Latest News

November 1, 2018

Jacob Johnson, a doctoral candidate in forest resources and in international agriculture and development (INTAD) in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, has received a Paul D. Coverdell Fellows Award in recognition of his service to others.

October 29, 2018

Boubou Sangho and Gladys Freeman, recipients of the prestigious Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders, spent six weeks of professional development at Penn State's University Park campus in August and September.

September 10, 2018

Growing up in an urban area near Pittsburgh, Martha Pangburn had few interactions with those working in agriculture. "There aren't many farms where I live, so I never thought much about agriculture or farming," said the Quaker Valley High School senior. "Actually, I believed stereotypes like it's a simple, not-very-exciting way of life."

September 8, 2018

Imagine being on a rubber plantation in Malaysia, just a few feet away from a farmer as he prunes low-hanging branches on a rubber tree, or watching a food scientist at a cacao bean cooperative in Honduras as she demonstrates how cacao beans become chocolate.

August 31, 2018

Kerry Kaylegian, assistant research professor of dairy foods and extension specialist in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, was inducted into the Guilde Internationale des Fromagers New World Chapter on July 28 in a ceremony held in association with the American Cheese Society's annual meeting in Pittsburgh.

August 28, 2018

Studying for her dual-title doctoral degree in rural sociology and in international agriculture and development at Penn State, Paige Castellanos learned about the plight of families living in western Honduras, where many eke out a living in an economy marked by high poverty rates and subsistence agriculture.

August 17, 2018

Between 650,000 and 750,000 of Kyrgyzstan's 5 million citizens work outside of the country, making it one of the most remittance-dependent countries in the world, according to lead investigator Guangqing Chi, associate professor of rural sociology and demography and public health sciences in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education.

July 17, 2018

Developing lasting solutions to the problems of poverty, hunger and social injustice is the cornerstone of a new partnership between Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences and Oxfam America, the U.S. affiliate of Oxfam, the global organization working to end the injustice of poverty in 90 countries around the world.

June 22, 2018

An international team of researchers has discovered evidence of 27 previously unknown viruses in bees. The finding could help scientists design strategies to prevent the spread of viral pathogens among these important pollinators.

June 5, 2018

In a perfect world, everyone would have access to nutritious, affordable food. However, as Rick Bates knows, there is no such thing as utopia when it comes to food security, as millions of people around the world have limited food resources. One of those places is Cambodia in Southeast Asia, one of the world's poorest countries, where the rural poverty rate is 24 percent, and 40 percent of children younger than 5 are chronically malnourished, making them vulnerable to significant health problems.

May 25, 2018

Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is leading a consortium of land-grant universities in the United States that have pledged support for continued reform and development of the agricultural and rural sectors in Ukraine, a sovereign state in Eastern Europe that was once referred to as "the breadbasket of Europe," a nod to its fertile soil and abundant grain fields.

May 14, 2018

Use of the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 could help to breed cacao trees that exhibit desirable traits such as enhanced resistance to diseases, according to Penn State plant scientists.

April 23, 2018

Visiting other countries to cultivate relationships and exchange information about innovative agricultural practices and research — with the intention of imparting that knowledge to clients back home — has been a long-standing endeavor of Penn State Extension educators.

March 28, 2018

For the past few decades, Israel has been a hotbed of innovation and technological exploration.

March 21, 2018

Faculty and graduate students in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences illustrated how their research touches every corner of the world during the inaugural Global Gallery, a symposium hosted by the International Agriculture and Development dual-title graduate program (INTAD) and its student association.

March 8, 2018

The USAID funded Women in Agriculture Network (WAgN): Honduras project is currently working with an indigenous women's non-government organization in western Honduras to promote gender equity. Implemented by Zamorano University (Honduras) and a team of Penn State faculty, the gender-integrated Farmer Field School provides a blend of horticulture technical skills and gender focused awareness.

March 2, 2018

Access to wood fuels for cooking must be considered when formulating policy to deal with food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, according to researchers who advocate expanding the effort to improve wood-fuel systems and make them more sustainable.

March 2, 2018

Penn State has for the seventh year been recognized among the nation's top producers of Peace Corps volunteers. With 54 undergraduate alumni serving overseas and working in fields such as agriculture, education, environment, health, community economic development and youth development, the University is No. 13 on the Peace Corps' 2018 rankings of colleges and universities in the large school category.

February 25, 2018

Dr. Carolyn Sachs, Professor Emeritus and instrumental leader of the Gender, Agriculture, Energy and Environment Initiative, discusses women's role in "preserving biodiversity through farmer control of seeds" in a recent publication for the United Nations. Dr. Sachs will also be speaking at the 62nd session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women later this March.

February 24, 2018

AIARD is pleased to announce that the application for the 2018 Future Leaders Forum is now available! As part of the annual Future Leaders Forum in Washington, DC, fellows attend the annual Association for International Agriculture and Rural Development conference and additional programming just for Future Leaders. Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis to students who have a sincere interest in international agriculture and rural development issues and their solutions.

February 21, 2018

Advocating for policies and programs that support local agriculture, Lyn Garling, co-owner of Over the Moon Farm and member of the Pennsylvania Women's Agriculture Network, participates in the Farmer Fly-In program, meeting with legislators in Washington D.C. to advocate for programs including farmers markets and policies that support local food security.

February 20, 2018

Marilyn McPheron still wells up when she talks about her students. "They would come into my office and say 'you changed my life,'" McPheron, former study abroad coordinator in the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Office of International Programs, said. "It still overwhelms me to think something I did had that kind of impact."

February 19, 2018

Craft chocolate — made with fine flavor cacao beans and valued for its distinctive flavors and high quality — is gaining a fast following, and research underway in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences is aimed at helping bean growers and bar makers benefit from this trend.

December 30, 2017

Small-holder farmers in Kenya have the capacity and desire to play a major role in the scale-up of biofuel production from agroforestry, according to a Penn State forest economist, who led a study in the East African country.

December 19, 2017

Students enrolled in a food science embedded course got a taste of something different for Thanksgiving this year. Over a week during the holiday break, participants in "Global perspectives on agricultural and food science in India" traveled to the city of Hyderabad to explore the food system in India while learning about the role that agriculture plays in the country's booming economy.

December 17, 2017

Food safety practices that Americans take for granted — washing hands with soap, refrigeration, and not cutting raw meat and vegetables on the same surface without disinfection — are not widely practiced in other places around the world, and researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences want to change that.