ÌÇÐÄTV

On Friday 12 August, BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today programme visited the ÌÇÐÄTV Crop Centre to find out about research to increase vegetable yields, and quality, in the face of increasing pressures on climate change and food security.

 The programme includes:

• Dr Rosemary Collier investigating sources of resistance to lettuce pests.
• Dr Charlotte Allender discussing the use of carrot diversity sets to look for useful traits such as disease resistance and tolerance to drought.
• Dr Graham Teakle examining nitrogen-use efficiency in oil seed rape.

Listen to the programme on

In an interview with ÌÇÐÄTV's Knowledge Centre, Dr Rosemary Collier and Dr Graham Teakle discuss ways to increase the sustainability of crop production.

Research led by the ÌÇÐÄTV Crop Centre has developed a unique collection of information about the disease resistance of 96 of the world’s onion varieties. It will be a crucial resource for commercial growers and seed producers trying to combat one of the most difficult diseases affecting onion crops. This work may also have benefits in terms of and reduced fertiliser consumption and enhanced drought tolerance.

The work on onions in this research funded by Defra (The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) is being carried out by .

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) has recently announced the first tranche of its £7 million Crop Improvement Research Club (CIRC) grants. The projects funded by BBSRC, the Scottish Government and 14 companies representing plant breeders, farmers and food processors, will carry out research to improve the quality and yield of oilseed rape, barley and wheat.

One of the awards goes to (a research leader of Plant-Virus Interactions), (a brassica geneticist) and (a researcher in brassica genomics) for a project entitled ‘Exploiting sources of resistance to Turnip yellows virus for deployment in oilseed rape’. Turnip yellows virus can reduce the seed yield of oilseed rape crops in the UK by up to 30%. Infected plants are largely symptomless and hence most farmers are unaware of the presence of the virus. This project looks to oilseed rape plants and wild relatives that have natural resistance to this virus with a view to identifying genetic markers that can be used for introducing these resistances into commercial varieties via modern breeding techniques.