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Agriculture is the cultivation of plants, animals, and some other organisms, such as fungi, for the production of food, fibre, fuel, and medicines used by society.
The genetic ancestry of domesticated barley has been mapped at high resolution, with each genome segment traced to its wild origins and the date estimated for when it entered the domesticated lineage. The findings reveal a mosaic of contributions from across western and central Asia, shaped by early cultivation and later gene flow.
A quasi-experimental evaluation of the world’s largest agroecology programme finds that microbe-enhancing farming practices generate equivalent yields and higher profits than chemical-based farming, while also better supporting functionally diverse bird communities.
This paper analyzes global trends in “socioeconomic farm size.” It shows that the average size rose 14% (2000-2020) and may triple by 2100, underscoring the urgent need for tailored policies to balance sustainability, equity, and food security.
Renewable-fuelled plant factories (RFPFs) offer great promise for resilient food production. This study presents a multidimensional geospatial analysis to devise RFPF deployment schemes that aim to meet the population’s dietary vegetable demand in China’s 369 city-level regions.
Research on sustainable diets has primarily focused on human and planetary health, neglecting workers in food value chains. This study quantifies the risk of forced labour embedded in five different diets in the USA, underscoring the need to integrate such risk in sustainable diet transition efforts.
Food is increasingly framed as a security issue — not just as an allusion to external shocks that may put it at risk, but also as a reflection of a political agenda that prioritizes increased agricultural output rather than the systemic changes needed to create more just and sustainable food futures. European food policy must align with scientific evidence, sustainability commitments and democratic principles to create true food security.
The genetic ancestry of domesticated barley has been mapped at high resolution, with each genome segment traced to its wild origins and the date estimated for when it entered the domesticated lineage. The findings reveal a mosaic of contributions from across western and central Asia, shaped by early cultivation and later gene flow.
Causal approaches employed at the scale of commercial agriculture are required to build high-quality evidence that climate-smart agricultural interventions result in real emissions reductions and removals. Such project-scale empirical data are additionally required to demonstrate and advance the viability of process-based models and digital measurement, reporting and verification as tools to scale soil carbon accounting.
Intercropping is an agricultural practice that can enhance soil quality, total yield and biodiversity. Modern advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are helping this traditional approach to overcome some of its practical challenges.
