Agriculture

Translational Research Program to help MIT researchers achieve real-world impact

Tata Center for Technology and Design program "aims to close the gap between ideas and implementation," says program director Jason Prapas.

June 6, 2018

When PhD student Tiziana Smith isn’t at her computer refining or running her models, she can be found organizing activities and initiatives to help her fellow graduate students find mentors and become leaders themselves.

How many people can China feed?

Graduate student Tiziana Smith studies links between water availability and crop yields in the world’s most populous country.

May 30, 2018

Seven new projects focusing on solutions to water and food systems challenges, led by 11 faculty principal investigators across five MIT departments, will be funded by the Abdul Latif Jameel World Water and Food Security Lab (J-WAFS) with two-year grants of up to $200,000.

J-WAFS awards over $1.3 million in fourth round of seed grant funding

Eleven principal investigators from six MIT departments will receive grants totaling over $1.3 million, overhead free, for research on food and water challenges.

May 25, 2018

A droplet, splashing onto the tip of a very thin rod, produces a rim of fluid that sprays smaller droplets as it expands.

New theory describes intricacies of a splashing droplet

Findings may help track movement of pesticides and biological contaminants.

May 16, 2018

While all global climate models show an overall increase in surface temperatures over the coming decades, when it comes down to regional effects on temperature and rainfall there are areas of significant uncertainty.

Workshop explores intertwined future of food production, water, and climate

Choices by consumers and farmers can help limit global warming, but climate change may also curtail those choices in the future.

May 11, 2018

Participants from Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan convened at MIT for a two-day event on the future of the Nile water, hosted by Professor Elfatih Eltahir.

A forum on the future of the Nile River

International workshop proposes future directions for long-standing conflict.

May 4, 2018

Dan Wexler (left) and Priya Patel of EatWell, which won the $15,000 grand prize at this year's Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize competition.

Prize-winning projects promote healthier eating, smarter crop investments

Meal kits for “food deserts” and crowdsourced crop-pricing platform win Rabobank-MIT Food and Agribusiness Innovation Prize.

May 4, 2018

Signifying the forest, the Climate Changed Symposium dinner appetizer was a trio of dried, preserved and foraged mushrooms — fungi known to help the soil store carbon dioxide and thus slow the pace of climate change.

What will we eat in the year 2050?

Climate Changed Symposium combines art and science to envision the global food system under climate change.

April 30, 2018

At Michigan State University’s W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center researchers are evaluating the performance of a variety of novel bioenergy crop production systems for crop yield and quality, impacts on microbial-plant interactions, biogeochemical and biodiversity responses and water use.

Gauging the effects of water scarcity on an irrigated planet

Study projects likely impacts on food prices, bioenergy production, and deforestation.

April 19, 2018

“We’re really excited about bringing millennial revenue into rural America, and that is a very sustainable action,” says Sam McElhinney MBA '17, founder of Mayflower Venues.

Plan a wedding, save a farm

Sam McElhinney MBA '17 found a way to help New England small farms, family estates, and orchards by creating a system that enables them to host events easily.

April 18, 2018

A new special subject, 1.S992 (Agricultural Microbial Ecology) from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, took a group of undergraduate students to Israel over MIT’s Independent Activities Period to learn cutting-edge techniques used to study microbial communities.

A microbial approach to agriculture

A new special subject, Agricultural Microbial Ecology, takes students to Israel.

February 14, 2018

Maps depict the close correlation of crop production, rainfall and temperature in the U.S. Midwest in the last half of the 20th century. In this map, the number of bushels of corn produced are shown in shades of green.

Intensive agriculture influences U.S. regional summer climate, study finds

An increase in corn and soybean production in the Midwest may have led to cooler, wetter summers there.

February 13, 2018

In the continuous-flow liquid-liquid separator developed by MIT spinout Zaiput Flow Technologies, liquid mix (blue and pink) is pumped through a feed tube to a porous polymer membrane (dotted line). One liquid (pink) is drawn to the surface of the membrane, while the other (blue) is repelled. An internal mechanical pressure controller maintains a slight pressure differential between the two sides ...

Drug manufacturing that’s out of this world

Continuous-flow chemistry device used for drug production could find use in long-duration space missions.

January 5, 2018

A Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research study has revealed how an enzyme first isolated in bacteria and introduced into plants such as corn and soybeans in the 1990s can sometimes act imprecisely, and how it can be successfully re-engineered to be more precise.

Revealing an imperfect actor in plant biotechnology

Whitehead Institute researchers detect the chemical mistakes of a common herbicide-resistance enzyme, then successfully re-engineer it for enhanced precision.

November 29, 2017

With the right business model, solar panels and pumps could be a promising sustainable irrigation approach for smallholder farmers in India.

MIT researchers release evaluation of solar pumps for irrigation and salt mining in India

Study of solar pump technology use in India assesses technical performance and explores innovative business cases to increase user adoption.

November 13, 2017

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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