Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
A research collaboration between REMIN, the James Hutton Institute, James Hutton Limited and a group of Tayside soft fruit growers led by Arbuckle’s of Invergowrie has been awarded funding to investigate the economic potential of honeyberries grown using volcanic rock dust fertiliser.
Why is a banana leaf a million times bigger than a common heather leaf? Why are leaves generally much larger in tropical jungles than in temperate forests and deserts? The textbooks say it’s a balance between water availability and overheating. But it’s not that simple. Research published today as a cover story in the journal Science, led […]
Unifying the approaches to plant and animal breeding through the use of genomic selection is crucial to achieving global food security, according to a team of world leading scientists. In a paper published this week in the international journal Nature Genetics, scientists from NIAB, the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute and Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) assert that global collaboration and […]
The region’s orchards are an integral part of the landscape and an important source of biodiversity. They are also a rich, but under-researched, historical record. Now the Landscape Group, part of the University of East Anglia’s (UEA’s) School of History, has been awarded £477,700 of National Lottery funding for a three-year project, Orchard’s East, to survey […]
A sophisticated mechanism that allows plant roots to quickly respond to changes in soil conditions has been identified by an international research team. Scientists from the John Innes Centre and Sapienza University, Rome, combined mathematical and computer modelling with molecular genetics to show how roots can regulate their growth via the interactions of two antagonistic […]
Native plants need a helping hand if they are to recover from invasive rhododendron, Scottish ecologists have discovered. A new study in the Journal of Applied Ecology reveals that – even at sites cleared of rhododendron 30 years ago – much native flora has still not returned. As a result, rhododendron eradication programmes may need to be […]
Researchers at the University of York working on a 700-year old abandoned agricultural site in Tanzania have shown that soil erosion benefited farming practices for some 500 years. The study, published in Quaternary Research, shows that historical practices of capturing soils that were eroded from the hillside could be valuable to modern day farming techniques.
Researchers have increased plant productivity by boosting levels of three proteins involved in photosynthesis, offering hope for improving food crops In field trials, the scientists saw 14–20% increases in the productivity of their modified tobacco plants, according to the new study published in the journal Science.
Rothamsted Research has secured government funding to kick-start its new five-year strategic programme, Smart Crop Protection (SCP), to control sustainably the pests, pathogens and weeds that destroy nearly a third of crops grown worldwide. The investment of circa £6.3 million covers the programme’s first three years.
A Blueberry Breeding Consortium including members from three European countries held its inaugural meeting at the James Hutton Institute in Dundee yesterday. The new consortium will fund a blueberry breeding programme which will deliver new and improved blueberry varieties, suited to European growing conditions and carrying traits desirable to growers, retailers and consumers. It has […]
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