science wire

Press release Agroscope-s 2026-2029 Work Programme addresses the most important challenges facing the Swiss agriculture and food sector, and agricultural practitioners in particular.

Agroscope is launching a field trial with winter wheat bred using a new method. Researchers are hoping to find new disease resistances that are useful for further breeding.

Agroscope has been granted approval by the Federal Office for the Environment for a field trial with spring barley. The focus is on a barley gene that has been disabled by new breeding techniques. The trial, which will be launched in spring 2024 on the Protected Site in Zurich-Reckenholz and will run for three years, aims to determine whether yields can be increased in this manner.

Agroscope and the Federal Office for the Environment have published the first Geochemical Soil Atlas of Switzerland.

Nutrient losses are a key topic for Swiss agriculture. Current Agroscope figures show that nitrogen and phosphorus losses have decreased by around 10 per cent since 2014/2016.

The number of alien species, so-called neobiota, is steadily increasing in Switzerland. Some of these organisms can cause damage in agriculture.

Soils possess great potential for sequestering CO2 from the atmosphere in the form of carbon, and thus for mitigating global warming.

In an in-depth study, Agroscope analysed the possible environmental impacts of implementing the Drinking-Water Initiative. The life-cycle assessment shows that pesticide and nutrient pollution of Swiss water bodies and groundwater could be reduced. In addition, inland biodiversity could be improved slightly.

Every day, we choose the food we eat and influence our health, whether consciously or not. This link between diet and health is a core concern of nutritional scientists, who met in Bern from 7 to 12 September 2019 for the 16th annual conference of the NuGO nutrigenomics association.

Zurich-Reckenholz, 10. Producing food and feed while protecting the climate - is that possible? Yes, and agroforestry is one option, combining agriculture and wood production on the same land.

Switzerland is a grassland. The climate and soil provide ideal conditions for grass production, and thus for sustainable milk and meat production, whilst natural conditions are often unfavourable for arable farming. However, grass production too is facing new challenges. Despite extreme weather such as drought, the agricultural sector aims to produce top-quality forage, so that concentrate use can be reduced as much as possible.

Corinne Boss is the new Head of Agroscope's 'Animals and Products of Animal Origin' Competence Division for Research Technology and Knowledge Transfer; in this capacity, she also becomes a Member of the Agroscope Executive Board. A biologist and official expert in animal health, Corinne Boss currently works at the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture (FOAG) as a Research Scientist in the 'Products of Animal Origin and Livestock Breeding' Division.

Vegetables and fruits are an essential part of a healthy diet - but it is these foods in particular which usually require an above-average use of plant-protection products (PPPs).

Zurich-Reckenholz, 07. Is there a cost-efficient way to curb climate stress caused by land use? Globally, peatlands store twenty per cent of all the carbon lying untapped in the soil - despite the fact that they account for less than three per cent of the Earth's land mass. New findings from Agroscope show that peatland protection is a highly efficient climate-protection measure.

Zurich-Reckenholz, 15. In search of native natural enemies of the exotic spotted-wing drosophila, Agroscope experts have developed a method for detecting its genetic material in the stomachs of predators. The spotted-wing drosophila (SWD or Drosophila suzukii ) is an introduced vinegar fly species that causes serious damage in Swiss crops.

Changins, 14. Agroscope went to Svalbard, Norway, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Global Plant Seed Vault, where over a million seed varieties from all around the world are stored in duplicate.

Zurich-Reckenholz, 05. In June of this year, the Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) was detected for the first time in Switzerland, in the canton of Ticino. Considered to be a quarantine pest, it is subject to obligatory control. Agroscope researchers are testing whether this quarantine pest can be controlled with fungi that are effective against May and June beetles.

Bern, 10. Dr. Alain Gaume will be the new Head of Agroscope's 'Plant Protection' Strategic Research Division.

Bern, 10. Dr. Alain Gaume will be the new Head of Agroscope's 'Plant Protection' Strategic Research Division.

Bern, 09. From never seen before X-ray images of honey bee combs, a research team from Agroscope and the Institute of Bee Health at the University of Bern (both Switzerland) could study how honey is produced. The team used computer tomography to measure sugar concentration in the wax cells, without disturb-ing the sensitive mechanisms of the colony.

Bern, 01. Dr. Nadja El Benni was appointed Head of the 'Competitiveness and System Evaluation' Strategic Research Division by Agroscope Council on 25 August 2016.

Zurich, 29. A good 400 researchers from the future-oriented field of plant breeding will meet this week at the 20th EUCARPIA General Congress in Zurich, organised by Agroscope and ETH Zurich.

Bern, 09. Colonies of the Eastern honey bee, the original host of parasitic Varroa destructor mites, survive infestations that are fatal to Western honey bees.

Zurich, 27. ETH Zurich is appointing Bruno Studer Associate Professor of Molecular Plant Breeding, i.e. joint holder of the newly created Chair for Molecular Plant Breeding.

Bern, 14. An international team led by Agroscope has published a study on the influence of dairy products on inflammatory responses in the human body. The study's conclusion: Despite persistent beliefs to the contrary, dairy products exert a slightly anti-inflammatory effect, and individuals with an impaired metabolism are particularly likely to benefit from consuming products from this food group.

Bern, 27. Agroscope and the private research and technology company CSEM plan to intensify their collaboration.

Zurich, 21. Soil organisms play an important role in arable farming: A functioning underground food web composed of bacteria, fungi and soil fauna can improve plant nutrition, increase agricultural yields and reduce nutrient leaching. An Agroscope study published in the Journal of Applied Ecology shows that soil conservation has numerous benefits.

Zurich, 29. How great an impact does a product have on the environment? As well as helping consumers with their purchasing decisions, product environmental information is meant to encourage a more environmentally friendly production process. Agroscope investigated two of the most important assessment methods currently in use.

Zurich, 07.

Zurich, 24. The number of different habitats is crucial to sustain species diversity in farmland. Organic farms without targeted measures to promote biodiversity, such as the creation of species-rich habitats, only harbour marginally more species than other farms. This is shown by a recently published study in ten European and two African regions.

Bern, 03. Michael Gysi took over Agroscope's reins in January 2013. On 1 January 2014, a new organisation will come into effect.

Zurich, 08. How to improve the realisation and the communication of environmental footprints of food products' A new database providing reliable and up-to-date data for food and beverages life cycle assessments (LCA) has been launched by Agroscope and Quantis.

Zurich/Wädenswil, 02. The fruit disease, fireblight, continues to be a big problem for apple and pear producers.

Zurich, 04. The life cycle inventory database ecoinvent forms the basis for life cycle assessment projects, eco-design, and product environmental information.