Arable Farming

Syngenta’s first hybrid wheat variety could be available to French growers as soon as 2022, as part of the company’s ‘sustainable future for wheat’ plan.

Progress with winter wheat drilling remains slow, with rain last week hindering field operations and agronomists urging caution despite a few days of drier, frosty weather.

The potato industry is facing many challenges in terms of import and retail competition, growing the crop and recruiting skilled labour.

Using RNA interference (RNAi), a biological process which disrupts the production of an organism’s proteins, Syngenta is looking at a biocontrol method which kills target species but has no impact on any other organism.

Essex farmer and advocate of no-till farming Simon Cowell hopes that the new decade will bring Government support for growers to pursue sustainable farming practices more widely.

Growers who have paid royalties for farm saved seed but have been unable to sow it, mainly due to adverse autumn weather conditions, can apply to their seed processor for a refund.

An ag-tech start-up looking for crowdfunding for ‘weed zapping’ robots reached its target of £700,000 within just two days of launching the campaign.

January 2020 Arable Farming Issue

With the loss of CTL on the horizon, the first azole fungicide to be released in 15 years makes for a timely introduction to the market.

There is interest in whether research conducted at Wageningen University and Research using the thale cress plant, which has led to improvements in photosynthesis, could be applied more widely to agricultural crops.