Agriculture

Agriculture

Despite continued doubts over AI hype, it's clear that real-world deployments are demonstrating that AI can deliver measurable value across different sectors. Cutting costs, boosting productivity, and enabling smarter decisions are all potential benefits of AI, both generative and otherwise. Yet the most successful implementations share something in common: they start with a clear business challenge, not a fascination with technology for its own sake.

Mirova, the French climate-focused investment firm backed by Kering and other corporate heavyweights, has invested $30.5 million (€26.4 million) in Indian climate tech startup Varaha. This investment will help to expand the startup's regenerative farming program, supporting hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers in northern India. The deal marks Mirova's first carbon investment in India, but its structure is unusual. Rather than taking equity, the Paris-based firm is investing cash, and will get a share of the carbon credits generated in return over time.

The pumpkin also claimed the record for largest by circumferences, measuring 21 feet and 3.8 inches around. The feat is preceded by decades of hobbyists capitalizing on the plant's seemingly unlimited growth potential. So, why is this type of fruit (in fact, technically, pumpkins are berries) able to grow so massive while even the largest blueberries remain relatively small? It all comes down to a three-part botanical bouquet: A combination of growing factors, genetic makeup, and selective breeding.

Everybody's talking about the forthcoming sale of the Rockwell College farms. The lands are being offered as the entire of over 800ac or in two lots: Carrigeen Farm on 270ac, with two residences; or Rockwell Farm and Dogstown Farm on 543ac with modern milking facilities.

Known for their showy flowers and long blooming season, hydrangeas make great tree filler for some of the same reasons they're great filler plants in gardens and landscape design. As trees and shrubs, hydrangeas are dense and produce large blooms in a variety of colors - many of which work well with a traditional holiday palette (white, light green, pink, and even red). The conical and round shapes of these flowers make them easy to tuck into the gaps that Christmas tree branches have.

Imagine the fear and dread that comes with opening that internal door into the poultry house each morning God help any poultry farmer right now. We have 100 hens, but that's ridiculously small compared to most commercial poultry units, where even the minimum-size shed holds 5,000 birds. The largest units house well over 100,000. So just imagine getting up every morning and heading down to your poultry shed.

As far back as the 17th century, sheep from west Dorset and south Somerset were renowned for their ability to lamb out of season, due to a genetic quirk which somehow arose in the region. With careful planning, healthy ewes could have three pregnancies in 24 months. They became a registered breed during the Victorian era. Local shepherds vied to name it after their own county, and Dorset won: in 1891 farmers near Bridport established the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association.

Some of us will cut off the bruise and eat the rest, but evidence shows that a lot of bruised apples are tossed out. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, about 45% of all fruits and vegetables are wasted. That's 3.7 trillion apples. The creators of Arctic apples saw that as a major problem they needed to fix as they attempted to design an apple that wouldn't turn brown, allowing it to stay fresher longer.

Afghanistan's once-booming opium industry has shrunk dramatically with cultivation falling by 20 percent in 2025, according to a United Nations report warning of a sharp rise in synthetic drug production. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Thursday that the area devoted to the cultivation of opium poppies dropped from 12,800 to 10,200 hectares (31,630 to 25,200 acres) this year, barely a fraction of the 232,000 hectares (573,000 acres) cultivated before the Taliban's narcotics ban took effect in 2022.

Few commissions allow architects to focus on non-human users, and fewer still involve horses. While domestic pets like cats and dogs are common muses, the particular needs of horses present a unique challenge when designing stables. Since the horses, who are the stable's primary inhabitants, cannot articulate their needs, design relies on the rigorous requirements dictated by human caretakers, requiring a balance between streamlined human operations and maximized horse comfort and safety.

Farmers have carefully curated a Halloween experience that families are quite happy to shell out for

TOWSON, MARYLAND - Inside a suburban Maryland gas station, the Secret Service's Vincent Porter runs his fingers over a card reader in front of a clerk, hunting for signs that the terminal has been hijacked by thieves. The financial analyst is feeling for the plastic overlay of a skimmer, an electronic device used to exploit the half-century-old card technology still used to deliver benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which helps over 41 million Americans pay for food each month.

Sugar is one of the most fundamental food products in the world, and the countries that supply the most sugar are unsurprisingly spread out all over the globe. Sugar, of course, comes from all different kinds of crops, but when it comes to the commercial production of the different types of sugar we use in cooking and baking, two dominate.

Hannah Neeleman, the face of the lifestyle brand Ballerina Farm and "tradwife" influencer known for cooking elaborate meals from scratch, doesn't overthink lunch. "It's super simple," Neeleman told Business Insider. Most days, the 35-year-old entrepreneur and homesteader prepares a simple, balanced meal consisting of a carb, a lean protein, and some vegetables for herself, her husband, Daniel Neeleman, and their eight homeschooled kids.

Garda Damien Prendergast, from Dunlavin Garda Station, told the court that in March 2023, while driving through Dunlavin, he saw several sheep wandering on the road. He returned the animals to Mr Mooney's land, where he observed dead livestock, animal carcasses and a strong smell of decay. He said he returned later the same day with other gardaí to inspect the scene. On their return, they took photographs which were shown in court. These depicted several dead and decomposing cows, lambs and sheep.