Agricultural Research Service  (ARS) scientists have developed an efficient and cost-effective method to speed up the breeding of scab-resistant barley cultivars, thus improving crop quality for small-grain breeders in the Northern Plains.

Microscopic nematode worms can be a potent organic insecticide, killing crop-raiding bugs without harming plants or beneficial insects and without environmental side effects of chemical. The problem is that when the worms are mass-bred for agricultural purposes, they tend to, as Byron Adams says, "wimp out," and are not as deadly as their cousins that grow in the wild.

Provides insights into evolution, genetics

Paris, France -- The International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) released publicly today its Short-Term Fertilizer Outlook 2009-2010. The Association is concerned with the current predominance of nitrogen in fertilization practices and the potential yield impact of currently low application rates for phosphorus and potassium.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists have launched a preemptive strike to combat the false codling moth, a major pest in its native Africa.

Nitrogen-use efficiency, the next green revolution

Plants use specialized signals, such as plant hormones, to sense difficult times and adapt to stressful conditions to enhance survival. One plant hormone, abscisic acid (ABA), coordinates responses to stressors such as drought and salinity. ABA regulates various physiological processes such as stomatal closure, bud dormancy and seed germination.

The fungus Ascochyta rabiei threatens chickpea crops the world over. But now this blight-causing pathogen could meet its match in Aureobasidium pullulans, a rival fungus that Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are investigating as a biocontrol agent.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and cooperators have collected 46 new populations of switchgrass in Florida, adding valuable new accessions to the germplasm collection of this potential bioenergy crop.

Origin Agritech Ltd., China’s third- biggest seed producer, more than doubled in Nasdaq trading after the company won approval to sell the nation’s first genetically modified corn seed.