News article

The National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) and The Arable Group (TAG) are at an advanced stage of merger discussions to create a national, independent centre for applied crop research and information.

Both organisations believe a merged operation, focused on the needs of progressive arable farmers, will provide an unrivalled source of high quality, unbiased research and information, offering expertise and services along the length of the seed, variety and crop protection development pipelines.

The National Institute of Agricultural Botany is investigating a potential new race of yellow rust on winter wheat. 

In 2008 the United Kingdom Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey (UKCPVS) collected two isolates of yellow rust from Group 1 wheat Solstice and confirmed that they were virulent on seedlings of the variety.  Solstice currently has a resistance rating of 9 and, until last season, was resistant to all known races of yellow rust. 

Two scientists from NIAB have begun a series of visits to schools in the region to promote the National Year of Food and Farming.

Mike Day, who is responsible for the vegetable trials programme at NIAB, and fellow scientist Dr Lydia Smith, started by giving a humorous and informative illustrated talk about the origins of the food we eat, as well as our genetic make up, to pupils at Foxton Primary School.

Three new varieties have been added to the 2010 BBRO/NIAB Recommended List of Sugar Beet Varieties.  This is fewer than recent years and with withdrawals means there are now 17 varieties to choose from.

NIAB has announced the appointment to the NIAB Trust of Cambridgeshire-based grower John Shropshire.  Mr Shropshire heads up the family farming company G’s Marketing Limited, based at Barway, near Ely, which supplies salad crops and field vegetables from 25 co-operative farms covering 15,000 acres in the UK and 10,000 acres in Spain.

Dr Tina Barsby, chief executive of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge, has welcomed the call from Professor John Beddington, the government’s chief scientific adviser, for significant investment in scientific research to meet the world’s future food needs.  

Budding scientists, young and old, are invited to become a pathologist for the day as part of National Science Week – not with humans or animals, but with agricultural crops.

Latest results from NIAB’s Labtest service suggest that while Potato Leaf Roll Virus (PLRV) is largely absent this year, a quarter of farm-saved seed potatoes destined for the 2009 crop have been infected at some level with Potato Virus Y (PVY), one of the most serious potato viruses affecting crop yields and tuber quality.

David Baulcombe, Royal Society Research Professor and Professor of Botany at the University of Cambridge, has joined the Board of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB).