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NIAB sowing seeds for China-UK crop collaboration

Written by News Desk

Wednesday, 05 December 2007

Prof Wayne Powell, chief executive of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge, is making a fact-finding visit to China aimed at pooling Eastern and Western knowledge in the field of crop science. Seeking to learn more about China’s plant breeding and genetic resources, as well as raise NIAB’s international profile, Prof Powell will attend three major events, in Beijing and Wuhan, two of which he will address as speaker. Prof Powell said: “This visit strengthens NIAB’s representation in China, as well as UK-China links. The fact that three of our senior scientists are also visiting reflects the growing importance of NIAB’s international presence and collaboration with major players.   “China holds very unique genetic resources and we are anxious to know how we can combine modern genome science with novel genetic resources.”   With the world production of wheat at a 10 year low, Prof Powell believes their innovative research into wheat is of great significance and will be of considerable global interest.   He added: “China has an intensive domestic research effort on wheat breeding and have produced new varieties of wheat with resistance to stem rust. The visit will catalyse new opportunities for collaboration between the UK and China.” China and the EU recently announced that they would open their respective research programmes for greater collaboration, leading to an improvement of mutual understanding.

 

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