Safeguarding soybeans: Preserving genetic diversity for a resilient future
Inside a large walk-in refrigerator on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, thousands of envelopes hold the fate of global food security, not to mention a significant portion of the world’s economy.
Report: ‘Future-proofing’ crops will require urgent, consistent effort
In a review in The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Stephen Long, a professor of crop sciences and of plant biology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, describes research efforts to “future-proof” the crops that are essential to feeding a hungry world in a changing climate.
Illinois study: Novel AI methodology improves gully erosion prediction and interpretation
Gully erosion is the most severe form of soil erosion, and it can seriously impact agricultural fields, contributing to sediment loss and nutrient runoff into waterways. Gullies can be triggered suddenly by a single heavy rainfall event, creating deep channels that are difficult to rehabilitate even with heavy machinery. Accurately predicting where gully erosion is likely to occur allows agricultural producers and land managers to target their conservation efforts more effectively.
University of Illinois Agronomy Days series returns to ACES
Summer is back, which means the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will return with its Agronomy Days
Breaking the phenotype bottleneck with autonomous robots
Determining, analyzing, or predicting how crops will grow in the field takes time and labor. The interactions between genetics, environment and agricultural practices are challenging to measure. The newly published results of a five-year study on maize (or corn) demonstrate that autonomous ground robots can accurately and reliably capture this information.
Illinois research shows benefits of prairie grass for sustainable aviation fuel
Switchgrass has gripped Midwestern soils for millions of years, but soon, the earthbound prairie grass could fly.
Illinois leads most rigorous agricultural greenhouse gas emissions study to date
Farmers apply nitrogen fertilizers to crops to boost yields, feeding more people and livestock. But when there’s more fertilizer than the crop can take up, some of the excess can be converted into gaseous forms, including nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that traps nearly 300 times as much heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. About 70% of human-caused nitrous oxide comes from agricultural soils, so it’s vital to find ways to curb those emissions.
What effect will tariffs have on consumers, farmers?
Jonathan W. Coppess, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, spoke with Illinois News Bureau business and law editor Phil Ciciora about the potential effects of tariffs.
What are tariffs likely to mean to the average U.S. household, and when will consumers start to notice the effects?