The future of farming lies beneath our feet—within the microscopic world of beneficial microbes. As agriculture faces mounting challenges exacerbated by climate change, innovative solutions are essential. Dr. Brahim Benbrik,.
Humanity is on the verge of breaking the water poverty line – 1,000 m3 of water per year per capita – below which its food security would be seriously compromised..
[divider]File 1[/divider] From Food Insecurity to Food Sovereignty After taking stock of African agriculture, Pierre Jacquemot draws inspiration from agroecology practices to argue that food sovereignty is the royal road.
Access to financing remains a major issue for farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lack of credit availability is considered a central obstacle, if not the most significant one, to the.
Across Africa, from Senegal to Djibouti, the world's longest vegetative wall is being built: the Great Green Wall. It is 7,600 km long. More than just a reforestation program, the.
Throughout the 21st century, agricultural production growth in Africa will rely on significant productivity gains. Plant biotechnology, which speeds up the selection process to obtain plant varieties with desired traits more quickly, will be crucial in achieving this.
IMPOSSIBILITY TO ACHIEVE GROWTH GOALS WITHOUT PLANT BIOTECHNOLOGY
The growth of African agricultural production, necessary to improve the continent's food self-sufficiency rate, will depend on more productive local crops.
According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), root crop production will reach 4.85 million tonnes by 2031, which is 900,000 tonnes more than in 2019-2021.
The planted varieties will need to be able to adapt to climate change and its extremes. Cereal and legume production will also increase by 20% during this period, thanks to high productivity gains of nearly 2% per year. As the African population is expected to double by 2050, productivity gains will need to continue each year.
Without the use of plant biotechnology, the growth targets for these crops are unattainable.
"The plant biotechnologies currently used are part of a range of selection tools developed through innovation, technological advancements, and scientific knowledge," explains Georges Freyssinet, President of the French Association of Plant Biotechnologies (AFBV). "They are complementary and are all used with the idea of creating new plant varieties adapted to climate, resistant to pathogens and pests, more productive, and less dependent on inputs."
Georges Freyssinet, President of the French Association of Plant Biotechnology
Plant Biotechnologies in Plant Breeding
Plant biotechnologies employed in plant breeding can be classified based on the three operational modes identified in the selection process.
In addition to intraspecies crosses, biotechnologies offer three possible approaches:
Panoramic view of a field of cassava, maize, and millet (@ Nieuwenkampr)
Acceleration of Plant Breeding
Except for transgenesis, all the presented biotechnologies only accelerate the selection process to obtain plant varieties with desired traits more quickly. They only exploit the existing genetic heritage of plants in nature.
The authorized and employed plant biotechnologies do not introduce exogenous genes. Moreover, they are used without controversy.
These plant biotechnologies differ in this aspect from genetically modified organisms (GMOs). In the late 20th century, GMOs represented a technological leap as they aimed to expand the genetic variability of cultivated plants by introducing new traits through genes from other species.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, genome editing technologies have opened new possibilities to accelerate the selection process. Will they be more welcomed than transgenic technologies?
By: Noureddine Radouai There is no good time to launch a war. Armed conflicts are always horrible at any time. However, the war in Ukraine broke out in the worst.
Since the 1970s, vegetarians have tried to launch meat substitutes based on vegetable proteins. It is only in the last twenty years that innovative companies have been offering alternative meats.
Between conflict, health crisis and climate change, eradicating hunger is looking like a pipe dream. The multiplication of crises is dramatically increasing the number of hunger-related deaths. This number exceeds.
Coveted or reviled, palm oil represents a quarter of all vegetable oils. The market for this oil must meet strong demand while overcoming numerous obstacles: La Niña, Covid and environmental.
Green hydrogen is on everyone's mind regarding tomorrow's mobility, whether it is road, rail, air or sea travel. This energy is presented as an alternative to fossil fuels. In Europe.
Phosphorus (P) deficiency represents a major mineral nutrient deficiency in agricultural soils affecting crop production. Plants absorb P mainly in the form of orthophosphate ions (i.e., H2PO4- and H2PO4-2); however,.
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The bioeconomy, at its most fundamental level, aims to generate value from photosynthesis. It seeks to transform biomass into a resource for everyday applications in modern society: food production, of course, but also industrial uses or recycling. In this way, agricultural by-products are increasingly being used as renewable raw materials for industrial applications, in particular in the sectors of energy, chemistry and construction.
Finally, the idea of a “bioeconomy” itself, which is currently very in vogue, actually represents a modern take on a long-established dimension of agriculture, one which dates back to the days of rural self-sufficiency. Before the development of trade on a massive scale, local agriculture provided not only food but also the energy required for home life and to drive machinery. Farmers would rear horses for traction and grew cereals to feed them. Agriculture would also provide a significant proportion of the materials required for artisanal or industrial activities. These included flax, hemp, silk and wool for the textile industry and grease or oils for the chemical industry. The same went for various construction materials (wood, straw, etc.).
This new version of an age-old practice establishes, in some ways, a connection between agriculture, forests, the sea and industry: In this way, the European Commission has stated: “the bioeconomy can produce fuel from algae, recycle plastics, transform waste into new furniture or clothing, and develop organic fertilisers from industrial by-products.”
The bioeconomy is a system and a cycle, it is extensive, stretching across different sectors, and the idea of recycling lies at its core. It is also a dynamic approach. It has much in common with the idea of a circular economy. Playing a part in the bioeconomy involves studying chains of value directly or indirectly linked to photosynthesis to increase their effectiveness. This often involves hybridisation and synergies between chains of value, which boils down to trying to make the connections between these chains more fluid. The issue of how activities are organised on a territorial level quickly emerges out of these considerations, which raise many questions about the relationships between different sectors.
In this way, the bioeconomy is a very wide-ranging concept. It provides a model for a sustainable economy by using resources provided by biomass, which is to say matter generated through photosynthesis. It is an intrinsically renewable economy and one which is good for the environment insofar as it is produced in an environmentally friendly way.
This concept of a bio-sourced economy or a bioeconomy is rooted in the economy of living things. As such, it overlaps with many other areas of activity which rely on photosynthesis. Most agricultural production falls into this category. Agriculture is involved in the circular bioeconomy in two opposing directions. On the one hand, it can be used to recycle certain forms of industrial by-products or waste (brewing dregs, skimmings from sugar production, urban sludge, etc.). On the other, industry is able to use agricultural products. This is the case for energy and, in particular, biogas.
Will Agri est un blog consacré à l’agriculture, plus précisément, comme on a coutume de dire aujourd’hui, à l’agriculture écologiquement intensive et inclusive.
Will Agri is a blog dedicated to agriculture, specifically focusing on what is now commonly referred to as ecologically intensive and inclusive agriculture.
