Topic description and stories

Planting ideas: Botanic Garden opens access with living collections portal

02 Oct 2020

A new web portal to Cambridge University Botanic Garden's entire living collection, 14,000 plants, aims to open access and fast-track urgent global...

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The £2 billion vegetable and the agricultural future of the East

15 Mar 2019

From crop science to robotics, supply chains to economics, Cambridge University researchers are working with farmers and industry to sustainably...

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Harvest

‘High-yield’ farming costs the environment less than previously thought – and could help spare habitats

14 Sep 2018

New findings suggest that more intensive agriculture might be the “least bad” option for feeding the world while saving its species – provided use of...

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Commercial honeybee hives in the Teide National Park, Tenerife, Spain.

Think of honeybees as ‘livestock’ not wildlife, argue experts

25 Jan 2018

Contrary to public perception, die-offs in honeybee colonies are an agricultural not a conservation issue, argue Cambridge researchers, who say that...

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Expresso Porco

Massive projected increase in use of antimicrobials in animals could lead to widespread antimicrobial resistance in humans

28 Sep 2017

The amount of antimicrobials given to animals destined for human consumption is expected to rise by a staggering 52% and reach 200,000 tonnes by 2030...

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Archaeology shows there's more to millet than birdseed

24 Jul 2017

Archaeological research shows that our prehistoric ancestors built resilience into their food supply. Now archaeologists say ‘forgotten’ millet – a...

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Canola crop with wheat crop in background at Wallandbeen, NSW.

Major funding for new crop sciences research centre that will be ‘centrepiece’ of industrial collaboration

10 Jul 2017

Over £30m has been announced for a new Cambridge Centre for Crop Science that will focus on linking with farming and food industries to translate...

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Greengrocer at Arusha Market

Of cabbages and cows: increasing agricultural yields in Africa

13 Feb 2017

Africa’s food requirements, along with its population, are growing fast. Three research programmes ask how a better understanding of viruses...

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History reveals the hazards of dismantling trade protection

31 Jan 2017

As the UK prepares to leave the EU, trade regimes are being reconfigured. Research into 19th-century trade regulations by Carolyn Cobbold, historian...

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Cambridge to play major role in €400m EU food innovation project

13 Dec 2016

The University of Cambridge is one of a number of British universities and companies that have won access to a £340 million EU Innovation programme...

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Zebu cattle pulling a wagon beside a pond at the Indus  Civilisation site of Rakhigarhi in northwest India

Rice farming in India much older than thought, used as 'summer crop' by Indus civilisation

21 Nov 2016

Thought to have arrived from China in 2000 BC, latest research shows domesticated rice agriculture in India and Pakistan existed centuries earlier...

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Researcher Sanjie Jiang inside the 'flight arena' in the glasshouse of the Cambridge University Botanic Garden.

Virus attracts bumblebees to infected plants by changing scent

11 Aug 2016

Study of bee-manipulating plant virus reveals a “short-circuiting” of natural selection. Researchers suggest that replicating the scent caused by...

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