Soil is, and always will be, a very valuable resource. Soil is critical for food production and regulating several services to the wider environment, such as flood regulation and storing carbon. Soil is not perfect, however. Occasionally landslides and soil erosion can impact our lives causing significant delays and disruption requiring new approaches and landscape management strategies.
The unpreceded COVID-19 health, economic and societal crisis has understandably dominated Gateway’s recent activity. Gateway, on behalf of the SEFARI Directors Executive, has prepared a report on the huge effort that all institutes and staff have undertaken to help the fight against COVID-19.
SEFARI experts in plant diversity, human nutrition and soil science have been exploring variation in wild and domesticated food plants relevant to nutrition and health. In the longer term, this research could help to improve the nutritional potential of our crops but in the meantime, you can experiment for yourself by growing wild or unusual seeds.
In recognition of the developing COVID-19 situation, Arable Scotland 2020 will move to a virtual format with key activity taking place on the original date of the Thursday 2nd July and a suite of webinars, videos, podcasts, articles, press coverage and resources delivered online to continue to deliver the important messages and content of this key industry event. Hopefully even more people will be able to engage this way and we can collectively use this as a focal point to meet and interact in a virtual way.
This year the theme is 'alternative crops' and the four zones are:
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Along with so many other things, Covid-19 scuppered our plans to travel the length and breadth of the UK delivering sheep health road-shows in association with NSA and SRUC. Nevertheless, we were all keen to ensure that these important messages were still delivered so we agreed to embrace modern technology and try online webinars to inform all those interested on the risks posed by these “iceberg” diseases.
Soil is fundamental to life on our planet. Soil can be thought of as our earth’s protective skin. It nourishes us with food, provides fresh air and water, allows a rich biodiversity to flourish, protects us from climate change impacts and also provides timber to be produced for building materials. It must be protected or we will perish. It is a vital resource - particularly in the communities that primarily live off the land, such as in our crofting communities.
Many of us look forward to spring and at SEFARI we are no different. It’s the time our gardens start to come back to life and usually at this time we would also be sharing our knowledge and enthusiasm with families young and old at the Edinburgh Science Festival. We really enjoy developing and running a range of free to access activities hosted at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh during the festival each year.
We are currently facing three major global challenges: climate change, biodiversity loss and the development of sustainable food production systems. Ideal solutions to these challenges would be ones that deliver win-wins, addressing at least two of these simultaneously. Our work on understanding the role of biodiversity in crop production systems considers whether such win-wins are possible.
Since the emergence of late blight (Phytophthora infestans) in the 1840s this disease has presented a major challenge to the potato industry, with annual losses estimated to be £55 million in the UK.