After Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica’s agriculture, farmers urgently needed quality seed to rebuild. Discover how Jamaican agricultural leaders, High Mowing Organic Seeds, and the Iowa State University Seed Science Center worked across borders to overcome testing and regulatory barriers, safely deliver donated organic seed, and plant the foundation for a more resilient food system.

Can crops produce strong yields with less fertilizer? As fertilizer prices rise and concerns grow about nutrient runoff and greenhouse gas emissions, researchers are looking to plant genetics for solutions.

In this episode of GermiNation, host Cindy Hicks talks with Dr. Bourlaye Fofana, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Dr. Fofana and his collaborators identified more than 1,000 genes involved in how flax responds to nitrogen stress. Their findings could help breeders develop varieties with stronger root systems that use nitrogen more efficiently.

Discover how nitrogen-efficient flax could reduce farmers’ input costs, lessen agriculture’s environmental footprint and provide insights that may ultimately benefit other crops.

GermiNation is produced by the Iowa State University Seed Science Center, where every great story starts with a seed.

Today's episode is Part Two of our special series from the Relay Cropping Field Day at Iowa State University's Sorenson Research Farm. In Part One, we learned about the promise of relay cropping from Dr. Shrishail Navi and heard firsthand how sixth-generation farmer Jason Russell of Big Boulder Farms is putting these conservation practices to work on his operation.

Today, we continue that conversation by looking at what's next. You'll hear from Matt Leavitt, an agronomist with the Forever Green Initiative, and Anna Teeter of Cargill about the growing opportunities surrounding winter camelina, an emerging oilseed crop creating new markets for farmers. Then we'll take to the skies with Dr. Fernando Mauri Marcos of Iowa State University's Remote Sensing and Imaging Lab to explore how drone technology is helping researchers, and soon, family farmers, collect the data needed to make smarter, more informed management decisions.