Dr Toby Bruce
Twitter: @Toby_Bruce
@Rothamsted
Biog: A senior researcher at Rothamsted. Toby joined Rothamsted in 2000 and has a background in Biology and a PhD in
Chemical Ecology. He is convenor of the Association of Applied Biologists
Biocontrol and IPM group, a Visiting Professor at the University of Greenwich
Natural Resources Institute and Visiting Lecturer at Nottingham University.
Current projects are: an
Agri-Tech Catalyst project developing a lure-and-kill system for the pea and bean weevil; a project in
Kenya on maize varieties that respond to insect egg laying by releasing odours that attract natural
enemies, and CROPROTECT which
is providing an online knowledge sharing resource for UK farmers and
agronomists.
Title: Researcher looks back and ahead at
ground-breaking ag innovations
In my opinion, innovation in
agriculture is vital for many of the major global challenges we face. Food and
water security is a prerequisite for political stability and essential to
society. The connections between human health and the environment - via
agriculture - need to be recognised. Agriculture uses huge areas of land and
resources globally and improving resource use efficiency can have major
positive environmental impact. Human health can be improved by providing suitable
nutrition as inadequate nutrition is the main cause of child mortality
worldwide. Therefore, I would like to
see the whole area of developing innovations for the future taken more
seriously. Complacency that crept in from the success of the green revolution
in the 20th century and overproduction in Europe in the 1980s has no
place in the 21st century. Waste needs to be reduced throughout the
whole food supply chain and innovation is needed at many different levels to
achieve this.
Agricultural R&D is hugely
important because it underpins national and global security, as well as
environmental stability. Although often taken for-granted, the outputs of farming
systems really are a matter of life and death because none of us can survive
without food. Thus, effective farming systems are essential for human health
and political stability. This has very recently been summarised in the Thomson
Reuters #9billionbowls report.
Furthermore, the inputs into
agricultural systems are vitally important (See
Picture 1 below). Food production takes up almost half of the planet's land
surface, it is the biggest user of water (approx. 70% of extracted freshwater
globally) and also uses huge amounts of energy and nutrients. How to minimise
the resource footprint of agriculture while meeting rising demand from
population and consumption growth - during climate change - is one of the
biggest challenges humanity faces this century. Agricultural R&D can make
farming systems more efficient.
Pic 1: Use of natural resources: Food,
water, energy and material resources are vital to human society. The way they
are secured affects human health and well-being directly, as well as indirectly
through impacts on the environment
Research Councils UK timeline
Growing more with less
A remarkable achievement, although it
has not received much of a fanfare, is the increasing resource use efficiency
of UK farmers. Much has been heard about the wheat yield plateau but wheat
yields have been maintained over a period during which fertiliser use has declined.
This means that the amount of fertiliser needed to produce the same amount of
wheat has gone down. This has come about through incremental improvements in
farming systems rather than any one technological breakthrough.
Technologies
The ability to collect and share farm
data in a multitude of technological ways has already made a considerable
impact on farm performance, but – in my view - will have an even greater impact
in the years ahead. Whether delivered by an App, a drone or a tractor-mounted
guidance system, customising treatments to local conditions for individual fields
and for spot treatments will make a big difference.
Already, soil measurements allow the
correct balance of micronutrients to be applied and insect and disease
monitoring systems deliver valuable early warning of crop threats. Online
information sharing has also meant that farmers can share experiences with each
other much more easily resulting in farming becoming a less isolated
occupation. Mobile phone Apps such as the farm crap App are cheap or free and are already proving both practical to use and useful.
Biologicals
Using more biological solutions is an
innovative trend which is likely to continue as the availability and cost of
chemical solutions limits their use. Disease resistant crop cultivars are
increasingly utilised to reduce fungicide costs. Some farmers have been using
no-till and cover crops to improve soil structure and organic matter content
and hence fertility.
As conventional pesticides are
increasingly restricted, I would like to see alternative approaches made
available such as biological control, resistant crop plants and design of
agricultural systems that are less vulnerable to attack. Increasing resource
efficiency of agriculture is a win: win scenario because it benefits both the
environment - by reducing the footprint of agriculture in land, water and
energy use and it reduces input costs.
New crops, new opportunities
We also need to consider crop choice and crop quality as well as the
quantity of agricultural produce. For example, at Rothamsted, Camelina plants have been engineered to produce omega 3 fish oils up to successful field
evaluation. This land-produced fish oil has the potential to revolutionise the
aquaculture industry, while conserving marine sources of fish oils. It would
also provide farmers with a high value crop.
At Rothamsted, we have a new building called the LawesOpen Innovation Hub (See picture 2 below). It provides a
space where companies can set up a base in close proximity to our research
centre – it even has a physical bridge to us. It opened in July 2015 and I hope
that suitable companies will locate here so that synergies can be developed
between the more fundamental and more near market research to improve the field
delivery and commercial availability of new technologies and innovations in
agriculture.
