29 June 2011

Science offers answer to sustainable UK food crops
Scientists are developing new varieties of super strawberries in one bid to support crop productivity in the UK as climate change reshapes Britains agricultural landscape.

A new breeding programme that promises to make strawberries in the UK better cope with climate change, need less water and require fewer chemicals is currently being undertaken by scientists from East Malling Research (EMR), it emerged yesterday.

It is one of a number of innovative methods the UKs agriculture sector is being encouraged to use to deal with the threats from climate change to the food industry.

The EMR project, which is being funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), is crossing robust UK and foreign lines of the berry to draw out desirable traits such as disease resistance, high productivity and temperature tolerance.

"Consumer demand for fresh strawberries in the UK has been growing year on year since the early 1990s," Dr. David Simpson from East Malling Research, said. "The future will be challenging due to the impacts of climate change and the withdrawal of many pesticides, but the breeding programme at EMR is using the latest scientific approaches to develop a range of varieties that will meet the needs of our growers for the future."

Agriculture efficiencies
In a speech yesterday at a conference focusing on current threats to the global food industry, Richard Miller, head of Sustainability at the Technology Strategy Board (TSB), which helps businesses become more sustainable through innovation, said there were four major areas where the countrys agriculture sector could create efficiencies through innovation: crop productivity, livestock sustainability, food waste reduction and greenhouse gas reduction.

"When you put all of those together, we get a whole bunch of areas where technology could provide part of the solution," Miller said. "But there are no magic bullets here. There are a whole lot of things you could do about resource efficiencyYouve got a whole bunch of things around waste reduction in general, a whole bunch of things around genetic improvement of the crops and livestock that we use."

Modifying crops to be more robust and pest resistant, such as EMR is doing with its strawberries, could be a solution to increasing crop productivity, which has been tailing off in the UK. Additionally, creating crops that use less water and are resistant to climate change will be crucial in a market that will soon be forced to feed 9.5 billion people, Miller said.

Resilient crops
Breeding crops that require fewer chemicals and pesticides could also cut down on agricultures greenhouse gas emissions, which primarily emerge from chemicals used in fertilizers, Miller said. Controlling livestock reproduction and better managing animals could have similar results.

More robust produce has the potential to cut down on food waste as well. According to Miller, 30 per cent of food that is produced is lost before it ever leaves the farm gate due in part to poor quality vegetation.

Food waste
Miller identified reducing food waste as one of the major areas where agricultural efficiency could improve.

"Overall, 55-60 per cent of food that we produce in this country goes missing," Miller said. "Its not actually used its wasted. There are new production methods, new logistics and ways of managing crops post-harvest, new packaging systems and consumer education which could help that process."

Precision farming
Precision farming methods were highlighted by the speaker as a means of using fewer chemicals and cutting down on both water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The umbrella term covers technologies such as machines that place precise measurements of pesticides directly on weeds and systems of sensors that identify and react to climate conditions in which pests would attack crops.

Strawberry breeding programme
According to DEFRA, the new line of strawberries will be trialed and assessed based on several of the measures Miller concentrated on, such as yield, percentage waste and disease resistance. Additional testing points listed in the release include taste, size and shelf life.

EMR plans to hold a Fruit Focus event next month in which representatives from the Strawberry Breeding Club will be able to discuss two new UK strawberry varieties, DEFRA said.

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