronomy / Food Science - History / Archeology - 18.05.2021

Swiss farmers contributed to the domestication of the opium poppy
Fields of opium poppies once bloomed where the Zurich Opera House underground garage now stands. Through a new analysis of archaeological seeds, researchers at the University of Basel have been able to bolster the hypothesis that prehistoric farmers throughout the Alps participated in domesticating the opium poppy.