Aquabench Launches Digital Platform for Sorting Chilean Salmon Data
Chile‑based aquaculture consultancy Aquabench has unveiled Salmobench Digital, a web‑based platform that transforms its traditional PDF and Excel reports into interactive dashboards. The tool offers filtering, visualization, and direct data export, covering production cycles from the saltwater grow‑out phase for salmon, trout and coho. Seventeen salmon producers currently contribute data, while the platform’s anonymized architecture protects competitive information and complies with antitrust regulations. A separate Industry Information module provides 20 data categories for suppliers, banks and other stakeholders.
India’s Wheat Procurement Plummets 40% Due to Delayed Start in Madhya Pradesh
India’s wheat procurement for the 2026‑27 Rabi season is down 40% year‑on‑year, with total purchases at 5.134 million tonnes versus 8.357 million tonnes last year. Quality‑norm relaxations in Punjab and Haryana have already boosted purchases in those states, while Madhya Pradesh’s procurement...
Exclusive: David Protein Scales Alt-Fat EPG Capacity, Eyes CPG Deals as CEO Targets $300m Revenues in 2026
David Protein, founded by RXBAR creator Peter Rahal, has quintupled production of its low‑calorie fat replacer EPG after acquiring Epogee. The company aims to generate more than $300 million in revenue by 2026 and is courting major CPG partners while expanding...
Robotic Security Dogs Now on the Job to Protect Crops
Bayer has rolled out Asylon’s DroneDog robotic security dogs across its 8,000‑acre Hawaiian operations, supplementing human patrols with AI‑driven surveillance. The autonomous units carry thermal and electro‑optical cameras with 20× zoom, cloud‑linked AI classifiers, and a rapid‑recharge DogHouse. Real‑time video...
Food Waste Began to Decline 4 Years After the Pandemic, Refed Finds
The Refed U.S. Food Waste Report shows surplus food generation fell 2.2% in 2024 to about 70 million tons, ending a post‑pandemic rise. Residential waste contributed a 950,000‑ton reduction, translating to a 3.7% drop in per‑capita waste. Funding for waste‑reduction solutions grew...
"This Is a Practical Solution to a Big Pain Point in Many Vertical Farms"
SpectraGrow and Harvest Today unveiled the SLIM Lift System, a retractable LED lighting solution for high‑density vertical farms. The motorized lift retracts linear LED bars to the ceiling, clearing space for planting, harvesting and maintenance, and can support up to...
Malaysia: Hydroponics Helps to Sustain Vegetables Amidst Hot Spell
A hydroponic farming initiative in Padang Raja, Malaysia, installed tube wells costing about RM2,000 (≈$440) to secure water during the current hot spell. The system delivers a continuous 24‑hour water flow, allowing mini cucumbers to mature in just three weeks...
USDA Freezes Vertical Farming Loans over Soaring Defaults
The USDA’s Rural Business‑Cooperative Service has extended its freeze on federal loan guarantees for vertical farms and other controlled environment agriculture (CEA) projects through Dec. 31, 2026. A portfolio review showed 40% of CEA loans are delinquent, prompting concerns over underwriting quality...
Laying the Groundwork for an India-Sweden Medicinal Plant Collaboration
A March meeting at Christ University in Bengaluru brought together Indian academic and agricultural stakeholders with Sweden’s Swedish Herbal Institute (SHI) to launch a collaborative effort on medicinal‑plant cultivation. The partnership will train Indian farmers in Good Agricultural and Collection...
The DIY Soil Mixture For A Better Berry Harvest
Home gardeners can boost berry yields by mixing equal parts peat moss, composted cow manure, and pine bark mulch. This DIY blend balances water retention, drainage, nutrients, and acidity, creating ideal conditions for shallow‑rooted berries like blueberries and strawberries. After...
Can Africa Avoid Asia's Palm Oil Pitfalls?
African nations are seeking to slash palm‑oil imports—about half of current consumption—by expanding domestic production. Smallholders, who grow roughly 70% of the continent’s oil palm, average six tonnes per hectare, far below the 20‑plus tonnes achieved on Asian commercial estates....
