World Food Day

World Food Day is an important event in the United Nations (UN) annual calendar as it commemorates the founding of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in 1945.

It is celebrated widely by organisations concerned with hunger and food security, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), serving as a reminder that food insecurity remains widespread. 

The Advanced Plant Growth Centre (APGC), one of the flagship initiatives funded through the £62m Tay Cities Region Deal investment; brings world-leading plant and data science enhanced by technological and digital innovation to address the critical global issues of food security as well as environmental sustainability of non-food and pharmaceutical crops. It aims to revolutionise crop production systems to enable them to produce food locally, 365 days a year, with less environmental impact.

The other TCRD flagship, the International Barley Hub, promotes scientific discovery and innovation by exploring new technologies such as genome assisted genetics, gene editing, molecular phenotyping and crop management using data from sensors and drones to find ways to help support the increasing demand for barley, which is the most widely grown crop in Scotland, second in the UK and the fourth globally. Around 50% of barley grown in the UK is used as livestock feed, 20% is exported and 30% used for brewing and distilling beer and whisky. 

The potato supply and value chain is worth over £3bn to the UK economy and yet is also threatened by climate, disease and quality issues. With the Hutton’s global reputation for potato science, our recent breakthroughs in breeding technologies is greatly facilitating the process of potato breeding to allow the full genetic grain of potato to be realised.

Finally, soft fruit genetics research at the Hutton is focused on raspberries, blackberries and hybrid berries such as `Tayberry’), currants and gooseberries, blueberry, honeyberry and cherry. Our researchers aim to support the soft fruit sector including growers, breeders and ultimately consumers to meet the many current and future challenges in production and quality.

Engaging with growers, with industry and buyers and hearing first hand their issues is critical to our research. We do this in a variety of ways, but events are important as part of this engagement.

This year we have held Potatoes in Practice which addresses the future of potato crop production and showcased cutting-edge research; Arable Scotland, where key players in food production gathered to discuss key industry issues and Fruit for the Future where we showcased our latest soft fruit work. We also attended events such as Cereals where we discussed the latest developments in our barley research.

You can find a recap of some of these events below:

At the Hutton, we are committed to finding solutions to global food security through science and are proud to be one of many organisations who are marking this important day.