AHDB Strategic Cereal Farms aim to putting cutting-edge research and innovation into practice on commerical farms. Each farm hosts field-scale demonstrations, with experiences shared with the wider farming community. Niab has partnered with AHDB to deliver the new Strategic Cereal Farm Midlands. Will Oliver hosts Strategic Cereal Farm Midlands. The farm is keen to invetsigate how to optimise inputs, whilst maintaining yield and improving rotational management.

Niab's Farming Systems and Pathology teams have collaborated to deliver three inital workpackages:

1. Management of maize residue for establishment and disease risks of a following winter wheat crop in a direct drill system
2. Optimising organic amendments in nutrient management planning for winter wheat
3. Testing novel technologies to improve disease and nitrogen management in winter wheat (in collaboration with SporeSense, a technology company that uses AI biosensors to aid early disease detection)

Partners

Funders

Duration

2025-2031

More information on the project website

Niab, in partnership with SRUC and ADAS, is delivering a two‑year AHDB‑funded pilot project to evaluate the performance of biofungicides against Septoria tritici in winter wheat.

As interest grows in biological alternatives to conventional fungicides, these trials provide independent, field‑scale evidence for levy payers on how biofungicides perform under commercial conditions and how they can complement existing programmes.

Trials are being run across three sites (Midlothian (SRUC), Herefordshire (ADAS) and Hampshire (Niab) using a single, standardised protocol followed by all partners. Each site includes two replicated trials: one trial using a septoria‑susceptible variety and one using a moderately resistant variety.

Seven biofungicides are being assessed, applied either alone or alongside a half‑rate fungicide programme to determine whether biologicals can enhance disease control or support reduced fungicide inputs. All products are foliar applied during the normal spray window, following manufacturer recommendations.
Initial findings will be shared at the AHDB Agronomy Conference in December 2026, with the full dataset available at the end of the project.

Partners

Funders

Duration

August 2025-December 2027

Latest news

Crop Production Magazine - March 2026: Theory To Field: Putting nature to the test

More information

Project website

We are working to create genomic resources and to breed for increased photosynthetic efficiency in the African orphan leafy crop Cleome gynandra. This work is a collaboration between Niab, the University of Cambridge (the Department of Plant Sciences and the Crop Science Centre) and the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin.

Duration

2022-2027

Partners

Latest news

COP30 film highlights how Crop Science Centre collaborations are empowering farmers through sustainable innovation

Growing More With Less | Crop Science Centre

 

To be marketed and/or awarded Plant Breeders Rights (PBR) in the UK, all agricultural varieties must pass DUS (Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability) testing. This ensures that new varieties are unique, with distinctness determined by visually comparing candidate varieties against other varieties in common knowledge (the ‘variety collection’).

In this Defra-funded project we are exploring ways to accelerate variety registration using genomic prediction approaches. Working on barley, we are refining and optimising our machine learning prediction models, focussed on prediction of individual barley DUS characteristics (phenotypes), to facilitate earlier selection of similar varieties from the variety collection for field distinctness assessments. Predictions models are being tested in parallel to current DUS testing procedures, with consideration of logistical and technological challenges for future implementation. Software for user-implementation of the finalised models is also being developed to support the use of the analysis pipeline by DUS testing centres.

Duration

September 2025-March 2028

Funder

Several EU-funded projects have investigated methods of improving soil management practices and creating viable and sustainable alternatives to peat as a soilless substrate. The data and outcomes of one of these projects ‘EXCALIBUR’ will now be exploited by transforming agri-food by-products either into soil fertilising products or sustainable alternatives to peat substrates.

Within the project, Niab is working with ReCoir Ltd to recycle and repurpose spent coir for fruit and vegetable production. 

Spin-Fert website

Partners

A total of 19 other partners from EU countries will collaborate with Niab

Funding

Horizon Europe

Duration

June 2024 to November 2027

Disease management in wheat, barley and oilseed rape never stands still. On top of variation in seasonal disease pressures, pathogen populations continue to evolve, which can impact fungicide efficacy (due to resistance/insensitivity) and varietal disease resistance. Fungicide active ingredients and products continue to be withdrawn from and introduced to the market. As a result, there is a continued need for robust, independent information on the efficacy of established and new fungicides.

The AHDB Fungicide Performance project forms part of a long-running trial series, with the first fitted fungicide-efficacy curves produced for winter wheat in 1996. The trial series for barley started in 2002 and the oilseed rape series began in 2006. The current project format was introduced in 2015, when all trial series were combined in a single programme.

Results are relevant to commercial use and simple to interpret for levy payers. Agronomists also play a crucial role to turn efficacy data into practical field recommendations that maximise crop margins and minimise the development of fungicide resistance.

Partners

ADAS (lead), Niab, SRUC and Harper Adams University

Funder

AHDB

Duration

June 2025-July 2028 

Activities

• Charts – referred to as ‘dose-response curves’ – that show the relative efficacy of fungicides against the target diseases at a range of doses (impact on disease control and yield).
• Contributes to a long-term information resource, which enables the monitoring of performance trends of products and active ingredients (to track shifts in pathogen sensitivity to fungicides).
• Aims to deliver information to levy payers in time for the first season of commercial use of new fungicides.

