Small businesses and the agri-food sector have been hardest hit by changes to trade following the implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) nearly a year ago, peers warn.

In a report published on Thursday, the Lords European Affairs Committee calls for the government to do more to support SMEs, including reinstating funding to help them access professional support.

Since the agreement of the TCA and the end of the transition period, businesses trading goods between GB and the EU have faced challenges because of new administrative burdens.

An autonomous robot which reduces powdery mildew through light treatment achieved complete control of the pathogen during this growing season. 'Thorvald' delivered UV-C treatment to protect strawberry plants on over 10 hectares of land at Clock House Farm and Hugh Lowe Farm, both in Kent.

The robot performs light treatment to control mildew on strawberries and vines, drastically reducing the need for fungicides. During March to October, the farms did not spray their crops with any powdery-mildew-targeting chemical control agent, with Thorvald's team calling this a 'world-first'.

The autonomous robot was developed by Saga Robotics and has been on trial in the UK since 2019.

Genetically-modified (GM) purple tomatoes with high levels of health-giving antioxidants - developed by Norwich scientists - could be available in the USA from next spring. Prof Cathie Martin and her team at the John Innes Centre has been researching tomatoes since 2008 as part of a long-term project to improve human health and diets.

She told members of Stalham Farmers’ Club that several GM purple tomato varieties were in the final stages of lengthy and exhaustive regulatory reviews in the United States. If approved, it was possible that seeds of the purple tomato varieties might be available to gardeners and growers in the American market from the early spring, she said.

The UK's chief veterinary officer has told the BBC there is a "phenomenal level" of avian flu in the UK. Tens of thousands of farmed birds have already been culled, as the" largest number of premises ever" in an avian influenza outbreak are infected. Officials say the risk to human health is low - there is no link to the Covid-19 pandemic - but infected birds should not be touched.

"It has huge human, animal, and trade implications," the chief vet said. Lessons learned from the foot-and-mouth outbreak are being used to try to control the outbreak, Dr Christine Middlemiss added.

Scientists have for the first time obtained stem cells from livestock that grow under chemically defined conditions, paving the way for manufacturing cultured meat and breeding enhanced livestock.

Researchers from UK and Japanese institutions have developed stem cell lines from pigs, sheep and cattle embryos grown without the need for serum, feeder cells or antibiotics.

The research, by the Universities of Nottingham, Cambridge, Exeter, Tokyo and Meiji, has been published in the journal Development and was funded by BBSRC, EU (ERC), MRC and Wellcome Trust.

Field to Market: The Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture released today the fourth edition of its landmark National Indicators Report, Environmental Indicators for Measuring Outcomes of On-Farm Agricultural Production in the United States, which provides critical national-level analysis on progress in environmental indicators across eleven U.S. commodity crops.

The report, last issued in 2016, demonstrates that progress across five key environmental indicators has largely plateaued over the last decade, demonstrating an urgent need for greater collective action from the value chain in order to achieve sustained transformation of the agricultural system.

A variety of the fungus that causes the disease Phoma on oilseed rape and other brassicas has been discovered in Europe for the first time, at sites in Southern England and Northern Ireland.

The Plenodomus biglobosus ‘canadensis’ variant was discovered last spring on wasabi plants, marking the first time the disease has been found on the vegetable.

Another variant of the fungus, P. biglobosus ‘brassicae’ was also discovered infecting wasabi at a third site in the West Midlands. DNA analysis of cultures taken from the infected plants confirmed the identification, said Rothamsted plant pathologist, Dr Kevin King.

Scientists have used gene editing technology to create female-only and male-only litters of mice.

Their technique could prevent the destruction of hundreds of thousands of unwanted mice used in research.

The team says it could also prevent the slaughter of millions of male chickens in the UK, which are culled because they don't lay eggs.

Defra Secretary George Eustice has said Government subsidies and interventions do nothing to support food security.

Speaking at the CLA Rural Business Conference, Mr Eustice pointed to growing self-sufficiency in the largely unsubsidised poultry, egg and soft fruit sectors as evidence that state support does not lead to better food security outcomes.

He also told Farmers Guardian the Government did not intend to back a legal food self-sufficiency target, as called for by the NFU, claiming the right approach is to ‘target improved farm profitability, then successful domestic production will follow’.

Morrisons has announced it will reduce the amount of soya it uses in its supply chain by installing insect ‘mini farms’ at 10 of its free range egg farms.

It estimated reducing soya from 10 farms’ feed would remove 5,737 tonnes of CO2 and save 56 hectares of South American land from deforestation every year.

It comes as part of a move to become the first supermarket to launch own brand carbon neutral eggs in 2022.