Drought Resistance Hormone Discovered in Plants

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Researchers at the RIKEN Centre of Sustainable Resource Science (CSRS) in Japan have discovered a hormone linked to the stimulation of drought-resistant characteristics in plants. Published in the journal Nature earlier this month, the study shows how the peptide CLE25 is synthesised in the roots of plants when under stress due to a lack of…
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The perfect storm – how drought is hitting crops hard

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Last year, one of the strongest El Niño events ever recorded caused significant changes to weather patterns around the world. Southern and Eastern Africa were hit particularly hard and suffered some of the worst drought conditions for decades, with as little as a quarter of the expected rainfall in the last few months of the…
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Update: Plant Health News (04 May 16)

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Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including whiteflies affecting melon in Honduras, a new irrigation project in Shire Valley, Malawi and rain and Citrus Greening affecting lime in Mexico. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
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Update: Plant Health News (20 Apr 16)

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Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the government in Nigeria introducing soil test kits to farmers, drought hitting bananas in Nicaragua and community managed irrigation schemes in Ethiopia to help ensure food security. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
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Update: Plant Health News (20 Jan 16)

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Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including the wild bananas that could help overcome TR4 Panama disease, the effect of El Niño on potato crops in Peru and the farmers in Tanzania who are being urged to grown drought resistant crops. Click on the link to read more of the…
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Update: Plant Health News (11 Feb 15)

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Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including Striga resistant maize yielding well in Kenya, scientists in the UK  finding a potential way to control leaf blotch disease in wheat and a grant under the Competitive African Rice Initiative (CARI) to help small scale rice producers by creating better linkages in…
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Update: Plant Health News (15 Jan 15)

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Here’s a taste of some of the latest stories about plant health, including Crops in Brazil still suffering after last year’s drought, the Malawi farmers advised to diversify their crops and the gene that affects nitrogen fixation and yield of soybean. Click on the link to read more of the latest plant health news!
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Ghanaian droughts foreseen and Nepali floods that have been

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Article by Sebastian Avery. Hope leaves Ghanaian farmers as another expected late rainfall leads to the possibility of drought. We can only pray that history does not repeat itself. As some of you may know 2007 was disastrous for Ghanaian farmers especially those living in the White Volta Basin. This is because a very similar…
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Floods in Haiti and India devastate crops

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Hurricane Sandy has left fields in the south of Haiti under water, causing crop losses of up to 40%. This follows damage from a drought and the effects of Hurricane Isaac earlier this year. Meanwhile, 9000 miles away in Andhra Pradesh, India, rice farmers are also suffering with their crops waist-deep in floodwater following several…
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US drought could spark a global food crisis

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The US is currently facing its most severe drought of the past 50 years, raising questions about the implications for global food security. The US is a major producer of grain, including maize and soybean, which have both been adversely affected by the drought, causing a knock-on effect for the global market. The predicted reduction…
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