Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
Professor Kenneth Wilson of Lancaster Environment Centre has flown to Zambia to assess the Fall armyworm outbreaks that are devastating crops in southern Africa. The Fall armyworm – a caterpillar that eats its way through staple cereal crops, like maize, and other crops, including beans and peas – poses a major threat to food security […]
It seems we are facing a Courgette Crisis. Although it’s really just a bit of a run on green vegetables, it does remind us that actually, courgettes – and now iceberg lettuce – shouldn’t be ‘February vegetables’. This raises some important issues about what we as consumers have learned to expect when it comes to […]
Headline news that UK supermarkets are rationing sales of fresh produce after bad weather hit supplies from southern Europe highlights the critical role of applied horticulture research focused on improving home-grown production, according to Professor Mario Caccamo, the newly appointed MD of Kent-based NIAB EMR. “As the UK prepares for a future outside the EU […]
Daniel Wilson, a PhD student in Warwick University‘s School of Life Sciences and the Warwick Crop Centre, won first prize for his poster at the Royal Entomological Society Post-Graduate Forum held at Sheffield University on 2nd–3rd February. Daniel’s project is funded by the Waitrose Agronomy Group and the University of Warwick.
The small but mighty chickpea packs a dietary and environmental punch. They are an important source of nutrition, especially protein, for billions of people across the world. Additionally, bacteria that live in root nodules of chickpea plants pull in atmospheric nitrogen, increasing soil productivity. But breeding new varieties of chickpeas with desirable traits – such […]
When they are attacked by herbivores, many plants call in reinforcements. To this end, they emit odours. These odours attract wasps, for example, that are parasites and in search for host animals. The wasps lay their eggs into the caterpillars, thereby killing them: this means fewer butterflies and voracious caterpillars in the next generation. […]
What the future may hold for Plant Protection Products (PPPs) in the UK is explored in the latest edition of AHDB’s Horizon reports. The new AHDB report published today looks at the various pieces of legislation impacting the use of PPPs in the UK and puts forward four broad options for post-Brexit regulation.
UK crop research organisation NIAB has appointed Professor Mario Caccamo as Managing Director of NIAB EMR, its Kent-based horticultural and environmental research and development division.
Trees may be easy to spot on the plains of Africa but they are often overlooked as a source of income for farmers. A University of Illinois (USA) study shows trees on farms may help reduce rural poverty and maintain biodiversity.
There are about 400,000 species of plants in the world. Humans use approximately 10–15% of them to cover our basic needs, such as food, medicine and shelter, as well as other needs, such as recreation, art, and craft. But why and how have humans selected only a small fraction of all plants to utilize? A […]
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