Riverside Researcher Says New Tool Can Help Aid Food Supply

Researchers, led by a University of California Riverside team, have come up with a way to help crops flourish in drought as well as “normal” conditions. It’s a chemical called Antabactin, which suppresses the hormone that prevents seeds from germinating when temperatures are high. UCR’s Aditya Vaidya, says Antabactin has been successful in getting a growing number for crops to germinate during drought conditions.

"We have seen the effects of these chemicals in a variety of crops, in tomatoes, in wheat, in barley," said Vaidya. "Now we are working with lettuce."

Vaidya says Antabactin is effective even when conditions are not severely dry.

“If you get a chemical to block the effects of this chemical, then even when there’s no drought for example, the seeds will germinate quickly,” Vaidya said. “So the farmer would have better control over the yield of his crop.”

Demonstrations of Antabactin’s effectiveness are described in a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Vaidya said the UCR research team feels proper use of their chemical could help increase the worldwide food supply.​

Click Here to read that paper for yourself.

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