How a UNILAG Student Won Red Bull Basement with a Livestock Tracker that Detects Illness Early
Jesutofunmi Oniyide, a final‑year Mechatronics student at UNILAG, won the Red Bull Basement Nigeria 2024 competition out of more than 3,000 entrants with his Vital‑Tag, an IoT collar that monitors livestock temperature, heart rate, and jaw movement. The device transmits...
Greenhouse Modernization and Emission Reduction in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan’s Turkestan region, which supplies 72% of the nation’s greenhouse vegetables, is shifting away from coal heating toward cleaner energy and air‑filtration systems. The area hosts 3,366 greenhouse units across 1,006.7 ha, with 1,223 units (551.8 ha) still coal‑fired. Filtration upgrades cost...
Nunhems Invests €40 Million in Next Generation Seed Processing facilitieS
BASF’s vegetable‑seed division, Nunhems, announced a €40 million (≈$44 million) investment to modernize and expand its seed‑processing hub in Nunhem, the Netherlands. Construction will start in Q2 2026 and finish by the end of 2028, adding roughly 6,000 m² to the existing 20,000 m² footprint....
Maize Prices Crash Below MSP in Telangana; Farmers Want State Govt to Procure Produce
Maize prices in Telangana have fallen to ₹1,600‑₹1,800 per quintal, well under the government‑set minimum support price (MSP) of ₹2,400. Farmers allege a loss of roughly ₹641 per quintal and are demanding that the state open procurement centres to buy...
Is Coffee Ready for the EUDR?
The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) will take effect on 30 December 2026, forcing coffee exporters to prove that their beans are free of recent deforestation. Over the past two years, the sector has accelerated geo‑referencing, farm mapping and traceability investments, with Rainforest...
Australia Secures Fertiliser From Indonesia to Meet Crop Needs
Australia will buy 250,000 tonnes of urea from Indonesia’s Pupuk Indonesia Holding, covering about 20% of its winter‑crop fertilizer shortfall caused by the war‑driven disruption of shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The deal, facilitated by both governments, is aimed at...
Agrovoltaic Systems Can Save Water, Generating Energy and Making Tomato Cultivation More Sustainable at the Same Time
Researchers from the University of Seville and the Polytechnic University of Madrid demonstrated that tomatoes can be cultivated under photovoltaic panels while generating solar power, creating a dual‑use agrovoltaic system. By pairing regulated deficit irrigation with the shade of solar...
Will ‘Product of the USA’ Give Cattle Ranchers a Boost?
On National Agriculture Day, USDA announced a revamped “Product of the USA” label that now requires meat, poultry and egg products to be raised, slaughtered and processed in the United States. The change comes as U.S. cattle herds hit a...
Gene Discovery Opens New Path for Disease-Resistant Rice Breeding
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and partner universities have cloned a broad‑spectrum bacterial blight resistance gene, Xa48, in the indica rice variety Shuangkezao. Xa48 encodes an NLR immune receptor that directly detects the XopG effector, triggering degradation of...
Patagonia & Rodale Institute to Transition an Entire California County to Regenerative Agriculture
Patagonia’s Holdfast Collective is committing $1.55 million to the Rodale Institute’s Regenerate Ventura program, targeting a county‑wide shift to regenerative agriculture in Ventura County, California. The initiative already has 10,000 acres and 57 farms in the pipeline, with roughly 40% owned...
Planting Green Into Cover Crops Is Cutting Input Costs for Central Illinois Farmer
Central Illinois farmer Derek Martin has embraced “planting green,” sowing cereal rye into standing cover crops before planting corn or soybeans. The practice lets him reduce seed‑treatment, fertilizer and weed‑control chemical purchases while improving soil health. By increasing rye biomass...
Fuel, Fertiliser, Freight – What the F Is Going On?
The Rural Press Club of Queensland is hosting a lunch on May 1, 2026 to examine severe disruptions in fuel, fertiliser and freight supply chains caused by the Middle East conflict, the Russia‑Ukraine war, and a fire at one of...
Brazil Soy Demand for Biodiesel May Rise by 72pc
Brazil's soybean demand for biodiesel could surge 72% to 74 million tonnes by 2035, driven by a planned increase in the biodiesel blending mandate from 15% to 24%. The soybean oil share of biodiesel feedstock, about 70%, would push oil demand...
