The UK does not produce enough fruit and vegetables for its population to get the recommended five portions a day intake, according to new analysis.

Even without taking waste into account, the UK would need to produce or import 9% more fruit and veg for everyone to be able to eat the recommended amount.

The analysis, from the Sustainable and Healthy Food Systems (SHEFS) research group, is intended to inform policy makers of the need to increase production as well as consumption.

Researchers have managed to create clones of high-performing hybrid varieties that end the need for farmers to buy expensive new seeds every year. The resulting rice plants maintain their bumper yields for at least three generations, in an advance that came after decades of attempts.

First-generation hybrids of crop plants often show better yields and performance than their parent strains – a phenomenon called hybrid vigour. But the effects are then lost when the hybrids are bred together for a second generation, so farmers wanting to keep getting the best harvest must buy new seed each season. The extra cost means that the benefits of rice hybrids have yet to reach many of the world’s farmers.

An international team of researchers from institutions including the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development and University of California have now found a way to reproduce the hybrid vigour generation after generation.

Agritech should be a key focus for British scientific innovation post-Brexit, UK science minister George Freeman has suggested. In a speech to centre-right think tank Onward on 11 January, he said the UK would need to set “realistic” ambitions if it is excluded from EU science schemes, Politico reported.

Britain has applied to join EU programmes including the Horizon Europe research and development framework. But the European Commission has refused to sign off on Britain’s involvement until a dispute over post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland has been resolved.

Freeman stressed the importance of new UK funding initiatives designed to facilitate bilateral projects with non-EU science powerhouses such as Japan, Switzerland and Israel. This could see British science focus on areas such as agritech, the gene editing of crops, functional foods, and synthetic biology, as well as space and biosecurity.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) predicts persistent polycrises of food, energy and fertilizer shortages during the next two years. A new report says starkly how food system failures are unavoidable and society can expect further food price spikes as the cost of living crisis continues.

The organization calls for bold leadership actions to embrace the complex situation holistically, bringing dual solutions that target both food security and climate change.

“We must face this crisis with the certainty of multiple food crises to follow,” underscores Tania Strauss, head of strategy and global projects for the WEF.

Wheat containing exotic DNA from wild relatives benefit from up to 50% higher yields in hot weather compared with elite lines lacking these genes, UK researchers say.

Following a year when temperature records have been smashed, research from the Earlham Institute in Norwich offers hope for improving crop resilience and food security.

The field trials in Mexico, undertaken with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), also emphasise the importance of genetic diversity in key crops.

A new five-year strategy to protect crops and plants from pests and diseases has been published as the government looks to bolster domestic food production.

The GB-wide plant biosecurity strategy, launched by Defra on Monday (9 January), aims to position the UK as a global leader in plant and crop biosecurity.

It sets out a vision to create a new biosecurity regime and bio-secure plant supply chain, which the government says will safeguard food security and help mitigate the effects of climate change.

A study from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has supported a proposal to relax restrictions on gene editing technology to improve crop yields and boost resistance to diseases.

The IEA report has backed the government’s proposed Precision Breeding Bill, which aims to update the regulatory framework related to precision-bred plants and animals developed through techniques such as gene editing.

Incentivising farmers to restore some land as habitats for nature could deliver UK climate and biodiversity targets at half the taxpayer cost of integrating nature into land managed for food production, according to a new study published today in the journal People and Nature.

The research, led by the universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Glasgow, provides the first evidence for the taxpayer savings offered by focusing food production in certain areas to allow the creation of new woods, wetland and scrub habitats on some of the land currently used for farming.

The study suggests that this "land sparing" approach would cost just 48% of the funds required to achieve the same outcomes for biodiversity and the climate through an approach known as "land sharing", where conservation measures get mixed into farming by adding hedgerows to fields, reducing pesticides, and so on—all of which lowers food yield.

The Government has set out a raft of legally binding targets, including a 40 per cent reduction in on-farm nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants and a 16.5 per cent increase in woodland cover, to help boost the natural environment.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published a list of 13 objectives that have been designed to boost biodiversity while producing cleaner air and water sources.

According to Defra, the targets will help ‘drive forward’ the Government’s commitment to tackle climate change and restore ‘natural capital’ and landscapes.

Defra is providing funding of £12.5m in England to support innovations that will help reduce labour, improve productivity and create more sustainable farming practices.

Defra farming minister Mark Spencer said: “This is an exciting opportunity for farmers and growers to come together with businesses and researchers to invent ingenious solutions to the problems our agriculture and horticulture sectors face.

“Automation and robotics has huge potential to improve productivity and sustainability. By supporting some of the most promising ideas to get off the ground, we are investing in a successful agriculture and horticulture industry for generations to come.”