United Kingdom
December 10, 2008
Dr Tina Barsby, chief executive of
the National Institute of
Agricultural Botany (NIAB), is writing to Dame Suzi Leather,
chair of the new Defra Council of Food Policy Advisers, inviting
Council Members to visit NIAB in Cambridge as part of their work
to identify the measures needed to ensure the UK has a secure
and sustainable food supply.
Welcoming today’s announcement of the membership of the Council
of Food Policy Advisers by Environment Secretary Hilary Benn, Dr
Barsby said:
“Mr Benn is right to highlight the importance of securing our
food needs in the face of population growth, climate change and
water scarcity. These are indeed the major challenges facing our
society in preparing for future generations.
“Action to address climate change is one aspect of this, and
this includes an urgent need to reverse chronic under-spending
in applied UK research for agriculture and food production. Only
through continued progress in science and technology will the
world meet its food needs – in particular through improvements
in plant breeding and the development of higher-yielding, more
climate resilient crop varieties.
“In recent decades the UK’s world-class plant science base has
dramatically increased our understanding of fundamental plant
genetics, but the pipeline from basic science through to
applications of relevance to farmers – both in the UK and in
developing regions of the world – is not functioning
effectively.
“Building on our unique expertise in crop testing and
evaluation, NIAB has invested in the research facilities and
scientific staff to become the translational hub of UK plant
science. Our aim is to re-connect the R&D pipeline by providing
dedicated pre-breeding services capable of translating basic
genetic discoveries into material suitable for use in commercial
plant breeding programmes.
“By inviting members of the new Food Policy Council to visit
NIAB, we aim to highlight the importance of revitalising the
UK’s investment in translational plant science, to ensure the
potential benefits of gene discovery in model crop species are
effectively transferred into crops of relevance to plant
breeders, farmers and end-users,” said Dr Barsby. |
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