Agriculture and forestry

Plants get their nutrients from the ground via their root network. However, many nutrients are nearly insoluble or very rare. Therefore, many plants live in symbiosis with root fungi that facilitate the plants’ nutrient uptake and help them thrive under extreme conditions. In fact, more than 70% of higher plants establish an association with these fungi, so-called mycorrhiza, which are believed to be more than 400 million years old. The mutualistic association allows the plant to better absorb nutrients, such as phosphate – an especially important but rare nutrient.

Forests are extremely important for the implementation of the bio-economy. Here, the precious raw material wood grows, which has its uses both from a material as well as an energy standpoint. Moreover, forests are indispensable as suppliers of oxygen and for storing CO₂. The bio-economy therefore faces the challenge of protecting forests as a resource and minimising the conflict between nature conservation and resource use.

For thousands of years people have been breeding crops such as wheat, maize and tomatoes. When doing so, farmers and breeders have been particularly concerned with increasing crop yields. However, targeted breeding has resulted in the loss of other useful traits and genetic diversity, and modern cultivated plants are often more susceptible to disease and have a reduced vitamin and nutrient content. The problem: Characteristics that are determined by the interplay of numerous genes cannot be restored by classical breeding.

Considering the world's growing population and shrinking resources, it is becoming increasingly important not to waste food. However, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in 2011, one third of the world's food supplies are lost between harvest and consumption. This is why conservation research is more important than ever, says Cornel Adler of the Julius Kuehn Institute (JKI).

The summer of 2018 was unique in many ways. Some aspects, however, were less pleasant than others: several regions of Germany saw losses in arable crops of up to 50%. Given climate change and global warming, such weather extremes will most likely increase even further in the future. In order to secure food sources, it is therefore paramount that agriculture adapts to climate change. This includes new strategies for agronomic management and breeding of more heat- and drought-tolerant crops.

Laughing gas, also known as nitrous oxide or N₂O, damages the ozone layer and belongs to the so-called greenhouse gases. Six percent of man-made global warming is attributed to this gas. And most of the global N₂O emissions are caused by livestock farming. However, an interdisciplinary research group from the University of Applied Sciences Bingen and the Heidelberg University now reports that plants also emit substantial amounts of this gas and therefore share a previously underestimated amount of the global nitrous oxide emissions.

Mutagenic technologies, such as the CRISPR-Cas genome editing tool, have numerous applications in both green, i.e. plant biotechnology, as well as red, medical biotechnology. At the same time, as of yet, little is known about possible side effects of this  method.

Evonik has been committed to the balanced and healthy feeding of poultry for years. The Essen-based specialty chemicals company is now expanding its investment in precision livestock farming and in particular automated poultry production by investing in the Chesterfield-based British start-up OPTIfarm.

In July of this year, the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) ruled that organisms obtained by using new techniques of directed mutagenesis, including those known as ‘gene editing techniques’ such as CRISPR-Cas, are genetically modified organisms (GMOs). As GMOs, they are subject to the corresponding legislation, the so-called GMO-Directive.

Rice is one of the most important crops in the world. More than half of the world's population feeds on it. Although there are many rice varieties, not every plant can withstand climate change. Especially in Asia, where cereal grains have always been a staple food, flooding is increasingly causing crop losses and threatening the livelihood of rice farmers. This is where the work of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) comes in.