Imtiyaz Khanday, an assistant professor in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, is co-leading an international team that has propagated a commercial hybrid rice strain as a clone through seeds with 95 percent efficiency. The method that led to this breakthrough could lower the cost of hybrid rice seed, making high-yielding, disease-resistant rice strains available to low-income farmers worldwide.
Louise Ferguson and fellow editors published The Fig: Botany, Production and Uses, a comprehensive book on fig cultivation, history, and market growth. It covers everything from fig varieties to postharvest techniques, boosting sector growth.
UC Davis researchers, led by Eduardo Blumwald, discovered a way to reduce nitrogen fertilizer use in cereal crops like rice by enhancing natural nitrogen fixation. This could save farmers billions and reduce environmental harm.