Food and Drink is a hugely important sector for Scotland and the UK economy, generating a turnover of £14.4 billion and £5.3 billion of GVA (gross value added) for the Scottish economy in 2014 alone. This sector not only has an impact on Scotland’s economy but food production can also has a significant influence on our environment, health and society and these are all areas that SEFARI research aims to a make a difference.
You may be wondering what we can do to help? Well, at the Centre for Sustainable Cropping (CSC) near Dundee, we’re aiming to develop a cropping system that can produce high quality food, whilst still maintaining a healthy environment. This means using what we understand about ecology to work with the environment to improve the health and physical structure of the soil, minimise the losses of nutrients and chemicals from cultivated fields, and support a rich variety of farmland wildlife.
Agriculture faces many challenges, including a warming climate, more frequent occurrence of extreme climate events and increased incidence and severity of crop diseases. Control of plant diseases with major resistance genes has not always proven durable and application of crop protection chemicals is becoming problematic with the development of pathogen insensitivity to the chemicals, as well as increased regulation.
New fruit varieties of soft fruit are continually produced by breeders, who aim to develop plants with improved characteristics in line with consumer tastes and trends as well as modern growing and production systems.
Farming practices are evolving in response to intensification, diversification and climate change. As farm management has changed, pathogens of livestock have also adapted to optimise their reproduction and transmission opportunities. Our work, supported by Animal and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB), has focused on the control and biology of the economically important roundworm Nematodirus battus; a gut roundworm which annually threatens the health and welfare of young lambs across the UK. Our research has explored how Nematodirus behaves on commercial sheep farms.
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.
Prof. Nick Birch is a key staff member leading Integrated Pest and Disease Management (IPM) research at the James Hutton Institute.
For details of ongoing IPM research areas and projects, please visit the IPM@Hutton website
The James Hutton Institute
Invergowrie
Dundee DD2 5DA
Scotland UK
The focus of my research is the cell biology of plant-pathogen interactions, in particular between the notorious oomycete pathogen Phytophthora infestans, the causal agent of the devastating potato late blight, and its hosts. This pathogen manipulates plant defence responses on multiple levels, suggesting complex exchanges of signals between host and pathogen and a variety of effector functions.
Invergowrie
Dundee DD2 5DA
Scotland UK
Gaynor Malloch is a Research Scientist collaborating in studying pest arthropod biology on an international and national scale.
Current research interests include: The Scottish Myzus persicae population is being studied using molecular markers to define clones and superclones. The work has already demonstrated a severe genetic bottleneck with less than 20 major clones in the UK. Genotyping identifies several aphid properties including the presence of insecticide resistance mechanisms, host plant preferences and biological properties such as reproductive potential.
The James Hutton Institute
Invergowrie
Dundee DD2 5DA
Scotland UK