News article

The new Lawrence Weaver Road headquarters includes offices, state-of-the-art laboratories, growth room facilities and meeting rooms, all improving and modernising NIAB’s facilities in Cambridge.

The science, benefits, drawbacks and regulatory issues surrounding new plant breeding techniques featured at a technical seminar organised jointly by BCPC and the Farmers Club, with industry and farmer attendance, in July 2019.

Climate change is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges facing our generation, with huge implications for the food, water, energy nexus which sustains life on earth. Tackling the causes and effects of climate change is increasing the focus and importance of NIAB’s research, at all stages of the crop improvement pipeline, writes Dr Tina Barsby, Chief Executive of NIAB.

Seed has been at the core of NIAB’s business since it was established in 1919, writes Margaret Wallace, NIAB's senior technical manager in its ACC team.

The ‘Green Book’, and its online equivalent at ukpesticideguide.co.uk, is THE essential reference for a wide range of audiences involved in pesticide use and recommendation. It covers all pesticide products and adjuvants approved for use in agriculture, amenity, forestry and horticulture, including new active ingredient profiles and many new formulations for a wide selection of different crops.

Modern wheat varieties carry a wide range of different genes associated with important traits, such as increased yield and disease resistance. It is impossible to capture all of these genes with a single genome sequence so additional genome sequences are required. Sequencing multiple wheat genomes allow for a more complete complement of wheat genes to be identified, particularly genes that are present in only a subset of individuals or are unique to one variety.

UK horticultural growers face increasing pressure from crop pests, weeds and diseases, due to a combination of new non-indigenous threats, emerging pesticide resistance issues and increasing regulatory pressure on the availability and type of plant protection products.

Dr Zhou will collaborate with research groups and companies in the UK, Europe and China to spearhead big data- based solutions in the areas of crop imaging, crop phenomics and AI-based analysis to underpin the digital transition underway in the agricultural sector.

Both science and industry require new methodologies for crop phenotyping and phenotypic analysis, alongside IoT (Internet of Things) smart sensor and AI-based solutions, to address big data challenges within the global food security agenda.

Moving day is getting closer and we're getting excited!

From 2nd February 2020 our new HQ site on Lawrence Weaver Road will be open for business. So please be patient while our teams, currently based at Huntingdon Road, move across to the new site in early February. Our phone numbers and emails remain the same but our postal address will change to 93 Lawrence Weaver Road, Cambridge, CB3 0LE

UK scientists are carrying out field studies to check whether the Brown Marmorated Stink Bug has established itself in UK fruit crops.

Horticultural researchers at NIAB EMR, and crop specialists at Berry Garden Growers, are monitoring seven fruit-growing sites in south-east England, utilising a trap containing the aggregation pheromone of the pest. The stink bug is a non-native species which has caused significant crop damage across Europe since its arrival in 2004.