Waitrose Collaborative Training Partnership
Waitrose working to encourage sustainable food production
News
Celebrating Success
Congratulations to Catherine Walsh, one of our WCTP students, who gave a presentation at the UK Plant Physiology Conference 2021 entitled ‘Lost in photorespiration: the C2 ammonia rescue’.
Cover crops – is it worth it?
Written by: Mandy Stoker My farmer’s survey reveals the current state of play and provides an insight into views of this increasingly popular options for soil preservation. Agriculture is undergoing…
Can the air tell us when to apply crop protective product onto our crops?
Written by: Anastasia Sokolidi The current way that we approach the treatment of our crop with regards to infection is that when we see visible symptoms we spray. Sometimes, in certain crops we apply …
Solitary ground-nesting bees and their nesting preferences
Written by: Konstantinos Tsiolis There are more than 20,000 known bee species worldwide which vary significantly in their size, habits and appearance having adapted according to the plants they like t…
Plasticulture: A double-edged sword
Written by Sam Cusworth: Plasticulture; the use of plastics in agriculture, is a worldwide practice and has been ever-expanding since the 1950s. Replacing the traditional materials of straw, manure, p…
The potential benefits of managed wildflower strips in apple and pear orchards on soil health
Written by: Max Davis. A consciousness identifying the need for sustainable practices within agriculture can be traced back thousands of years. Ancient Romans were aware of the degenerative effects of…
I attended the Global Food Security Policy Lab- and it was great!
Written by: Miranda Burke. The global food security programme, if you haven’t heard of it, is a UK cross-government programme on food security research. They use interdisciplinary and whole system r…
Rocket science: Telling the story of the C2 enigma
Written by: Catherine Walsh Purely by accident, the plan for my PhD research has gained some highly exciting yet potentially controversial hypotheses to test. I am attributing this fresh development t…
Celebrating Success
Congratulations to one of our WCTP students, Keira Dymond, on the publication of an article entitled ‘The role of insect pollinators in avocado production: A global review’ in The Journa…
DIY Laboratory: Apple Research under the Dome
Written by: Alex Bleasdale If there is one thing I have learned in the last year, it’s that working from home is not ideal for plant research. Living at home, close to my university had its benefits…
Setting up a field experiment to assess the erosion control potential of cover crops
Written by: Helena Ripley. My PhD research is focussed on the use of cover crops to control soil erosion in hillside orchards in Spain. I am currently working on my third data chapter: a mesocosm tria…
Why what goes on in space matters for crops in a field
Written by: Hannah McGrath Whether it’s recent Space X launches or the Perseverance Rover landing on Mars, there seems to be a lot going on above our heads. If anyone reading this follows me on Twit…
Can you judge a potato by its cover?
Written by: Ed Hill-King I am a PhD student with the Waitrose CTP in the first year of my four-year programme and beginning my laboratory research in the Lancaster Environment Centre. My research is f…
Making the Most of Your PIPS
Written by: Dion Garrett – My experiences of working with an industry partner and taking advantage of the opportunities they have to offer As part of the Waitrose Collaborative Training Partner…
Rothamsted Research RRES Symposium – WCTP Student Successes!
Rothamsted Reseach held their RRES symposium (online) between 22 – 26 February 2021, with award successes for a number of Rothamsted’s WCTP students: Final Year Awards: Out of 23 final yea…
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