Warwick Crop Centre » News

Coordinating Innovation for UK Horticulture - Scoping Project

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 14:53:25 GMT

Improving coordination across UK horticulture could unlock significant benefits for the sector. While strong grower-led networks and collaboration already exist, greater alignment of funding, clearer sector direction and better visibility of activity would help reduce duplication and strengthen impact. A more joined-up approach can help support innovation, resilience and long-term growth across fresh produce production.

A Business Case for Horticulture

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:59:00 GMT

Expanding the UK's edible horticulture sector presents a strong opportunity to boost economic growth, strengthen food security, and deliver environmental and public health benefits. Increasing domestic production of fruits, vegetables, and legumes would reduce reliance on imports while generating billions of pounds in economic value and supporting thousands of rural jobs. At the same time, horticultural crops are often resource-efficient and nutrient-dense, helping to lower the environmental footprint of food production while improving access to healthy diets. Strategic investment and coordinated policy support will be key to unlocking the sector's potential and building a more resilient, sustainable UK food system.

Read the full paper here

Warwick Crop Centre Researchers Contribute to Major International Study on Seed Conservation

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 11:08:44 GMT

Warwick Crop Centre researchers Sarah Trinder, Charlotte Allender and Nick Fenby have contributed to a major international study recently published in Plants, People, Planet.

The study represents a large-scale collaborative effort to understand strategies for conserving seeds, a critical component of global food security. As part of the research, data from the UK Vegetable Gene Bank (UKVGB) were used to analyse genetic diversity and inform conservation approaches for vegetable crops.

This work highlights the importance of international collaboration in safeguarding plant genetic resources and provides insights that will help improve seed conservation strategies worldwide.

Read the full paper here

The Fresh Produce Knowledge Exchange Hub is Now Live

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 14:45:00 GMT

Warwick Crop Centre is proud to announce the arrival of the Fresh Produce Knowledge Exchange Hub. The site brings together a range of trusted, relevant articles and resources to support all horticultural needs. It has been designed for growers, advisors, researchers and industry professionals, providing a central place to access crop-specific knowledge across fresh produce sectors, helping to connect research with real-world practice.

Click here to explore the hub

The recording of the Elizabeth Creak Distinguished Guest Lecture “Food security or food resilience? Unravelling the links, interests and challenges” by Prof Tim Lang is now available

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 16:32:00 GMT

Dave Chandler on the Instant Genius: The future of Food Podcast

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 09:27:00 GMT

As part of a four-part miniseries, Future of Food, Dr Dave Chandler, a crop researcher and agricultural scientist based at the University of Warwick, Warwick Crop Centre tells the podcast how current global food production practices are one of the most significant drivers of environmental damage and biodiversity loss, how climate change is threatening our ability to grow fresh produce to put on our plates and details some of the current thinking on how we can ensure the future of food production worldwide.

The Future of Food: Earth is heading for a food emergency: Can we stop it?

PhD Opportunity

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 11:13:00 GMT

CASE: Assessment and engineering of the Brassica self-incompatibility locus to enhance seed production

Celebrating 16 Years of Collaboration: From Warwick–CAU Partnership to the ECONUTRI Horizon Europe Project

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 05:24:03 GMT

Undergraduate Research Support Scheme project report on: Understanding the impact of variations in the reliability of visual inspection on pest detection

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:35:00 GMT

Shrey Majithia (University of Warwick URSS: Undergraduate Research Support Scheme10-week project student). Supervised by Matt Combes (Research Fellow in Dr Stephen Parnell's pest and disease modelling group). This project worked with data that was generated in collaboration with Forest Research as part of a Defra funded FPPH project Quantifying visual surveillance in tree health

We're taking part in the National Hedgehog Monitoring Programme

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:34:34 GMT