Sustainable resources

Challenge

Agriculture and food production face enormous challenges in the years ahead. Solutions must be achieved using less land and fewer resources.

Solutions

Resource stewardship, soil conservation, and integrated pest management are essential for sustainability. The tools used, the crops and varieties grown, and the efficiencies made will be the result of scientific and technological innovation.

NIAB Innovation Farm showcases crops and varieties suited to:

• Reduced inputs and cultivations, e.g. blight resistance in potatoes
• Input use efficiency, e.g. nitrogen, water/drought tolerance
• Improving crop biodiversity, e.g. resources for stewardship schemes
• Providing alternative energy sources, e.g. willow, miscanthus, forage maize
• Specialist markets
  • Industrial applications, e.g. novel carbohydrates from barley
  • Pharmaceutical, e.g. malaria treatments from Artemisia
  • Fibre, e.g. Hemp, Flax, Nettles