Public Funding for Dyson Farming Limited

Over the next 25 years, agricultural productivity in the UK must increase by almost as much as it has over the previous 50 if it is to keep pace with the world's increasing demand for food. But it has plateaued. Meanwhile climate change demands reductions in agricultural GHG emissions, threatens food security, its nutritional quality and the distribution of pests and diseases that affect crops. It's unlikely plant breeding can meet the pace of change needed without delivering considerable technical advances to the marketplace. Those advances may exist within the glasshouses and laboratories of the UK's research organisations. The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 has allowed for them to be explored further. England is currently the only country in Europe where this novel material can be grown in farmers' fields. The technology promises to bring a step change in genetics. Wheat with health benefits, with bigger, bolder grain and energy-dense fodder delivering reductions in methane emissions are three examples. Pest and disease resistance, drought tolerance and high-iron flour are close behind. PROBITY is a three-year farmer-led project that multiplies up seeds with these novel properties to batch scale in just three years. It puts the seeds into farmers hands, guided by the scientists who developed them, to cultivate them and build the understanding of the crops that result, teasing out the true benefits for the whole supply chain. It processes the produce into iconic British brands that can be evaluated and so that consumers can judge for themselves what they deliver. PROBITY brings clarity where currently there is uncertainty. It engenders a trusted, transparent space to gather knowledge and understanding, to accelerate scientific progression and genetic advances while minimising the risk of unintended consequences. It gives the supply chain the confidence it needs to encourage their adoption. At the end of the project there will be three market-ready broadacre crops, precision-bred with proven gains for both farmers and society. There will be a farmer-led platform available as a service to help accelerate adoption of new genetic technologies in a safe and trusted environment, with a pipeline of promising traits. The cropping system that evolves and understanding that accrues bring clear commercial benefits in terms of market certainty. Moreover, applying PROBITY to novel crops will ensure a resilient farming system in which knowledge and technological progress advance together.

R-Leaf is a cutting-edge technology that helps farmers grow crops with reduced synthetic nitrogen and increase farm resilience and sustainability. It uses a special process called photocatalysis to utilise daylight and convert nitrous oxides air pollution into plant feed. Key points: * R-Leaf was created by Crop Intellect Ltd. It's designed to help crops grow better with reduced inputs and emit fewer harmful gases. * We're working together with Dyson Farming and the University of East Anglia to test R-Leaf in real fields and measure the positive impact to the environment. * This project is all about making farming better for the planet. It helps us meet goals to reduce carbon emissions and be more sustainable in agriculture. * By using R-Leaf, we want to change how farming is done. It's a more eco-friendly and cost-effective way for farmers to grow crops. This project is a big step toward greener farming and reducing greenhouse gases.

Project Pythagoras is a 24-month feasibility study which answers, 'is it possible to develop a protein product or ingredient, profitably and sustainably that is derived from a commercially grown UK crop?' Countries such as Canada, Australia and France are all investing in their pea supply chains to exploit the potential of the developing plant-based market. The UK is well placed to grow peas. Unfortunately though, cropping of peas is not large in area and is often considered a minor or niche crop, so it lacks investment. To encourage farming businesses such as Dyson Farming Ltd, to grow more peas for human consumption we need to have the confidence of reliable returns and routes to market. Project Pythagoras will improve the knowledge of growing a pea crop which is suited for human-consumed protein products. Through this project, Dyson Farming Ltd will trial novel techniques of growing peas with the aim to improve the protein availability in the resulting crop. University of Lincoln will provide a deep understanding of how each growing technique impacted on the crops functionality and nutritional value as a protein product or ingredient. This consortium is passionate about raising awareness of the importance of peas in sustainable food production and healthy diets. Pulses have been grown in the UK for centuries and, as nitrogen-fixing legumes, they fit well with the government and farming industry's objectives for sustainable production and net-zero emissions over the coming next decades.

By using plants as sensors this project will provide farmers with a Framework for improving Nitrogen efficiency (FINE) a management tool to support better nitrogen utilisation, management input decisions and Nitrogen use efficiency reporting. Nitrogen uptake data measurements will taken form plants through the season, through remote sensing, sensors, and soil measurement and be used to support accurate nitrogen timing and rate input decisions. This system will support reduced nitrogen applications though more efficient use, providing clear insight to use. With reductions in Nitrogen use and emissions we will explore new income opportunities for farmers financed by reduced carbon emissions. Our aim is to make nitrogen use efficiency measurements the new benchmark from which farmers utilise nitrogen providing more profit, and environmental gains.

Potato growing uses intensive soil cultivation and very large inputs of inorganic nutrients, herbicides, fungicides and insecticides. Large amounts of energy are also used in cooled store to prevent post-production sprouting prior to consumer use. This result in continuous degradation of farm soil organic matter, and large emissions of CO2 and N2O, two major greenhouse gases. TRIP-Transformative Reduced input in potatoes, is a 36 months research program, will develop a regenerative method to address all of the above problems, and provide cost-competitive solutions to potato farmers. TRIP- is based on reduced/no-tillage using farm waste as mulch, innovative plant nutrition approaches, and use of novel low-input potato cultivars having natural long dormancy, and integrated pest management approaches. It will increase soil organic matter, lower needs of chemical inputs (fertilizer, pesticides), reducing also the associated contamination of water, with positive effects on wildlife and bioversity. TRIP- will also contribute to Net Zero. It will demonstrate that using regenerative methods for potato growing will both reduce the GHG emissions and build soil organic matter and its sequestration of carbon. It will provide substantial saving in nitrogen fertilisers, fuel for machinery and for cooled storage used in potato production (major components of the potato production carbon footprint), which will also contribute to Net Zero. TRIP 3-year project outputs will include data on productivity and GHG emissions for combination of cultivation methods and a breeding strategy. Outputs will be reported at demonstration and conferences.

Cereal grains are the basis of staple food, yet post-harvest losses during long-term storage are exceptionally high, above 20% in the UK and worldwide. Pests are to blame, with grain moisture content and temperature being the most significant factors. Cereal storage sites such as farms, grain merchants, millers and breweries, experience these challenges, which have high cost implications in terms of lost revenue and cost to rectify. The scope of this feasibility study is to develop a novel non-contact sensor for non-contact grain analysis able to detect specific molecular compounds within a radius of up to a few tens of centimetres, based on a novel miniaturised sensing technology, and to integrate it onto the ever-improving CROVER robot, the world's first 'underground drone', which fluently 'swims' grain bulks and which is at the core of the CROVER autonomous Grain Storage Management system. This will allow for the potential readings that go far beyond the typical grain storage safety parameter (humidity and temperature, which we will still provide). During the project, we will focus on some of the most prominent variables of grain storage and grain quality: proteins and mycotoxins. Down the line, the result of this project is expected to allow for the expansion of the parameters that we will be able to measure, including specific nutrients (amino-acid composition, fatty acid composition and FFAs presence and quantity and - particularly relevant for oilseeds), or insect presence and species identification (including at eggs and larval stages) aligned with different customer requirements. The rationale for this project is aligned with the arable sector (and of the whole grain value chain) need for novel and alternative crop protection solutions, in support of the current push toward holistic Integrated Pest Management (IPM) approaches.