News article

For the full press BCPC press release click here.

Key changes to pathogen populations over the past 50 years will be outlined at this year’s UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey (UKCPVS) stakeholder event.

Cereal pathogen populations have been monitored in the UK since 1967 and, to celebrate this golden anniversary, UKCPVS project manager and NIAB pathologist Dr Sarah Holdgate will reflect on the major population changes since recording began and the implications these changes had on plant breeding.

Headline news that UK supermarkets are rationing sales of fresh produce after bad weather hit supplies from southern Europe highlights the critical role of applied horticulture research focused on improving home-grown production, according to Professor Mario Caccamo, the newly appointed MD of Kent-based NIAB EMR.

The 100-year-old NIAB crest is guaranteed pride of place in the crop research organisation’s new Cambridge headquarters, due to open in 2019, thanks to a donation from a royal charitable fund.

UK crop research organisation NIAB has appointed Professor Mario Caccamo as Managing Director of NIAB EMR, its Kent-based horticultural and environmental research and development division.

The NIAB Ornamentals team will be exhibiting for the third year at IPM 2017 on the ‘Plant Breeders’ Rights in Europe’ stand alongside the European Community Plant Variety Office, the Bundessortenamt (Germany), the Netherlands In

Researchers have identified genetic markers for disease tolerance that suggest UK ash trees may have a fighting chance against a fungal infection that has the potential to wipe out 90% of the European ash tree population.

The disease, called ash dieback, was first identified in Poland, where it devastated the native ash tree population. It rapidly spread across northern Europe, and was discovered in the UK in 2012.

              Press Release

Growers can access the scientific theory behind cover crops, thanks to the results of a comprehensive review funded by AHDB Cereals & Oilseeds.

Scientists from the University of East Anglia, working at the John Innes Centre and with NIAB and the Earlham Institute, have identified the cluster of genes responsible for reproductive traits in the Primula flower, first noted as important by Charles Darwin more than 150 years ago.

NIAB is proposing to improve and modernise its Park Farm site, near Histon on the outskirts of Cambridge, to bring the facilities up-to-date.