Videos

Fertilization is crucial in agriculture, but over-fertilization causes environmental pollution and all-rich algae growth in our watercourses. Wouldn't it be great if plants and crops could grow well with less fertilizer? That's what Astrid Gadeyne wants to achieve in her PhD.

Frederik Engelen is working on vaccines for cattle. This way, he wants to ensure that beef does not become contaminated with a dangerous variant of the e-coli bacterium.

Lucas Vanhaelewyn (Universiteit Gent) studies plants to try to unravel how they actually 'see' and respond to different types of lights. This knowledge can help to optimize the conditions for plants and crops to grow better.

Like humans, plants are constantly attacked by diseases. Joren De Ryck (VIB - UGent) does research on a bacterium called Ralstonia, which can infect and kill all these crops in a few weeks time.

Ever heard of pyrolysis? Then chances are you have a self-cleaning oven. But pyrolysis more than a fancy option in a modern oven. Willem Vercruysse uses this method to make fertilizers and water purification products from microalgae and ivy. 

Once upon a time there was a bright and passionate young microbiologist who dreamt of growing healthy crops on bad lands. But how on earth could she grow crops on land devoid of life? ... Are you wondering how this fairy tale continues? Let Tori Langill take you along in her 'magical' research story.

Leila Paquay turns to funghi and bacteria to grow high-quality industrial hemp - not to be confused with drug type cannabis.

A question: if a pig farmer has 10.000 pigs and you know that 1 pig produces 4.5kg of manure each day, how much manure does the farmer have to deal with on a yearly basis? That's right: a sh*tload of manure. A good thing Natalia Donoso is researching how pig farmers can process this manure in a sustainable way.

Winter, with its cold temperatures, is not the favourite season of our farmers. Certain plants and crops suffer greatly from the cold. But did you know that these plants themselves have the key to withstand the cold? Antoine Persyn explains exactly how this works.