Department of Crop Production Ecology https://www.slu.se/en/departments/crop-production-ecology/ Unique landscape experiment for sustainable food production and biodiversity The Kamprad family's foundation finances a new project at the Swedish University of Agriculture's research facility,Lövsta outside Uppsala. The project focuses on the reintegration of crop production and grazing animals in the same agricultural landscape and is unique in its kind as it includes both animals and crop production in the same landscape experiment. The results will contribute to the development of sustainable production of crops, milk and meat in a way that promotes both biodiversity, soil fertility, an attractive environment for people and a resilient agricultural system. The project is connected to the knowledge center SustAinimal and in run in collaboration with RISE (Research Institutes of Sweden). https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/2/unique-landscape-experiment-for-sustainable-food-production-and-biodiversity/ 711216 Sun, 18 Feb 2024 11:06:23 +0100 Swedish farmers’ reports to the EU used by researchers to study choices of crops In her first scientific publication, PhD student Rafaelle Reumaux shows how the Land Parcel Identification System can be used to study crop sequences. She has studied the choices of crops in organic and conventional farming, from the north to the south of Sweden. https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/2/swedish-farmers-reports-to-the-eu-used-by-researchers-to-study-choices-of-crops/ 711217 Fri, 16 Feb 2024 11:38:31 +0100 DT Scenario workshops Drylands Transform, the project led by SLU in Karamoja region (Uganda and Kenya), has been going on since end of 2020 and is now starting the fourth and last year. In synthesizing, presenting and discussing results and possible ways forward together with the local communities, the project team is also facilitating scenario workshops. https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/2/dt-scenario-workshops/ 710182 Thu, 08 Feb 2024 11:05:13 +0100 DT pastoralist expo The SLU-led Dryland Transform Research Project organised a panel discussion titled ‘Ecosystem restoration for feed, food and nutrition resilience in East African drylands’, during the East Africa Pastoralist Expo in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 26th Jan – 2nd Feb 2024. Dryland Transform was represented by the Kenya and Uganda Country Co-ordinators, Dr. Stephen Mureithi and Prof. Denis Mpairwe, respectively. https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/2/dt-pastoralist-expo/ 710176 Thu, 08 Feb 2024 10:47:01 +0100 Are species communities a super-organism or simply a random assortment? Yuval Zelnik and his colleagues propose a parameter that quantifies how collectively integrated a species community is. If the parameter´s value is close to zero, it means that the individual species do not interact much. If the value is above one, the collective integration is high. "This tool will help us to understand the nature of different ecosystems", says Zelnik, researcher at SLU and one of the authors of a just recently published paper. https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/1/are-species-communities-a-super-organism-or-simply-a-random-assortment/ 703731 Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:36:32 +0100 DT Philemon The SLU-led Drylands Transform project is coming to the last phases of the project where a lot of effort is put on analysing information, writing different outputs for different audiences and together with the local communities discussing the ways forward. For this, Drylands Transform was strengthened with a Postdoc called Philemon Ng’asike. https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/1/dt-philemon/ 702265 Fri, 12 Jan 2024 14:35:04 +0100 Increased carbon accumulation and stress tolerance make perennial cereal crops promising to face climate change Two new modeling studies highlight significant benefits of perennial cereal crops: they increase soil carbon content and can assist farmers in adapting to climate change. https://www.slu.se/en/ew-news/2024/1/increased-carbon-accumulation-and-stress-tolerance-make-perennial-cereal-crops-promising-to-face-climate-change/ 701623 Mon, 08 Jan 2024 09:30:41 +0100