AgriFood Signals: Nestlé & Soil Capital Regen Partnership, Unilever Buys Grüns, John Deere Lawsuit
Nestlé announced a partnership with Soil Capital to embed regenerative farming practices across its European sourcing, while Unilever acquired U.S. greens‑supplement brand Grüns to broaden its wellness portfolio. In a separate legal development, John Deere settled a right‑to‑repair lawsuit for...
Hershey Leans on Cocoa Sourcing Resilience to Blunt Price Shocks
Hershey is bolstering its cocoa supply chain by diversifying origins beyond the Ivory Coast and Ghana to include Ecuador and Brazil, while using sophisticated hedging tools to lock in prices. The company couples these financial safeguards with farmer‑focused programs like...
Initiative Aims to Update Farming Data Landscape
Thailand’s National Statistical Office, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, has launched the One Data initiative to unify the country’s fragmented agricultural statistics. The project will integrate data from twelve agencies into a single, standardised platform, beginning with a focus...
Behind Klim’s New Tool to Turn Regenerative Agriculture Into a Financial Instrument
Klim has launched a financial modeling platform that translates regenerative agriculture practices into concrete profit‑and‑loss impacts for agrifood companies. The tool builds discounted cash‑flow scenarios to compare enterprise value with and without regenerative interventions, covering revenue, cost, risk and regulatory...
Mars Steps up Push for Net Zero Cocoa at Scale
Mars, Inc. has teamed with ingredients supplier ofi on a five‑year net‑zero cocoa program in Ecuador, targeting climate‑smart regenerative farming across key growing regions. Phase one will transition more than 960 farmers and 9,000 hectares from monoculture to multistrata agroforestry,...
Fieldwork Robotics Signs Collaboration Agreement with Dynium
Fieldwork Robotics has entered a collaboration agreement with UK‑based Dynium, a maker of autonomous polytunnel vehicles. The deal lets Fieldwork mount its modular harvesting robots on Dynium’s high‑torque e‑hub platforms, expanding terrain capability and payload. Growers gain more navigation options,...
Cultivated Meat Now Has a Naming Problem
The EU will prohibit cultivated and plant‑based products from using traditional meat terms such as beef, chicken, pork or steak, limiting them to generic descriptors like burger, sausage and nuggets after a three‑year transition. Aleph Farms, a leading cell‑based meat...
Agrivoltaics Maintain or Enhance Forage Quality, Study Finds
University of Minnesota researchers evaluated grasses and legumes grown under two agrivoltaic solar arrays and a control pasture to assess biomass and nutritional value for dairy cattle. The 30 kW site produced near‑control yields (8,968 kg/ha) while the 50 kW site yielded less...
India Advances Regenerative Cotton Adoption as Industry Seeks Traceability
India is accelerating regenerative cotton adoption, with roughly 5,000 smallholder farmers in Maharashtra now certified under the Regenerative Cotton Standard. The certification provides end‑to‑end traceability, meeting growing demands from international fashion brands for transparent, sustainable sourcing. Independent audits report strong...
Lack of Land Casts Doubt on Govt’s Sugarcane Plantation Mandate
Indonesia’s agriculture ministry announced a mandate requiring sugar refiners that rely on imported raw sugar to establish domestic sugarcane plantations. The move aims to narrow the gap between the country’s 6.7 million‑tonne annual demand and the 2.67 million tonnes currently produced, a...
US Patent for Solar Foods’ Air-Based Protein Production Opens Door for Scaling
Solar Foods has obtained a U.S. patent covering its proprietary gas‑fermentation process that converts carbon dioxide, hydrogen and water into the animal‑free protein Solein. The protection strengthens the Finnish firm’s IP moat as it moves from a pilot plant to...
New £50m Fund to Bring AI and Robotics to UK Farms
UK's government and private investors are committing roughly $62.5 million to accelerate AI, robotics, and biological innovations on farms. The Investor Partnerships initiative will co‑fund up to 12 tools, with $10 million public money matched by $50 million private capital. Projects include FA...
Is Cultivated Meat Better for the Planet? This New Study Confirms Climate Impact
A new peer‑reviewed life‑cycle assessment by Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies and the Czech Technical University shows cultivated meat can emit as little as 3.3 kg CO₂e per kilogram, with a baseline of 5.3 kg CO₂e/kg—far lower than conventional beef (≈98.6 kg) and...
