Climate change and a decline in available arable land are reducing crop yields which can significantly impact food security. Sustainable solutions to feed the increasingly growing population are urgent.

A research team as part of the Proteins4Singapore (P4SG) project, co-led by TUMCREATE in Singapore and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), proposes that future controlled environment agriculture - CEA systems can boost productivity for several food sources. In CEA, all growth conditions are carefully controlled to optimise growth and yield. Controllable parameters impacting these growth conditions span temperature, humidity, light, carbon dioxide concentration, and nutrients. All the outputs can be finely tuned, largely minimising environmental impact.

CEA enables a consistent year-round production of safe food and can complement traditional farming, according to Dr Vanesa Calvo-Baltanás, research fellow at TUMCREATE and the lead researcher of this finding. The team investigated the yield potential of six food groups cultivated under CEA conditions, including crops, algae, mushrooms, insects, fish and cultivated meat.

The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT have assessed the most commonly used maps for environmental compliance.

An Osaka Metropolitan University researcher has developed an autonomous driving algorithm for agricultural robots used for greenhouse cultivation and other farm work.

Salk Institute plant biologists discover new plant molecule, CLE16, as well as a fungal CLE16 mimic, that encourage the beneficial symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi. CLE16 supplementation in crop fields could help reduce harmful chemical fertilizer use by replacing it with sustainable, long-lasting symbiotic plant-fungus relationships for important crops like soy, corn, and wheat.