A student at Australia’s Swinburne University last week received the James Dyson Award for a device he says is capable of harvesting moisture from the air for use in irrigation, even in the world’s driest places.

Developed by Edward Linnacre, the Airdrop is a wind- or solar-powered device that sucks air underground (more…)

The planting of so-called “fertilizer trees,” indigenous tree species that draw nitrogen from the air and replenish the soil, has significantly improved the crop yields in five African nations over the last two decades, researchers say.

Since the 1980s, when the World Agroforestry (more…)

A new study says the world’s major river systems contain more than enough water to meet global food production needs in the 21st century.

Following a five-year study of 10 river basins — including the Nile, Ganges, Andes, Yellow, and Niger — scientists with the Consultative Group on (more…)

As global agricultural companies turn to Africa, a U.S. firm is planning a massive oil palm plantation in Cameroon that it says will benefit local villagers. But critics argue that the project would destroy some of the key remaining forests in the West African nation and threaten species-rich reserves. (more…)

Measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from croplands should take into account the crops themselves. That’s the conclusion of a study in the Sept.-Oct. issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality, which examined the impact of farm practices such as tillage on the greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide. Expressing (more…)

Breeding crops with deeper roots could significantly reduce atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide and make crops more drought resistant, according to a study by a researcher at the University of Manchester.

Reporting in the journal, Annals of Botany, professor (more…)

Dow Chemical is planning construction of a bioplastics plant in Brazil that the company says will produce plastic from sugarcane in volumes competitive with plastics generated from petroleum.

Later this year Dow, in a partnership with the Japanese firm Mitsui & Co., will start building a plant (more…)

A new report finds that the area of sustainably managed forest in the world’s tropical regions increased from 36 million hectares (89 million acres) to 53 million hectares from 2005 to 2010, but that 90 percent of the planet’s tropical forests remain either poorly managed or not managed at all. (more…)

Rising global temperatures have reduced yields of wheat and corn in some countries, a decline that probably has contributed to the rise in agricultural commodity prices in recent years, according to a study in the journal Science.

Researchers from Stanford and Columbia (more…)

It has become the hottest environmental debate in Brazil, one that was on the agenda of the presidential candidates during last year’s campaign.

A proposed overhaul of Brazil’s legislation that requires landowners to keep 80 per cent of the forest coverage on their land is about to get re-written due (more…)