Agriculture articles from across Nature Portfolio

A lecture to commemorate Nature’s first editor, and threats against a precious genetic resource that exists in indigenous livestock, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

Crop prices correlate with an 11-year solar period, and a meteor detonates over Ireland, in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.

Authors develop 4D printed labels that change colour and shape in response to humidity and carbon dioxide, enabling visual inspection of fruit freshness and quality preservation. Assisted by a machine learning model, the labels outperform cast and 3D printed versions in visual monitoring and controlled release of preservatives.

Replacing staple grains with potatoes in China’s low-yield regions boosts yields by 2-119% and doubles economic returns while cutting greenhouse gas emissions and intensities, based on a hybrid approach integrating a process-based model with a life cycle assessment.

This paper analyzes the role of suboptimal cropland restoration, crop switching and extensification in reconciling production with climate and conservation goals in Europe, finding it could cut agricultural GHGs by ~40% and biodiversity loss by ~20%.

Plant detritus carbon is around 7 times higher than microbial necromass carbon and dominant across soil depths, shows preferential decomposition, and has greater sensitivity to land use change, according to an analysis of 363 samples from five dominant Himalayan ecosystems within China.

A lecture to commemorate Nature’s first editor, and threats against a precious genetic resource that exists in indigenous livestock, in our weekly dip into Nature’s archive.

Helena Kuoppala gets to work early to tend to a herd of dairy cows, exploring how dietary changes affect their health, milk yields and methane emissions.

Crop prices correlate with an 11-year solar period, and a meteor detonates over Ireland, in this week’s pick from the Nature archive.