Climate change

Challenge

Farmers, and crops, may have to deal with threats from new pests and disease, warmer drier summers and more extreme weather events as a result of climate change.

Solutions

The agriculture and horticulture industry is working to understand and predict the impact of climate change on our crops, as well as providing solutions to the challenge of growing crops in different climatic conditions.

NIAB Innovation Farm demonstrates crops showing:

• Resistance to new pests and diseases, e.g. improved corn borer resistance
• Increased genetic diversity, e.g. re-synthesising bread wheat
• Suitability to inputs and cultivations, e.g. better nutrient use efficiency or reduced tillage
• Consistent yield performance under variable climatic conditions, e.g. varieties showing novel drought and stress tolerance characters
• Improvements to suit UK conditions, e.g. soya beans