In Our "Did You Know" Series We Share Interesting Facts About Plant Science And Agriculture.

Crops produced in Europe could be significantly impacted by climate change. Higher temperatures could trigger migration of insects from warmer southern to colder northern countries. Insect pests already reduce staple grain crops (wheat, rice, and maize) by an estimated 5 to 20%. Further yield losses due to increased insect pressure could increase by 10 to 25% per degree Celsius of warming. Such a reduction in yields would risk food security, quality, and local food production, resulting in increased food prices.

It is calculated that one gram of healthy soil can contain up to 1 Billion microorganisms and several meters of fungal hyphae. This is particularly important as soil microbes are fundamental to not only soil fertility but also, they are key providers of all types of environmental services.

Nitrogen is essential for all living organisms. Its availability is one of the key factors determining agricultural productivity. Although nitrogen is present in large quantities in the air, it is not sufficiently available to crops. Farmers use fertilizers to make nitrogen available for their crops. However, nitrogen use efficiency is low as only about half the nitrogen applied through fertilizers is absorbed by crops. The rest remains in soil, leaches into ground and surface waters or is lost to the atmosphere as ammonia and/or nitrous oxide gas.

The Corona Virus is having a serious impact on all our lives. But viruses are not only a serious threat for humans, they can also infect plants. Insects, such as aphids which feed on plants can transmit viruses from one plant to another including many important crops that farmers grow for us to eat.

In our efforts to make things even better, we sometimes forget to look back and recognise what’s been achieved in the past.

Have you ever wondered how measuring agricultural sustainability works in practice, or how the EU's Farm to Fork sustainability objectives can be achieved? Management guru Peter Drucker is known for his statement: “You can't manage what you can't measure”. In other words, without measurement, it is not possible to know whether you succeeded or not.