Resources

The latest data, as well as historic data for other diseases (e.g. barley powdery mildew and oilseed rape sclerotinia), is available via the AHDB Fungicide Performance webpage.

Nature has already run millions of evolutionary “experiments.” By analysing ancient environmental DNA, AEGIS will identify lost genetic traits, ancestral diversity and beneficial species interactions that helped plants survive past stress episodes.
Led by University of Copenhagen, AEGIS will:

• Reconstruct past ecosystems. By reading ancient environmental DNA alongside climate and archaeological records, AEGIS reveals how ecosystems shifted through periods of climate change and human land use.
• Trace the evolution of agriculture. The project uncovers how early farming practices and domesticated crops responded to environmental pressures, showing how cultivation systems and plant genomes have changed through thousands of years.
• Discover natural resilience. By comparing ancient and modern genomes, AEGIS pinpoints genetic adaptations and beneficial interactions - for example, between plants, soils, and microbes - that historically supported stress tolerance and productivity.
• Translate insights into new solutions. These discoveries provide a foundation for developing climate-smart crops, sustainable land management strategies, and farming systems that strengthen biodiversity while reducing dependency on fertilisers and pesticides.

AEGIS website

Duration

2024-2031

Lead Partner

Other partners

Carlsberg Research Laboratory, EMBL-EBI, Institut Pasteur, Seoul National University, University of Aarhus, University of Bremen, University of California, University of Cambridge, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Zurich, Wageningen, Wellcome Sanger Institute.

Funders

Ensembl Plants contains high-quality annotated reference genome assemblies for >100 model and crop species. Numerous plant genetic resources have been generated to capture and exploit genetic diversity, e.g. association mapping/diversity panels, many of which now come with founder genome assemblies and progeny variant datasets. However significant user bioinformatic, genetic and statistical expertise is required to analyse these genetic resources and interpret results in the context of the genes, genetic variants and appropriate reference genomes.

We will establish the 'Ensembl Plant Populations' platform - a web-tool containing existing population-based sequence and variant data, supporting users to run statistically sound genetic analyses. We focus on seven plant/crop species of relevance to UK researchers: wheat, barley, rice, brassica, arabidopsis, tomato and oat. The tool will provide an integrated pipeline to undertake genetic analyses from start to finish, including: (i) investigation of predicted power to detect genetic loci, (ii) adjustable forward genetic analysis settings, (iii) interactive genome-wide view of results, and (iv) presentation of useful information linked to genes and variants.

News

Ensembl 2025

Improved access to plant genetic resources to drive crop innovation

Duration

2023-2026

Partner

Funder

Chemical fertilisers have helped increase food production, but their environmental impacts and long-term sustainability are growing concerns. Wheat Alliance addresses this challenge by exploring natural routes to improved crop nutrition through beneficial interactions between wheat and soil microorganisms.

A central focus of Wheat Alliance is to understand how wheat genetics influences the selection and maintenance of a beneficial root microbiome, particularly under nutrient-limited conditions that reflect real world farming constraints. To do this, the project will exploit the exceptional diversity of wheat germplasm available at Niab, including extensive novel genetic diversity introgressed from wheat’s close relatives into the restricted elite bread wheat gene pool.

This includes synthetic hexaploid wheats (SHW) and tetraploid wheat derived populations, generated by crossing wild emmer, emmer, and durum with modern winter and spring bread wheats to boost genetic diversity. Thousands of new wheat lines are available, including diverse multi-founder experimental populations, enabling systematic discovery of genetic factors that shape plant–microbe interactions and nutrient capture.

Using advanced phenotyping and data analytics, the project will link wheat genotype to root microbiome composition and function, and develop predictive approaches to identify the most effective plant–microbe combinations. Together, these outputs aim to support the development of wheat varieties and management strategies that maintain yields while reducing reliance on synthetic fertilisers.

Project team members at the annual meeting

News

New Research Aims To Boost Sustainable Wheat Nutrition Through Microbes

Duration

2024-2027

Partners

Funding

Facing Forwards aims to understand and exploit variation in epidermal features to future-proof cereal crops to changing climates.

To achieve this, we need to define the genes and developmental mechanisms controlling epidermal properties and how these affect plant performance. 

Focusing on barley and wheat, the project explores the coordinating genetic network controlling epidermal traits linked to plant performance. These genes promote cuticular wax deposition as well as formation and spacing of specialised epidermal cells (such as stomata, epidermal hairs and silica cells) which help plants cope with stressful environments.

The project uses fine-scale cuticular profiling and single cell transcriptomics to reconstruct pathways leading to different cell types and cuticular chemistries, alongside mutant alleles in genes known to control specific features. Further, the project also explores the impact of altered epidermal patterning on leaf physiology and function - including stomatal conductance and intrinsic water use efficiency. These approaches will assess spatial and temporal control of epidermal patterning and the physiological impact of trait variation to identify desirable traits and ideotypes for crop production in future climates.

A summary of the genes/genetic loci investigated in the project, and their predicted effect on plant physiology. Source: Sarah McKim, University of Dundee.

More information

Project timings

2024-2027

Partners

Funders