Scientists say the plant enset, an Ethiopian staple, could be a new superfood and a lifesaver in the face of climate change. The banana-like crop has the potential to feed more than 100 million people in a warming world, according to a new study.

The plant is almost unknown outside of Ethiopia, where it is used to make porridge and bread. Research suggests the crop can be grown over a much larger range in Africa.

"This is a crop that can play a really important role in addressing food security and sustainable development," said Dr Wendawek Abebe of Hawassa University in Awasa, Ethiopia.

New legislation in England to cut red tape for gene edited crop research has come into force. Under the simplified rules, scientists will no longer have to seek permission from Defra to carry out field trials using genetic technologies such as gene editing.

However, researchers will still need to notify Defra of field trials, and plants will still be classified as GMOs meaning commercial cultivation of these plants, and any food products derived from them, will still need to be authorised in accordance with existing rules.

MPs and rural groups have warned that the proposed 'animal sentience committee' could be used to 'attack' farming, pest control and wildlife management.

The bill, which is only six clauses long, recognises that animals are sentient beings and creates a body to oversee UK ministers’ efforts to take account of their welfare needs when drawing up and implementing policy.

Rural campaigners, peers and MPs have warned that without sufficient safeguards, the committee risks being ‘hijacked’ by animal rights extremists who could use it to attack against farming and pest control.

Defra has granted the English sugar beet industry an emergency authorisation to use neonicotinoid-treated seed due to the risk posed by virus yellows.

For the 2022 sugar beet planting season, growers will be allowed to use seed treated with Syngenta’s neonicotinoid Cruiser SB (thiamethoxam) to stave off the threat of virus yellows, which is spread mainly by aphids and can result in yield losses of up to 50%.

Announcing the decision, Defra secretary George Eustice said he had considered the joint application from NFU and British Sugar and decided the emergency authorisation should be granted subject to strict conditions.

Global food prices reached a 10-year high in 2021, according to latest analysis by the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The FAO’s Food Price Index showed that across 2021, international food prices were 28.1% higher than in 2020, with the cost of vegetable oils and cereals rising most significantly.

FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian warned that while high prices would normally be expected to give way to increased production this might not happen imminently. “The high cost of inputs, the ongoing global pandemic and ever more uncertain climatic conditions leave little room for optimism about a return to more stable market conditions even in 2022,” he said.

Yara and Lantmännen have signed a commercial agreement to bring green fertilisers to market, with an 80-90% lower carbon footprint than current products.

The green fertilisers, produced using renewable energy, are 'crucial' for decarbonising the food chain and offering consumers more sustainable food choices, both organisations said on Monday.

Yara, a global fertiliser producer, and Lantmännen, a Sweden-based farming cooperative, began testing the commercial viability of the fertilisers in 2019. The collaboration has now resulted in a commercial contract, which will be produced by Yara and marketed by Lantmännen in Sweden starting in 2023.

Defra’s new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme puts domestic food production at risk and increases the likelihood of a rise in low-standard imports, a parliamentary committee has warned.

In a damning new report on ELM, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said it was not convinced the department understands how its environmental and productivity ambitions will affect the food and farming sector over the next decade.

“Farmers will be required to free up land currently used for food production to produce environmental benefits, for example converting farmland to forestry,” the document reads. “This may result in an increase in food imports and possibly the price of food into the UK, potentially exporting the UK’s environmental impacts through food being produced in other countries where environmental standards are lower.”

World meat consumption is expected to continue growing by 1.4% a year over the next few years, according to the EU Agricultural Outlook produced by the European Commission.

The report suggests this growth is a result of increasing population and higher incomes in developing countries. In order to fill this demand, an additional 3.4m tonnes of meat will need to be produced.

The EU internal market is not expected to follow the wider global trends. EU meat consumption is expected to drop 2.8kg a person from 2018 levels to 67kg a person by 2031, reflecting changing consumer attitudes.

A person in the South West of England has contracted avian influenza, the government has confirmed amid the UK's largest ever bird flu outbreak.

The UK Health Security Agency said on Thursday that the person acquired the infection from "very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds". The agency added that the person had kept the birds "in and around their home over a prolonged period of time."

Bird-to-human transmission of avian flu is very rare and has previously only occurred a small number of times in the UK.

Britain's farming and environment minister George Eustice said on Thursday that government legislation to ease the regulatory regime for gene editing after breaking away from EU rules would initially focus on crops, not farm animals.

The minister announced last year that regulations related to gene editing in agricultural research would be eased following a public consultation but more widespread use of the technology would require primary legislation.

"We will start in the first instance with crops since I think the ethical concerns on livestock are harder, do need a little bit more thought and we don't have to do everything in one go," Eustice told the annual Oxford Farming Conference.