United Kingdom
February 21, 2008
£7M of new research is being
launched today to tackle some of the most damaging and
widespread pests, diseases and harsh environmental conditions
which can devastate crop yields across the developing world.
Three out of four poor people in developing countries live in
rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their
livelihoods. Increasing agricultural productivity will benefit
millions through higher incomes, more and cheaper food, and more
jobs in both rural and urban areas.
The Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the
Department for International Development (DFID) are unveiling 12
new projects as part of their flagship initiative – Sustainable
Agriculture Research for International Development (SARID) - to
harness the UK’s world class bioscience research base to address
the challenges of agriculture and food security in developing
countries.
The new projects will look at how a variety of crops – from
maize to coconuts, rice to bananas – respond at a molecular
level to hostile factors including attack by pests and diseases
as well as inclement conditions. Their findings will offer new
and exciting opportunities to develop crops better able to
survive and thrive in their changing environments. Such advances
in crop science could revolutionise the way farmers are able to
farm across the developing world and have a significant impact
on reducing poverty.
Commenting on the new research, Gareth Thomas, Parliamentary
Under Secretary of State for International Development and
Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said: "Investing in
science and research is essential to provide poor farmers with
the seeds, knowledge and tools they need to make a better life
for themselves. This research, bringing together UK, African and
Asian scientists, has the potential to revolutionise farming in
the developing world and reduce global poverty. The UK is
delighted to support this initiative."
Welcoming the new research, Ian Pearson, Minister for Science
and Innovation, said: "This is a true demonstration of how
scientific research can help find solutions to the major
challenges facing the world and improve the quality of life for
millions in developing countries."
BBSRC Interim Chief Executive, Steve Visscher, said: “Bioscience
research can make a vital contribution to improving sustainable
agriculture across the globe. These projects will build on the
world-leading research on fundamental plant science and plant
disease in the UK and apply this to crops of importance in the
developing world, increasing yields and helping to alleviate the
suffering of millions living in poverty.”
All of the projects unveiled today involve unique partnerships
between UK scientists and researchers from institutions in
Africa, Asia and elsewhere.
Download a media briefing (PDF 616KB) containing details of all
the projects being funded by the new initiative.
Examples include:
Halting armyworm rampage
with biological pesticide - the African armyworm is a
major migratory insect pest, which feeds voraciously on
cereal crops. Using a radical new solution, researchers from
the UK, Canada and Tanzania will investigate the use of a
naturally occurring virus in armyworms with a view to using
it as a biological pesticide.
Defeating witchweed famine threat - subsistence crops
relied on by billions are at constant risk of attack by the
noxious parasitic plant witchweed. Researchers the UK, India
and Senegal are identifying ways to protect the livelihoods
of some of the world's poorest farmers by developing
resistant crops.
Improving food security for 500M people - Pearl
millet provides food security for half a billion people in
Africa and Asia. The crop is well adapted to harsh
environments but climate change is threatening the
predictable yields that subsistence farmers rely on.
Scientists from the UK, India and Ghana will work to improve
pearl millet’s genetic tolerance to drought.
Fighting nematode worms with fungus - Root-knot
nematodes are microscopic worms that feed on plant roots,
stunting their growth and causing yield losses of US$70
billion each year. UK scientists and their Kenyan colleagues
are harnessing a natural soil fungus to destroy the worms'
eggs reducing damage to crops.
Reducing arsenic levels in rice - arsenic
contamination of rice paddies is a major problem in many
parts of Asia, caused by irrigation with arsenic
contaminated groundwater, pollution resulting from base and
precious metal mining and the use of municipal solid waste
as fertilizer. Researchers from the UK, India, Bangladesh
and China will look at types of rice which have lower
take-up levels of inorganic arsenic to unravel the genetic
basis for this desirable characteristic.
BBSRC and DFID announced the SARID
initiative in 2006 to foster high-quality research that will
contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals for
combating the eight major problems faced by the developing world
including poverty and starvation.
The research announced today is the first from this initiative.
A second grant round, focussing on animal health will be
announced later in 2008.
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UK gives US$14 million boost to agriculture research |
Source: SciDev.Net
The United Kingsom's development aid agency has
linked up with one of its largest research councils
to boost research into sustainable agriculture in
developing countries.
The US$14 million, four-year research programme —
launched jointly by the UK Department for
International Development (DFID) and the
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research
Council (BBSRC) in London yesterday (21 February) —
will explore ways in which modern biological
techniques can be applied to agriculture.
DFID is providing US$10 million, with the BBSRC
providing the remainder of the funding.
The initiative is one of the fruits of a commitment
by DFID to double its research budget over the next
ten years, and to do this partly through supporting
collaborative efforts between scientists working in
the United Kingdom and those in developing
countries.
"We hope that this flagship initiative shows that
the pursuit of the economic and social benefit from
science [by British scientists] does not have to
equate with making money for UK plc," Alf Game,
deputy director of the BBSRC, said at the launch.
Among the 12 projects to be supported is an
investigation into ways of identifying varieties of
staple crops that are resistant to the parasitic
plant 'witchweed', which cripples otherwise healthy
plants in 40 per cent of the cereal-producing areas
of Sub-Saharan Africa.
The collaborative research will be led by the
UK-based University of Sheffield, with scientists
from the International Crops Research Institute for
the Semi-Arid Tropics in India and the African Rice
Centre in Senegal.
The research aims to identify the genetic basis of
the ability of some varieties of rice to kill the
parasite, and to use this knowledge to explore ways
of breeding other cereals with the same
characteristic.
Other projects will focus on how fungi can be used
as biological control agents to combat the nematode
worms that infect the roots of many different crops
of vegetables, and how the genetic characteristics
of pearl sorghum confer its ability to thrive in the
hot, dry conditions that are expected to spread as a
result of global warming.
According to Gordon Conway, the chief scientist at
DFID, the high level of interest in the new scheme —
known as Sustainable Agriculture Research for
International Development — is reflected in the fact
that more than 200 applications were received from
across the world.
He emphasised that projects selected for funding are
intended to explore how promising new scientific
ideas could be developed and applied to the problems
facing farmers in developing countries, rather than
to seek novel scientific breakthroughs.
"We are looking for the most appropriate
technologies to solve such problems," Conway said. |
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