The expertise of Warwick Crop Centre ranges from but is not limited to detailed studies of plant, pathogen and insect biology through to replicated field trials for the evaluation of novel pesticides, biological control agents and new crop varieties. With ready access to a range of specialist facilities combined with vast scientific expertise, we engage fully in knowledge exchange with government, levy bodies and industry and offer specialist services to a range of partners including breeding and agrochemical companies and growers in the areas of:

1. Crop Production Systems

Research is actively been done to improve and accelerate crop breeding, leading to new crop varieties that can thrive in specific and challenging environments.Our specialists work on protected and outdoor cropping systems, with an emphasis on cost effective production of high-quality crops with minimal environmental impactAreas of expertise includecrop physiologyagronomyplant nutritionenvironmental accounting (life cycle analysis, carbon and water footprints)environmental stewardship andpest, disease and weed control.

2. Pest Disease and Weed Control

We conduct novel cutting edge research tounderstand the biology and ecology of key pathogen, insect and weed pests of outdoor and protected edible and ornamental crops and identify ways to improve their control.develop innovative methods of pathogen detection, pest and disease forecasting and biological and cultural control methods that can be used as vital components of integrated pest and disease management programmes.

3. Plant and Crop Sciences

Expertise in genetics, cutting-edge genomics technologies and systems biology are applied to investigate; plant-pathogen and pest interactions, resource (water and fertiliser) use efficiency, flowering, oil quality, seed/seedling vigour and post-harvest quality.

Research is facilitated by strategic experimental resources including mapping populations, linkage maps, BAC libraries and diversity sets developed from international crop genetic resource collections