Agriculture

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.

Wheat products account for roughly 20% of what people eat every day around the globe. As climate changes, wheat crops must adapt to new weather patterns to keep up with demand. 

The University of California, Davis, is leading a five-year, $15 million research project to accelerate wheat breeding to meet those new climate realities, as well as to train a new generation of plant breeders. 

A team of researchers from University of California, Davis, has been awarded a $6.5 million grant to use 3-D modeling, artificial intelligence and crop genetics to develop a tool to improve and accelerate breeding pipelines for legumes and sorghum.

Funding for the project, known as GEMINI*, comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

UC Davis played a key role in international research that has decoded the shea tree genome, potentially paving a way for breeding that could help speed up production of the African crop that serves as a vital nutritional resource, cosmetic additive and cocoa substitute.  

The U.S. Agency for International Development will provide a base $15 million investment over the next five years, with up to $34.5 million total funding possible, to support a global research program led by the University of California, Davis, that advances fruit and vegetable production, handling, and consumption. 

Pima cotton is the predominant variety of cotton grown in California. It’s ideal for making premium fabrics for clothing and bed sheets. But Fusarium wilt disease, caused by a soil-borne fungus, can devastate a cotton crop. It’s responsible for crop losses in several production regions in the U.S. and worldwide. 

A short documentary about agricultural innovations supported by University of California, Davis, researchers in Cambodia has picked up three awards at the 42nd Annual Telly Awards. It was a collaborative production between the Horticulture Innovation Lab, the Office of Strategic Communications and Max Video Productions in 2019.

Historically, chickens were not a rare sight on farms, where they contributed to soil fertility as they freely pecked and scratched around vegetable gardens and crop land. Now, researchers from the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis and UC Cooperative Extension specialists have launched a research project to quantify the potential for chickens to be a part of safe and sustainable commercial organic vegetable production. 

Associate Professor Tom Buckley and Omeed Momeni, an associate professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Davis, have received a Seeding Solutions grant for $650,000 rom the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, or FFAR, to develop a low-cost, compact and non-invasive sensor that w

The newest greenhouse on campus doesn’t look like a greenhouse at all. It’s a 40-foot-long shipping container filled with cutting-edge, high-tech equipment that will help UC Davis usher in a new frontier in hydroponic agriculture.

The National Institute for Food and Agriculture, or NIFA, has awarded Amélie Gaudin, associate professor in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis, an Agricultural Systems Research grant totalling $500,000. 

Gaudin was one of 12 researchers from across the country to receive the grant, which funds projects developing innovative and sustainable solutions to problems facing agriculture and is part of the larger Agriculture and Food Research Initiative . 

The Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research, or FFAR, has awarded a Seeding Solutions grant to the University of California, Davis to study how the microbial community hosted by the Sierra Mixe corn variety provides atmospheric nitrogen to the plant. Seeding Solutions grants are awarded annually in six different challenge groups recognized by the FFAR, with this one falling under “Next Generation Crops.” The grant was matched by Benson Hill for a total investment of $1,855,162