Add just enough fertilizer, and crops thrive. Add too much, and you may end up with contaminated surface and groundwater.

An organic formulation containing honeybee pheromones has been found to safely repel elephants, offering promise for a new strategy to prevent the world’s largest land animals from destroying crops or causing other damage in areas where humans conflict with elephants, according to a study published July 23, 2018 in Current Biology.

Current crop yields could provide nutritious food for the projected 2050 global population, but only if we make radical changes to our dietary choices, a new study shows.

Picture-based crop insurance could make its debut in Kenya next year after a study in India found that it may avoid the pitfalls of other insurance schemes.

A historic peace treaty which brought an end to half a century of violence has led to mass deforestation in Colombia, scientists have warned.

Healthy soil contributes to healthy crops. Farmers know this, so they do what they can to ensure their soil is in good shape. They send samples of their soil for lab testing to find out if it is low in any important nutrients. If it is, they can take steps to improve the health of their soil. These might include adding fertilizers or growing cover crops that feed the soil.

Like any self-respecting farmer, Zachary Lippman was grumbling about the weather. Stout, with close-cropped hair and beard, Lippman was standing in a greenhouse in the middle of Long Island, surrounded by a profusion of rambunctiously bushy plants. “Don’t get me started,” he said, referring to the late and inclement spring. It was a Tuesday in mid-April, but a chance of snow had been in the forecast, and a chilly wind blew across the island. Not the sort of weather that conjures thoughts of summer tomatoes. But Lippman was thinking ahead to sometime around Memorial Day, when thousands of carefully nurtured tomato plants would make the move from the greenhouse to Long Island loam. He hoped the weather would finally turn.

The word “desertification” conjures up images of the spread of existing deserts, with tall dunes spilling into villages and farmer’s fields

Take a trip down into the soil beneath a field of crops. You won’t find just dirt, water, and creepy-crawlies. You’ll also find reactions that remind you of high school chemistry lab.

Before adding a steak or a carton of eggs to their shopping carts, more people — especially if they’re millennials — are considering the welfare of the farm animals that produce the food.