A £6 million research initiative has been launched to accelerate the development of improving crops and yields in the interest of food security.

The Crop Improvement Research Club (CIRC) is led by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and includes the Scottish government and 13 companies representing plant breeders, farmers and food processors.

Both the public sector and company members of the club are contributing to the total research fund, which is available to research teams to conduct research to improve understanding of yield and quality traits.

Specific challenges that CIRC aims to tackle include increasing the efficiency of nutrient use by plants, understanding seed structure, better understanding of germination and investigating factors that lead to crop spoilage.

Dr Celia Caulcott, BBSRC director of innovation and skills, said: "Delivering food security is going to require partnership between public research funders and the private sector R&D. There is huge potential to use science to improve key UK crops to benefit farmers and consumers. This includes the potential to increase volume and nutritional quality of food produced and reducing losses to pests and diseases."

The company members of CIRC are set to ensure it is broadly directing its funding to areas where the commercial sector sees scientific bottlenecks. This means the funding pot is being used to tackle problems that will have benefits for food producers and wider society.

The company members of CIRC include BASF Plant Science Company GMBH, Campden Technology Ltd, Elsoms Seeds, Monsanto UK Ltd and Syngenta Seeds Ltd.

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