Research at the cutting edge

New varieties of a wide range of fresh produce, including UK-bred potatoes and soft fruit, have enjoyed critical as well as commercial acclaim, while key findings in climate change and reducing pesticide usage have put UK research at the cutting edge.

“Here in the UK, we must now compete globally and there are many good companies out there,” says Simon Matthews, general manager at AgriCoat. “We therefore believe it is innovation that must be put in the driving seat. Innovation is something that companies in all sectors in the UK and Europe must embrace.”

This competitiveness is standing UK research bodies in good stead. In the last 12 months, the Scottish Crop Research Institute (SCRI) has enjoyed success with the launch of the Glen Fyne raspberry and the Vales Sovereign potato - the latter having been launched in partnership with Greenvale AP.

SCRI’s agenda for the next couple of years includes a new raspberry breeding contract with a UK consortium of producers. It also expects to grow its links with soft-fruit research organisations in Scandinavia and northern Europe.

Professor Peter Gregory, SCRI director and chief executive, says that the body is, at the behest of the Scottish government, exploring the possibility of forming a new institute together with the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute in Aberdeen.

This new organisation would act as a centre for world-class research, innovation and enterprise.“It would give Scotlandan enhanced capability for wealth creation and informed policy decisions affecting the land-based industries of Scotland and would alsolook outwards to project Scottish expertise within the UK, Europe and around the world,” Gregory says.

East Malling Research (EMR) has been in the news recently following the creation of Sainsbury’s East Malling Concept Pear Orchard. When established, the intensive pear orchard will deliver 55 tonnes per hectare, compared to only 20-22t produced in traditional orchards.

The Strawberry Club, of which EMR is a member, is also making strides. According to project manager Adam Whitehouse, the club was created last July and consists of eight companies that contribute a collective £150,000 a year towards the breeding programme, with DEFRA providing additional funding.

Some 13 June-bearer strawberries and one everbearer were chosen from last year’s trials and are currently in propagation. These will be distributed to members’ trial sites in 2010. “Four of the selections are mid-season, seven are late-season and two are specifically for 60-day production,” Whitehouse tells FPJ.

Four promising variants of Florence will also be retrialled in 2009 to assess their yield potential and acceptance among retailers.

The Strawberry Club has a number of ambitious targets and one aim is to increase the proportion of large berries (more than 35mm) to 65 per cent in maincrop production. Typically, this is below 50 per cent for Elsanta and smaller on most everbearing cultivars on the market.

The club also wants to increase the proportion of Class I fruit.

“Improved cultivars, with 90 per cent Class I fruit, will significantly reduce waste in the food chain and hence improve efficiency and yield per hectare,” Whitehouse says.

Furthermore, the group is looking at ways to tackle climate change, cut pesticide use and reduce the environmental footprint of strawberry production.

On the vegetable front, Elsoms Seeds is proud of the advances it has made in its parsnip and swede breeding programmes. John Constable, brassica, bulb onion and baby leaf manager at Elsoms, says the new hybrid parsnips Palace, Polar, Picador and Pinnacle are gaining a significant market share and Sue Kennedy, head of vegetable plant breeding at Elsoms, is confident that there are also more on the way.

Tozer Seeds plans to release several new seeds including F1 leeks, an F1 purple sprouting broccoli called Red Admiral, a slow-bolting coriander called Calypso and a red Genovese type basil within the next couple of years.

David Rogers, UK sales manager of Tozer Seeds, says it is always a great challenge to grow and bring in high-quality seed crops in enough volume and then to process and distribute them. “Vegetable plant breeding is highly competitive and we are under a constant challenge to improve on our current varieties,” he says. “There has recently been a breakdown in mildew resistance in spinach, which will present challenges and opportunities in the coming years.”

Rogers says that the company’s online vegetable seeds sales division, Tozer Seeds Direct, has enjoyed a “very good” response and year-on-year growth has been excellent.

Warwick HRI has also been hard at work. According to Dr Sharon Hall of the research institution, the Isafruit project is making huge advances in addressing bottlenecks in the fruit supply chain.

Warwick HRI plans to build on the links it has made via the project and develop network project proposals for future EU framework calls in the area of fruit research. “Warwick HRI can contribute its expertise in transcriptional networks and microRNAs regulating fruit development and ripening,” says Hall.

As well as its work on the Isafruit project, Warwick HRI is establishing a Vegetable Genetic Improvement Network (VeGIN). The core of this is two new projects; one focusing on leafy vegetables and salads and the other on onions and carrots, covering pest and disease resistance, nitrate content and post-harvest quality.

