£1.25m cash for crop research

Scotland leading plant breeding station, the James Hutton Institute, has been awarded £1.25 million for research projects aimed at improving the quality and reliability of malting barley.

Speaking after the awards – from the Crop Improvement Research Club – were announced, Dr Bill Thomas, an expert in barley genetics at the institute in Dundee, said the new funding would enable research workers to work towards new, improved crop varieties. These, he added, would not only result in better yields and quality but would also require less inputs making them more sustainable.

Another project getting research cash will work with the whisky and brewing industries to help improve malting barley varieties leading to better processing and more reliable markets for farmers.

Researchers at the institute will identify DNA markers that can be used in barley breeding programmes to eliminate potential varieties with processing problems.

Another project, this time led by the Scottish Agricultural College, will use genetic markers to identify varieties susceptible to a problem in malting which can result in uneven germination.