news 2024

A new study shows that increasing plant diversity in agriculture can be used to improve the carbon sequestration potential of agricultural soils. As the agricultural sector strives to reduce its carbon footprint, promoting biodiversity in agricultural practices could be the key to more sustainable and climate-friendly food production systems.

Biologists who worked for several years at the University of Neuchâtel report on induced plant resistance in a special multimedia dossier published today in the prestigious journal Frontiers in Science . The method is presented as a kind of vaccination, making it possible to reduce dependence on pesticides not only to combat crop diseases and pests, but also to ensure healthier, more sustainable harvests.

Its preservation benefits many others: the umbrella species. This is the role played by the white-backed woodpecker for beetles that feed on dead wood. This rare bird is therefore an indirect indicator of biodiversity, as researchers at BFH-HAFL have shown. Deciduous or mixed forests with lots of dead wood - this is the preferred habitat of the White-backed Woodpecker.

ETH spin-off Terensis is able to forecast the harvest yield and climate risks such as droughts and frost with the help of satellites.

Food, feed, fiber, and bioenergy: The demand for agricultural raw materials is rising. How can additional cultivation areas be reconciled with nature conservation? Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a land-use model that provides answers. By 2030, global cultivation areas are expected to expand by 3.6 percent, increasing global agricultural production by two percent.

In wealthier countries with greater gender equality, men are more likely to eat meat more frequently than women, a new study reveals. The research team, led by the University of Zurich, examined the meat consumption patterns of more than 20,000 people from 23 countries. The findings could inform strategies for promoting plant-based and cultured meat as viable alternatives to traditional meat consumption.

Researchers at ETH Zurich have teamed up with the food industry to produce a whole-fruit variety of chocolate. This helps increase the value creation of cocoa farming - and is healthier. For many people, chocolate is a sweet delight: its main components are cocoa mass and cocoa butter, which are extracted from the cocoa fruit.

Like forests, grassland provides numerous ecological, economic and social benefits. Researchers in the Swiss canton of Solothurn have investigated ways to maintain and improve these benefits. Grass, clover and herbs are the foundation of Swiss agriculture: two-thirds of Switzerland's agricultural land is grassland, much of which is barely suitable for arable farming.

When crops grow in arsenic-contaminated soil, this toxic element accumulates in the food chain. A study involving the University of Basel has now discovered a mechanism used by corn plants to reduce arsenic uptake: the key factor is a special substance released into the soil by the roots. Arsenic is a toxic metalloid of natural origin.

Agroscope has been granted approval by the Federal Office for the Environment for a field trial with spring barley. The focus is on a barley gene that has been disabled by new breeding techniques. The trial, which will be launched in spring 2024 on the Protected Site in Zurich-Reckenholz and will run for three years, aims to determine whether yields can be increased in this manner.