agriculture

26 October 2026, Monday

08:55 World Thirty countries deposit crop seeds at a mountain seed archive in a single week The Hallvard Seed Archive received more than 48,000 samples, including old varieties of wheat, beans and barley from the Asher Valley, as gene banks back up their collections. Diego Fernández

25 October 2026, Sunday

22:43 Business Harvest season: rice pours into a waiting trailer Paddy streaming from a combine’s unloading auger quickly filled the trailer at the edge of the field. Lucas Moreau

24 October 2026, Saturday

13:14 10 photosBusiness Tea gardens: green terraces on the hillsides From Sri Lanka to Vietnam, Rwanda to Japan, the rhythmic green patterns of tea plantations. Isabel Duarte

22 October 2026, Thursday

23:14 11 photosBusiness Harvest time in the vineyards: from grapes to landscapes Frames showing the season's work and scenery in Europe's vineyards. Grace Mwangi

21 October 2026, Wednesday

23:14 10 photosBusiness Beekeeping: honey season at the hives From mountain slopes to woodland edges, beekeepers' colourful hives and combs full of work. Callum Reid

20 October 2026, Tuesday

23:38 Technology Solar panels raised above crops: first results from an Asher Valley trial A two-hectare trial near Bramley Cross that grows vegetables and soft fruit beneath raised solar panels has produced its first full season of data, with some crops doing better in partial shade. Samuel Adeyemi

17:49 Business Asher Valley grain growers lock in prices with millers through three-year contracts A shared online platform run by the growers' cooperative has matched more than 80 farms with regional mills on fixed-price deals, offering both sides shelter from swings in the commodity market. Elena Sokolova

16:33 News Asher Valley wheat harvest beats five-year average despite a wet spring Farmers in the Asher Valley have brought in a wheat crop well above recent averages, figures from the Growers' Cooperative show, after a dry, warm finish to the summer rescued fields that were waterlogged at sowing. Hannah Okoye