Berkeley: CalLands maps cropland ownership across California. “To build the CalLands’ interactive website, Luke Macaulay and Van Butsic — both assistant UC Cooperative Extension specialists based in UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management — combined satellite-generated maps of land cover created by the U.S. Department of Agriculture with publicly available land ownership records. Next, they anonymized ownership identity and pulled data from all 58 California counties to include parcels of land larger than five acres. The result is a database that features 543,495 privately-owned properties across the state, creating a data-rich map of crops and ownership boundary lines in every county.”
Agriculture
USDA: New Web Page Makes Info on Agricultural Pests and Diseases More Accessible
USDA: New Web Page Makes Info on Agricultural Pests and Diseases More Accessible. “Each year, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) must respond to new threats to America’s agricultural and natural resources often in the form of invasive species or emerging diseases. To raise awareness about these growing threats and our efforts to manage, monitor and regulate their impacts, we’ve launched the new Pests & Diseases web page.”
Chile Bio: New database published on crops genetically edited with CRISPR
Chile Bio, translated from Spanish using Google Translator: New database published on crops genetically edited with CRISPR. “…researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI; Ithaca, NY) have developed the Plant Genetic Editing Database (PGED) to be a central repository for efficiently managing data. of mutant plants, as well as to provide a platform to share data and mutants with the research community. The last hope is that PGED will lead to a more efficient use of resources by reducing unnecessary duplicate experiments and catalyzing collaborations between research institutions.”
Phys .org: Citizen science can play role in addressing agricultural challenges
Phys .org: Citizen science can play role in addressing agricultural challenges . “An international team of more than three dozen researchers has published a paper highlighting the potential of citizen science to address pressing research challenges in agriculture and food systems. One key to capitalizing on such efforts, the researchers find, may be to build stronger ties between citizen science and agricultural extension efforts.”
UC Food Observer: A California Archive Project Provides Access To Historic Ag & Community Records
UC Food Observer: A California Archive Project Provides Access To Historic Ag & Community Records. “Imagine more than 100 years of research and crop reports, records and photographs documenting the development of California agriculture and the state’s communities. What might researchers be able to learn about how to respond to current and future challenges from the historical record? The possibilities seem endless.”
AdvocateTribune: New online database from the University of Minnesota Extension helps local farmers share sustainable practices
AdvocateTribune: New online database from the University of Minnesota Extension helps local farmers share sustainable practices. “You’re a Minnesota farmer who cares about conservation, but the risks of veering from conventional farming feel great. How would new practices affect the bottom line? Have they worked on other similar farms? And besides what any research says, what do actual farmers think? A new online database will connect farmers with other farmers to share their experiences with sustainable farming methods. Farmers will be able to pull up the tool on their phone or desktop computer, and find nearby peers willing to share their experiences with specific practices.”
Newswise: Researchers Use Crowdsourcing to Speed Up Data Analysis in Corn Plants
Newswise: Researchers Use Crowdsourcing to Speed Up Data Analysis in Corn Plants. “Teaching a machine to finish a complex task can save humans a lot of time, effort and money. But first, the machine has to learn how, and that comes with plenty of its own challenges. An interdisciplinary team of Iowa State University scientists turned to crowdsourcing, or relying on large groups of minimally trained people, to repeat a task often enough that researchers could formulate an algorithm that allows a computer to carry out that task automatically. In this case, the scientists wanted to teach a machine to identify the tassels of corn plants when given a vast number of photographic images to sort through.”
