A new Horizon Europe project called Wet Horizons wants to promote feasible and more ambitious legislation towards protecting and restoring European wetlands to increase the benefits to both climate change and biodiversity.

PhD Defence, Friday 7 October 2022. Emilia Noel Ptak.

Good transport connections to Viborg, good food all day and a strong social environment around the study programme. A wealth of good ideas were up for discussion when around 40 upper secondary school students visited AU Viborg last week to give their input on how Aarhus University can create an attractive campus for future students.

Cultivating legumes can help increase sustainability and yields, especially in organic farming systems or monocultures, while reducing environmental impact as well as the need for fertilisers and pesticides, according to a new study.

On 4 September, Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries Rasmus Prehn named the members of the expert group that will come up with new proposals for set-aside of peatland soils. Professor Mogens Greve from Aarhus University is part of the group that will help realise the green potential of agriculture.

In BarleyMicroBreed, a new Horizon Europe project, researchers from Aarhus University will improve plant resistance to drought by exploiting the interaction between barley and its root microbiome. If the microbiome can increase barley's drought resistance, it could turn out to be one of the ways to increased food security in the future.

A new project supported by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency's Pesticide Research Programme will investigate the spread of resistant populations of annual meadow grass and identify effective control strategies based on preventive measures and mechanical control.

There is a lack of good plant protein products for food, but biorefining can be part of the solution. However, this requires a focus on the breeding of the plants used in the process. Join us on 20 September, when Aarhus University Center for Circular Bioeconomy (CBIO) invites you to a webinar on plant breeding in food production.

An overview of ongoing and planned climate adaptation measures in European crop production shows vast regional differences. Southern Europe has the highest number of climate change initiatives and is also the region that, according to researchers from among other Aarhus University, will experience the most negative impacts due to increased drought and extreme heat. According to the researchers, there is a great need for further focus and political awareness if European agriculture is to adapt to future climatic conditions.

In northern sub-Saharan Africa the future for dairy products from cattle is bleak. With climate change the temperature will rise and grass will wither. Without grass no cows, and without cows no milk, unless farmers shift from cattle herds to mixed herds of cattle, goats and camels. According to new research mixed herding will result in higher milk production, less inputs of water and feed as well as lower greenhouse gas emissions.