But funding remains a key dilemma for UK researchers. Professor Simon Bright, director and head of department for Warwick HRI, says a reduction in funding for agricultural research has resulted in a serious loss of capacity and expertise, threatening the UK’s ability to respond to the challenges.

EMR chief executive Dr Colin Gutteridge says the body is entering a crucial phase as the support for Warwick HRI and EMR agreed by DEFRA under the 2004 privatisation comes to an end. “The industry still values the work done at EMR and wants it to continue, but how will it be funded?” Gutteridge asks. “We will continue to require access to government funding through schemes such as LINK, if we are to maintain essential research resources.”

Like all public and private sector organisations, SCRI says it is constantly looking for ways to increase its efficiency and offer value for money.The bulk of the company’s R&D work is funded by the Scottish government in a programme that runs until 2011 and is fully funded. However, it is also starting to look beyond that time to meet its future requirements.

Institutions agree that securing R&D funds from commercial enterprises has never been easy. In the past, Exosect has benefited from a number of key government-funded research grants. However, managing director Martin Brown says that these now tend to be extremely bureaucratic to operate. “I feel research funding would be more effective if it could be more easily operated and less onerous on the companies taking part,” he says. “We accept that funding of this nature must be tracked to ensure correct use, but requesting external accounting companies to audit the process is expensive and, I feel, excessive.”

Accessing bank funding to cover day-to-day working capital is also proving challenging. “Despite the recent government initiative to assist small companies by providing a 50 per cent guarantee, the banks clearly do not wish to participate,” Brown tells FPJ. “Many small, well-managed companies with great future prospects are close to collapse - something has to give, otherwise the heart of small, research-based companies will be ripped out forever.”

Brown says that Exosect is fortunate in that funding has recently been raised via an internal rights issue, but it continues to pursue the banks as a “matter of principle”.

“Venture capital funding for any agricultural-based research company is never easy because of the demands placed,” Brown says. “This means it takes at least four to five years to get a product to market.”

This length of time, on top of costs of approximately £60,000 per EU country when marketing a product, does not sit well with some investors. However, Brown says that Exosect has captured the imagination of a number of key UK-based venture capital funds that are taking a medium- to long-term position.

“As long as we can continue to demonstrate growth and returns for the investment, we hope to be able to continue to attract funding, although we are now having to look more to the EU and the Far East,” he adds.

Another key issue facing UK researchers is the environmental impact on production. According to Bright, there is a potential for “conflict” between the demands for intensified food production and reduced environmental impact of farming. “The challenges and opportunities for researchers are to improve the efficiency of production, either by increasing yield using the same inputs, or maintaining yield while reducing inputs (i.e increasing yield per unit of energy input) and also to ensure that crop production has minimal impact on biodiversity and the environment,” he tells FPJ.

A further trend is the push by retailers towards zero residues, says Brown. Exosect works closely with a number of retailers and marketing desks to create concept orchards. “These orchards allow growers to see the latest technology, including Exosex, in integrated programmes and how their use can assist in achieving the objective of zero residues,” Brown explains. “Pheromone technology has a major part to play and further research needs to be done to optimise this approach.”

Exosect’s new product, Exosex SPtab, for control of moths in food manufacturing and storage sites, is now being developed across Europe.

Gregory says that the most important trends in the UK are the loss of research skills in key crop sciences such as breeding, agronomy, weed science and entomology, and elements of soil science such as soil chemistry and physics. Bright admits that recruiting young career scientists is a significant challenge. “Plant and crop sciences are not attractive to students entering university in comparison with other areas such as biomedical subjects,” he says. “This is not helped by the negative representation of scientific advances in crop sciences such as GM.”

However, he argues that innovation, scientific understanding and application of new technologies are essential to support UK agriculture.

Matthews agrees and cites AgriCoat’s NatureSeal product as a good example of innovation. While the original formula was developed in the US, much of the R&D - including the tailoring of NatureSeal to UK and European conditions - has been driven by the UK team. More than a dozen NatureSeal formulations have been developed for different fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, while similar collaborations are being explored on the decontamination of fresh produce and biodegradable packaging.

Although in the current economic downturn there is the temptation to reduce R&D funding, Matthews feels that would be a mistake. “R&D and new product development should be seen as key for driving business out of recession,” he says. “Simply doing what we have always done, cutting costs and just waiting for the economic tide to turn is not an option.”