The UK is to rejoin the EU's flagship scientific research scheme, Horizon, the government has announced. UK-based scientists and institutions will be able to apply for money from the £81bn (€95bn) fund from today.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: "With a wealth of expertise and experience to bring to the global stage, we have delivered a deal that enables UK scientists to confidently take part in the world's largest research collaboration programme."

Tesco has announced an expansion of its trial of low-carbon fertilisers to drive a tenfold increase in the number of hectares being cultivated by them. It comes as conventional fertiliser costs have risen by as much as 140% last year, alongside the closure of the UK’s last remaining fertiliser plant.

During the first year of the trial, 1,300 hectares of land were cultivated using eight different low-carbon fertilisers. Six of them are manufactured in the UK from material including food waste, chicken litter, fire extinguisher waste and algae. According to the supermarket chain's initial results, they were just as effective as conventional fertilisers while slashing emissions by up to 50%.

A project to understand bone health in laying hens aims to support their health and welfare, and inform breeding selection as industry moves towards non-caged systems.

Outcomes from the US$3m international study will inform the selection of hens suited to egg production, whose breastbones are vulnerable to fractures, especially in non-caged birds.

The collaboration led by Roslin scientists aims to develop a process of directly assessing the health of a chicken’s keel bone, or sternum.

Bayer has invested EUR 220 million in regenerative agriculture research and development (R&D) at its Monheim site. This is the company's largest single investment in its Crop Protection business in Germany since the founding of the Monheim campus in 1979.

The new Product Safety complex with labs, offices, and a greenhouse area offers space for approximately 200 employees. Its principal focus will be on developing the next generation of chemicals for a sustainable future and enhancing the environmental and human safety of Crop Protection.

A return to regenerative agricultural practices can work in harmony with the use of agri-technology, according to 89 per cent of respondents to a recent survey. The survey, carried out by The Institute of Agricultural Management (IAgrM), also found 86 per cent of farmers and agricultural industry professionals believe cost is the biggest barrier to the use of technology on-farm.

The majority of respondents said they were already using regenerative practices, with 61 per cent using minimal or no-till, 48 per cent using diverse cropping rotations, 44 per cent integrating livestock into arable systems, and 29 per cent providing constant soil cover through the use of stubble or cover crops.

It was a similar picture for the uptake of technology, with 63 per cent using farm management planning and recording software, 45 per cent using telematics and GPS tracking, 42 per cent using livestock technology, and 41% using precision agronomic support systems.

China's farm ministry on Thursday said large trials of genetically modified corn and soybeans showed "outstanding" results and that application of the technology was completely safe.

The trials in 20 counties in the provinces of Yunnan, Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Jilin, and Sichuan showed "outstanding" insect resistance and herbicide resistance, said the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.

The control of Lepidoptera pests such as Spodoptera frugiperda, also known as fall armyworm, was over 90%, it said, while 95% of weeds were prevented.
It also said the yields were up by between 5.6% and 11.6%.

Farmer adoption of genetically modified crop varieties is spreading beyond the well-known dominance of the major field crops of corn, soybeans, and cotton, said a USDA report. When lesser-known GM crops such as canola, potatoes, and apples are counted, about 55% of U.S. cropland is planted to GM varieties, said the Economic Research Service report.

Corn, soybean, and cotton plantings were quickly dominated by GM crops, followed by the speedy conversion of canola and sugar beet plantings to GM seeds, said the ERS report. “They are beginning to spread in alfalfa and have been planted on a small commercial scale in potato, papaya, squash, and apples.” The most common GM traits are herbicide tolerance and insect resistance.

Improved rural connectivity could boost the UK economy by over £65 billion, new economic modelling has found.

The report, titled ‘The Great Rural Revival’, addresses four sectors central to the UK’s rural economy – tourism, agriculture, manufacturing, and small businesses.

It finds connectivity improvements could boost rural employment by 6.8%, creating an additional 284,000 new jobs.

European dairy cooperative Arla has started to pay out a monthly incentive to its farmer owners based on their sustainability efforts.

The incentive is a data-driven and science-based points system that rewards climate activities and other environmental initiatives on farms.

Arla expects to pay out €2.2 billion (US$2.39 billion) until 2030 for the farmers’ sustainability efforts.

When Canadian dairy farmer Ben Loewith's calves are born next spring, they will be among the first in the world to be bred with a specific environmental goal: burping less methane.

Loewith, a third-generation farmer in Lynden, Ontario, in June started artificially inseminating 107 cows and heifers with the first-to-market bull semen with a low-methane genetic trait.

"Selectively breeding for lower emissions, as long as we're not sacrificing other traits, seems like an easy win," Loewith said.

A low-tech solution to help farmers make more money from their muck could also help reduce the spread of antibiotic resistance from sewage and manure, scientists say.

Adding conductive materials, such as biochar, to anaerobic digestors when processing sewage sludge and manure on farms has been proven to help boost biomethane production, which can then be sold.

But now it’s also been found that adding relatively low-cost additive materials like biochar to the process could also help reduce the prevalence of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) by more than 90%.

The NFU has said it is 'shocking' that just over half of the food eaten by the British public is grown in the UK.

The finding is included in a new EFRA committee report, which also found that the number of households experiencing food insecurity was at a greater proportion than it was during the pandemic

One fifth of households experienced moderate or severe food insecurity in January 2023, according to the food security report.