Agriculture

Two Department of Plant Sciences faculty members, Valerie Eviner and Mary Cadenasso, contributed to this study in a suprising way that speaks to the collaboration possible at UC Davis. Read their story here.

Louise Ferguson organized a two-day visit to Washington, D.C., for fellows in the Leadership Academy of the American Society of Horticultural Science.

Researchers from the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences attended the 39th biennial Rice Technical Working Group conference, held Feb. 20-23 in Hot Springs, Ark. The conference is hosted by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Farmers from rural Panama are learning a more sustainable way to graze their cattle, and now are sharing that knowledge with other farmers who want to learn, too. But, they view the relationship as an informal exchange, rather than a teacher-student relationship  ̶  and agricultural extension programs can learn from that view, graduate student Marina Vergara found.

Donald William “Bill” Rains passed away surrounded by his family on Dec. 15, 2022.  He was 85.

Emanuel “Manny” Epstein, a long-term resident of Davis and a distinguished professor in the former department of soils and plant nutrition at the University of California, Davis, died on Dec. 4, 2022, in Davis. 

E. Charles Brummer has been honored for bettering alfalfa science and cultivation by the North American Alfalfa Improvement Conference. Brummer, a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences, is the director of the UC Davis Plant Breeding Center and involved in researching a wide range of crops for forage, grain and fiber.

Researchers in the Department of Plant Sciences have found a way to reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizers needed to grow cereal crops such as rice. The discovery could save farmers in the United States billions of dollars annually in fertilizer costs while also benefiting the environment.

The research comes out of the lab of Eduardo Blumwald, a distinguished professor of plant sciences, who has found a new pathway for cereals to capture the nitrogen they need to grow.

Strawberry losses from Fusarium wilt could become less of a threat after researchers at the University of California, Davis, discovered genes that are resistant to the deadly soilborne disease.

A team of scientists from University of California, Davis, have identified a new gene variant in wheat that can increase the amount of the grain produced, new research published in the journal PLOS Genetics finds.

Wheat is a staple of food diets worldwide and the gene discovery could allow farmers to grow more food without increasing land use. Increased yield could also lower consumer prices, making the crop more accessible.