Microbial Diversity
Microbial diversity (viruses, bacteria, archaea, fungi, protists, green algae plants and animals such as plankton) is vast and largely unknown. There are an estimated 5−30 million known microbial...
View ArticleMicrobes and Climate Change
The Rome-based FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is the only permanent inter-governmental forum for discussing and negotiating matters specifically relevant to biological...
View ArticleMicrobial Diversity for Sustainable Agriculture
Cocoyam (Xanthosoma sagittifolium), a tuber crop that feeds more than 200 million people in the tropics and subtropics, is threatened by a root rot disease caused by a fungus. It turns out that a...
View ArticleInsect Pollinators
Insect pollination provided by bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, moths and beetles, etc., is one of nature’s “ecosystem services” that underpins agricultural productivity. The estimated value of...
View ArticlePotato Late Blight
Late blight, caused by the fungus Phytophthora infestans, destroys an estimated 15 per cent of the annual potato crop worldwide. In developing countries alone the disease costs about US$3.25 billion...
View ArticleForest Pollinators and Coffee
Costa Rican coffee farms located within 1 km of forests experience 20 per cent higher coffee yields thanks to forest-dwelling pollinators. Plants that were more than 300 metres from the forest relied...
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