360 articles
Silviculture
Silviculture is the science of controlling forest establishment, growth, composition, and health. Covers even-aged (clearcut, shelterwood, seed-tree) versus uneven-aged (selection) systems, their biodiversity, economic, and carbon trade-offs.
Simon Groot
Simon Nanne Groot (1934–2025) was a Dutch seed breeder, a sixth-generation seedsman who founded East-West Seed in the Philippines in 1982 and won the 2019 World Food Prize.
Slash-and-burn
Slash-and-burn, also called swidden or shifting cultivation, is a farming method that clears forest by cutting and burning, crops the ash-enriched land briefly, then leaves a long fallow; sustainable only under low population density with fallows near 10 years.
Smut (fungus)
Smut (fungus): plant disease caused by over 1000 biotrophic teliospore-forming fungi (Ustilago, Tilletia) that replace host seeds with black spore masses; includes corn smut, loose smut, and common bunt of wheat.
Socca (food)
Socca, also called farinata or fainá, is a thin chickpea-flour pancake from Nice, France, made of chickpea flour, water, olive oil, and salt, baked wood-fired at 280°C, gluten-free, and sold by the slice as street food.
Soil conservation
Soil conservation: practices preventing soil erosion, compaction, salinization, and fertility loss through cover crops, conservation tillage, terraces, windbreaks, and hedgerows; FAO's 2026 assessment finds erosion the worst threat and adoption lagging.
Soil fertility
Soil fertility: a soil's capacity to supply essential plant nutrients, governed by pH, cation exchange capacity, texture, and soil organic matter. Also called soil quality/health component; assessed via minimum data sets, managed through integrated nutrient management.
Soil improvement
Soil improvement: agricultural and geotechnical practices, from organic amendments, cover crops, and salinity reclamation to cement, MICP, and geopolymer stabilization, used to restore degraded soils and strengthen ground.
Soil survey
A soil survey is a field method in which soils across a landscape are examined, mapped, and classified to predict their suitability and limitations for land uses.
Sooty blotch and flyspeck
Sooty blotch and flyspeck (SBFS), caused by Gloeodes pomigena, Schizothyrium pomi, and over 100 related fungi, are superficial summer blemish diseases of apple and pear fruit that cut fresh-market value but cause no rot.
Sowing
Sowing: placing seed in soil to establish crops. Methods include broadcasting, seed drilling (Jethro Tull, 1731), precision planting, and no-till direct seeding; establishment, seed rate, and depth determine yield.
Soybean oil
Soybean oil is the vegetable oil extracted from soybean (Glycine max) seeds, ranking second only to palm oil in production, and in the United States a major biomass-based diesel feedstock.
Speculoos
Speculoos: Belgian caramelized biscuit, distinct from spiced Dutch speculaas; made famous by Lotus Bakeries (founded 1932, Lembeke) as Biscoff, also sold as cookie butter spread, now a top-5 global cookie brand.
Speed breeding
Speed breeding is a plant breeding method that uses extended photoperiods and controlled light and temperature to compress crop generation cycles, reaching up to 6 generations per year in wheat.
Spotted lanternfly
Spotted lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula), an invasive planthopper from China, first detected in Berks County, Pennsylvania in 2014; phloem-feeding pest of grapevines now in 19 US states and DC, managed by quarantines, insecticides, and kill-on-sight reporting.
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
SUNY ESF (SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry) is a public R2 doctoral college in Syracuse, New York, founded 1911 as a forestry college, with 25,000 acres of regional properties and the 1912 Ranger School in the Adirondacks.
Striga
Striga (witchweed) is a genus of root-parasitic Orobanchaceae weeds attacking maize, sorghum, rice, and millet in sub-Saharan Africa; obligate germination via strigolactones, haustorium-mediated nutrient theft, and yield losses near US$1 billion annually distinguish it.
Strip-till
Strip-till is a soil preparation method that tills narrow strips where crop rows will be planted, leaving the rest of the soil and residue undisturbed.
Sugar industry
Sugar industry: global sector producing sugar from sugar cane (tropical, perennial) and sugar beet (temperate, annual), with by-products bagasse, molasses, and ethanol; Brazil dominant exporter.
Suka kollu
Suka kollu, also called waru waru, is the pre-Hispanic raised-field agriculture of the Lake Titicaca basin, built from about 1000 BC and expanded under Tiwanaku.
Summer fallow
Summer fallow is a dryland farming practice in which cropland is left unplanted for a growing season so rainfall is stored in the soil for the following year's crop.
Sustainable agriculture
Sustainable agriculture, also called sustainable farming, is farming and food production that meets present and future needs while protecting environmental health, profitability, and social and economic equity.
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the Doomsday Vault: Norway's Arctic backup seed repository opened 26 February 2008, managed with NordGen and Crop Trust, holding 1,401,285 samples at −18 °C with a 4.5 million capacity.
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, SLU), founded 1977, is Sweden's sectoral university for agriculture, forestry and veterinary medicine, with main campuses in Alnarp, Uppsala and Umeå, four faculties, and about 4,251 full-time students.
System of Rice Intensification
The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) is an agronomic method for rice that uses young seedlings, wide spacing, and less water to raise yields, adopted in more than 50 countries.
Teak
Teak (Tectona grandis), also called sagwan, djati or kyun, is a valuable deciduous tropical hardwood tree native to India, Myanmar, Laos and Thailand, famous for durable, weather- and termite-resistant timber used in shipbuilding, furniture and decking, and grown in about 2.25 million ha of plantations.
Telangana Ku Haritha Hāram
Telangana Ku Haritha Hāram (Haritha Haram, later Vanamahotsavam) is Telangana, India's flagship afforestation programme launched 3 July 2015 by CM K. Chandrashekar Rao, aiming to raise tree cover from 24% to 33% via 230 crore saplings; 273 crore planted by 2023 amid survival-rate and Adivasi land-rights disputes.
Terroir
Terroir, or terruño, denotes how soil, climate, topography, and human practices together shape grape traits and the taste and quality of a wine, founding French appellation law.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving: U.S. federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November (Canada: second Monday of October), tied to the 1621 Plymouth-Wampanoag harvest feast, nationalized by Lincoln in 1863, date fixed by Congress in 1941 after FDR's 1939 'Franksgiving' change.
Thanksgiving (Canada)
Canadian Thanksgiving (Action de grâce) is Canada's harvest holiday on the second Monday of October, fixed by a 1957 proclamation, first nationally proclaimed in 1859, distinct from the American November holiday in date, legal history, and tone.