News article

The challenge for 21st century agriculture is to double food production over the next 40 years, on a finite amount of land and using increasingly scarce and costly resources.

Dr Tina Barsby, recently appointed chief executive of Cambridge-based National Institute for Agricultural Botany (NIAB), has welcomed calls at the Conservative Party Conference from NFU President Peter Kendall for a fundamental shift in UK spending on agricultural research to meet emerging challenges of food security and climate change.

A group of 10 French farmers visited the National Institute of Agricultural Botany to learn first hand about issues facing their British counterparts – and discovered there were many similarities.

It was part of a fact-finding visit in East Anglia to look at renewable crop alternatives and gather information about business and financial issues facing cereal farmers.

A revived interest in the faba bean could see it playing an increasingly significant role in UK food production. Research scientists at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge are hoping that their ground breaking research will result in improved, disease resistant faba beans becoming a more popular crop in Great Britain.

Dr Tina Barsby is the new Chief Executive of the Cambridge-based plant science organisation National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB). 

The impact of recent agricultural changes from the ecologist’s perspective was debated in a conference with leading experts hosted by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany.

It was entitled: “Changes in land use; does this relate to CAP reform and what are the agro-ecology repercussions?” The event was supported by the British Ecological Society under the auspices of the Agricultural Ecology Special Interest Group.

Dr Tina Barsby, chief executive of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB), is writing to Dame Suzi Leather, chair of the new Defra Council of Food Policy Advisers, inviting Council Members to visit NIAB in Cambridge as part of their work to identify the measures needed to ensure the UK has a secure and sustainable food supply.  

Growers have been alerted to some potential seed-borne disease problems in wheat, oilseed rape and field beans following wet and showery periods at critical times in the growing season.

Dr Jane Thomas, plant pathologist at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, said health tests on seeds were vital if growers wished to save them to sow the following year.

Leading plant breeders and officials from Defra PVS visited NIAB recently, to discuss proposed changes to the National List testing process for winter wheat. NIAB has been trialling a new system which would no longer require the submission of 300 ears as part of DUS testing.

The National Institute of Agricultural Botany and the Soil Association found they shared much common ground during a lively debate on feeding the world’s expanding population.

The debate was held for pupils from two Cambridgeshire schools as part of NIAB’s School Open Day based on the theme of Understanding Plant Genetics, from Breeder to Consumer. The day also included a programme of hands-on learning activities led by scientists on the NIAB farm for 80 pupils aged 13 - 15 from Impington Village College and Parkside Community College.