National Institute of Agricultural Botany Trust

There are over 0.25 million miles of hedgerows across 106,000 farms in England alone. Well-managed hedgerows serve as field boundaries that can support biosecurity, biodiversity, deliver ecosystem services (e.g., water management and soil protection) and offer meaningful shelter for crops and livestock, improving productivity and welfare. However, many he...

This project will test a new **foliar nutrition programme** designed to maintain wheat yield and grain quality while using less phosphate (P) and potash (K) fertiliser. The technology supplies nutrients as small, non-ionic molecular complexes that move naturally within the plant, allowing fertiliser inputs to be reduced without affecting crop performance....

Fibe Ltd has shown that potato stems are a source of high quality textile fibre, attracting the fashion industry seeking sustainable sources of fibre. Supplying to Fibe our potato stems, which are a nuisance to harvest operations, is attractive to us ( Sentry and Dyson), as it saves costs and improves the sustainability profile of the farm by valorising c...

Thrips can damage fruit quality and reduce yields, particularly in integrated pest management (IPM) and organic farming systems where pesticide use is limited. Current monitoring methods rely heavily on visual inspection and trapping, which are time-consuming, labour-intensive, and often miss early infestations. To address this challenge, the project will...

BugBiome has **harnessed crop-associated microbes** to develop an **innovative bioinsecticide** aimed at **combating aphids and the viruses they transmit**. This project will **leverage the first asset** from BugBiome's core platform, which integrates microbiology, entomology and engineering biology to discover safe and effective alternatives to conventio...

The UK orchard fruit industry was worth £293.4M in 2023, but unsated demand for home-grown fruit meant that £99M worth of plum and sweet cherry were imported in 2023 (DefraStats). Optimum nutrition of UK orchard crops is essential to ensure high yields of phytonutritious fruit with good storage potential, but there are no robust grower guidelines. Consequ...

This project, led by Crop Intellect in collaboration with NIAB, SRUC, and Branston Ltd., aims to innovate foliar fertilizer technology for potato crops using photocatalysis. By converting air pollutants like NOx into beneficial nitrates, this advanced fertilizer significantly reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers while maintaining crop yield and qual...

The Sustainable Nitrogen Application Project (SNAP) will develop techniques for precision application of nitrogen in commercial apple orchards. Standard industry practice is to apply a uniform rate of fertiliser across an orchard or vineyard at set times in the season. However, different trees and different regions in the orchard will have different requi...

"Financial strain in the UK strawberry sector has seen smaller growers exiting the industry. Home production has decreased by 25% since 2019, yet imports supply 34% of demand (DefraStats). To meet unsated demand for UK berries sustainably, new approaches and technologies are needed. Crop losses from excessive fertiliser mean growers need new guidelines. N...

Grass Plan aims to revolutionise nutrient management for grassland farming systems, which make up c. two-thirds of all UK farmland. By consolidating all aspects of nutrient management into a single digital platform, it will integrate current nutrient management practices and lay the groundwork for incorporating advanced nutrient flow models in the future....

Berries are an important part of our diets, contributing a variety of antioxidants, vitamins and fibre. The UK berry production contributed £633M to the economy in 2021\. Increasingly aggressive pests and diseases challenge growers, with aphid infestations attacking crops growing under tunnels and glass, and even in vertical farming environments where che...

To improve margins for wheat production and reduce nitrogen losses to the environment, Salle Farms seeks ways to improve N use efficiency from the current level of 60%. Soils are highly heterogenous, which often causes yields on some areas to be water- not N-limited. Current methods of variable rate N application (VRNA) are based on estimates of spatial v...