Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
Modern farming owes much to long-standing research that continues to pump out results and to provide valuable perspectives to guide the future of agricultural science, achievements that will be celebrated at a three-day international conference in May. The Future of Long-Term Experiments in Agricultural Science, from 21–23 May, is being organised by the Association of […]
Rothamsted Research welcomes Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s speech today on the future of the UK’s farming industry, “Farming for the Next Generation”.
One of the most ambitious programmes to provide lasting improvements in nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa begins today when a diverse multinational team of experts from agriculture to ethics start looking for ways to end dietary deficiencies in essential micronutrients. Rothamsted Research is contributing soil and crop expertise to the programme, known as GeoNutrition, which has received […]
Over a quarter of the world’s land could become significantly drier if global warming reaches 2ºC, according to new research from an international team including the University of East Anglia (UEA). The change would cause an increased threat of drought and wildfires. But limiting global warming to under 1.5ºC would dramatically reduce the fraction of the […]
Pioneering new technology is set to accelerate the global quest for crop improvement in a development which echoes the Green Revolution of the post war period. The speed-breeding platform developed by teams at the John Innes Centre, University of Queensland and University of Sydney, uses a glasshouse or an artificial environment with enhanced lighting to […]
A PhD student at the University of Dundee and James Hutton Institute has been selected as Young Plant Scientist 2018 in the fundamental research category by the European Plant Science Organisation (EPSO). Shumei Wang, based at the Institute’s Cell and Molecular Sciences group, has discovered a new pathway involved in infection by Phytophthora infestans, the pathogen responsible for […]
UK herb growers will be able to protect their crops with a new weed control product in record time, following successful trials as part of AHDB’s £1.4m crop protection project. To achieve this approval so quickly, the team used intelligence from other EU countries, collaborating closely with other manufacturers and growers, to ensure trials on […]
The science behind the home-pregnancy test is now being trialled to detect the presence of diseases, which can devastate fields of vegetable crops, including the Christmas sprout. Trials are underway to help protect crops of Brassicas – sprouts, broccoli, cabbage – and onions, which generated more than £356 million for UK agriculture last year. Diseases […]
In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a team of researchers from Italy and the US record their study of the effects on honey bees of agriculture that exposes the insects to both poor nutrition (low quality nectar) and pesticides (neonicotinoids). “Our results provide the first demonstration that […]
By Carly Stevens There are lots of reasons why we enter our chosen professions but for a lot of scientists working within the field of environmental science a big motivator is that we want to ‘make a difference’. We know that we aren’t going to single handily save the planet but we would like to […]
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