New research supported by the Horticulture Innovation Lab at UC Davis aims to help farmers in Cambodia better integrate growing vegetables, raising livestock and maintaining healthy soil — all in the same place. “By understanding the interactions between horticulture and livestock systems, we can help farmers make better use of agricultural inputs such as fertilizer…
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The bioinformatics company Illumina has donated a $1 million state-of the-art DNA sequencer to a global plant-breeding effort to fight malnutrition and poverty in Africa by improving the continent’s traditional crops. The UC Davis Plant Breeding Academy is partnering with the African Orphan Crop Consortium, which is working to map and make public the genomes…
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Jorge Dubcovsky, a world-renowned wheat breeder and geneticist, says he is not a romantic when it comes to the visual appeal of a wheat field, not even when it is bathed in the golden light of a California sunset. “You know those old paintings that show these beautiful wheat fields with waving spikes? Wheat fields are…
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How do you see dryness? Solar drying is a simple way for smallholder farmers to preserve their harvest, but knowing when food is dry enough to store is complex. UC Davis researchers invented a low-cost, easy-to-use tool that farmers can use to measure food dryness, called the DryCardTM. In developing countries, mold growth on dried…
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Increasing wheat yield rapidly enough to meet population growth has been a challenge for wheat breeders. An international research project, headed by plant geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky, professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis, is using new technology to identify the wheat genes that impact yield. “Grain yield is one of the most…
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UC Davis is partnering in a global plant-breeding consortium fighting malnutrition and poverty in Africa by improving the continent’s traditional crops. The African Orphan Crop Consortium — conceived by Howard Shapiro, a senior fellow at UC Davis and the chief agricultural officer at Mars Inc. — is making great strides in its ambitious attempt to…
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By Julia Ann Easley, July 18, 2016 As the summer sun warmed her, student Hanna Morris stood up and surveyed row upon row of vegetables ripe for harvest near the UC Davis Student Farm. The spring plant sciences course on plant growth and care had ended, and this two-acre lab had been largely abandoned by…
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UC Davis is partnering in a global plant-breeding consortium that is fighting malnutrition and poverty in Africa by improving the traditional crops of the continent. By Diane Nelson, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, February 24, 2016 UC Davis is partnering in a global plant-breeding consortium that is fighting malnutrition and poverty…
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The launch of a $17 million collaborative project linking UC Davis and Pakistan’s leading agricultural university was celebrated today at UC Davis, which will receive $10 million of the funds. The new U.S.–Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Agriculture and Food Security, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, will make it possible for…
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UC Davis gets into the dirt for World Food Day, on Friday (Oct. 16). First, there’s a talk and panel discussion on “Healthy Soils for a Healthy Life.” The next program will be in the soil, or, rather, in a new garden where the Horticulture Innovation Lab is demonstrating the technologies that it is cultivating…
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