Water Troughs Could Become Frontline Defence in Early Disease Detection
A new study by Charles Darwin University’s Research Institute for Northern Agriculture shows that environmental nucleic acid (eNA) testing of cattle water troughs can detect bacterial and viral signatures linked to livestock disease. The research compared four sampling methods—syringe, cartridge,...
Happy Plant Protein to Build $7M Facility in Latvia to Deploy Extrustion Tech at Industrial Scale
Finnish food‑tech startup Happy Plant Protein is investing €6 million ($7 million) to build Europe’s first dry‑extrusion plant in Latvia. The greenfield facility will process locally sourced legumes and cereals into up to 5,000 tonnes of high‑value textured vegetable protein each year, with...
Urea Outlook Brightens with 250,000t From Indonesia
Incitec Pivot Fertilisers has signed a deal with Indonesia’s PT Pupuk Indonesia to import about 250,000 tonnes of agricultural‑grade urea into Australia for the May‑December cropping window. The shipment represents roughly 20 % of the nation’s remaining fertilizer requirement for the current season, helping offset...
Strait of Hormuz Crisis Should Catalyze African Biofertilizer Production (Commentary)
Tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have disrupted synthetic fertilizer shipments, exposing Africa’s reliance on imports that account for up to half of its supply. In response, the Dangote Group is set to triple its output to 9 million metric tons...
GROWMARK Agronomists Embracing AI
GROWMARK has partnered with Intelinair to embed an AI agent within its myFS Agronomy app, allowing agronomists to process massive data sets in minutes. The AI-driven tool promises better seed placement, in‑season risk management, and tailored product guides. By automating...
Another Week of Increases for Broiler Sets, Placements
The USDA reported that 255.581 million broiler‑type eggs were set this week, a 3.011 million increase and a 2% rise year‑over‑year, with hatchability holding at 79.4%. Placements rose to 197.431 million chicks, up 492,000 from the prior week and 3% above the same...
Economist Says Many 2027 Fertilizer Decisions Will Be Made Soon
CoBank farm‑supply economist Jacqui Fatka warns that U.S. fertilizer buying decisions for the 2027 season will be locked in this summer. The timing is driven by heightened uncertainty from the ongoing U.S.–Iran conflict and the upcoming USMCA renegotiations that could...
Pig Stunning Options Raise Welfare and Processing Tradeoffs
The EU‑funded PigStun project compared carbon dioxide, argon and helium for stunning pigs at commercial speeds. While all gases caused aversion, CO₂ produced the quickest loss of posture, whereas argon and helium extended both loss‑posture and excitation times. Argon and...
Verdant Robotics Expands Into Grass Seed and Sod, “Where the Weeds and the Crop Can Look Nearly Identical’
Verdant Robotics has extended its SharpShooter precision‑application system to grass seed and sod production, sectors where weeds closely resemble the crop. The tractor‑mounted platform uses high‑resolution cameras and machine‑learning‑driven 3D modeling to spray herbicide on weeds as small as 2 mm...
Agrizy Elevates Markish Arun As Cofounder And CTO
Agrizy, the Omnivore‑backed agritech CRDMO, has promoted its head of engineering, Markish Arun, to co‑founder and chief technology officer. Arun, who joined in 2022 after serving as Zoomcar CTO, will now lead the startup’s AI and tech roadmap, including its...
ITC Becomes First in India to Get FSA 3.0 Certification for Wheat and Paddy
ITC Ltd has become the first Indian company to secure the globally recognised Farm Sustainability Assessment (FSA 3.0) certification for its wheat and paddy operations. The certification spans more than 22,000 acres across Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, engaging roughly 3,500 farmers...
How AI Is Changing Food Supply Chains
The pandemic disrupted food supply chains, making logistics resilience critical. Because food is perishable, companies like CookUnity must guarantee precise, temperature‑controlled deliveries. AI platforms such as Blue Yonder now act as a “copilot,” boosting demand forecasts from 50‑60% to 80‑90%...
Mondelēz Creates Chocolate Bars Using Celleste’s Cell-Cultured Cocoa Butter
Mondelēz International produced a dozen milk‑chocolate bars using cocoa butter cultivated in a lab by Israeli startup Celleste Bio. The partnership proves Celleste’s cell‑cultured cocoa butter can match traditional cocoa butter in texture and melt, and positions the startup to...