A 'doomsday' Arctic seed vault on Norway's Spitsbergen island is set to receive its most diverse batch of seed donations yet as efforts to secure the world's food supplies ramp up amid rising climate concerns.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built to protect the world's food stock from disasters ranging from nuclear war to global warming, will add 19,500 rare seed variety samples from across the world to its collection on Tuesday, taking its total stash to more than 1.2 million.

The vault, set in permafrost caves on an arctic mountainside halfway between mainland Europe and the North Pole, was launched in 2008 as a backup for the world's national and regional gene banks that store the genetic code for thousands of plant species.

More than £168 million in grants will be available to farmers this year to drive innovation, support food production, improve animal health and welfare and protect the environment.

Speaking at the National Farmers’ Union conference in Birmingham, Farming Minister Mark Spencer will set out how the grants will drive the development of new technology and innovative ways of farming, with a focus on practical solutions that advance food productivity and deliver significant environmental and animal welfare benefits.

These could include robotic technology to support with harvesting, handling equipment and cow mattresses to help prevent lameness in dairy cattle, sensors on tractors to measure the levels of nutrients in soils, or improvements to slurry storage - to further the efforts of farmers aiming to minimise their fertiliser use, and in turn reduce water and air pollution.

The "clock is ticking" for the government to protect homegrown food supply, the National Farmers' Union president has warned. Minette Batters said farmers were still being hit by labour shortages, high costs, the impacts of climate change and global political turmoil.

Mrs Batters said agricultural costs had risen by almost 50% since 2019 and the poultry industry - severely affected by the largest recorded outbreak of bird flu - had seen UK egg production fall to its lowest level in nine years.
The country must "never take our food security for granted," she said.

"There are three cornerstones on which a prosperous farming sector must be built and which any government should use to underpin its farming policy," Mrs Batters said. "They are boosting productivity, protecting the environment and managing volatility.

Prof Dame Angela McLean is to replace Sir Patrick Vallance as the government chief scientific adviser (GCSA), the first woman to hold the role.

Dame Angela is currently Ministry of Defence chief scientific adviser and an expert on the spread of infectious diseases, at Oxford University.

As Sir Patrick's deputy during the pandemic, Dame Angela played a critical role at the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and drawing up advice.

Avian flu has reached new corners of the globe and become endemic for the first time in some wild birds that transmit the virus to poultry, according to veterinarians and disease experts, who warn it is now a year-round problem.

Reuters spoke to more than 20 experts and farmers on four continents who said the prevalence of the virus in the wild signals that record outbreaks will not abate soon on poultry farms, ramping up threats to the world's food supply. They warned that farmers must view the disease as a serious risk all year, instead of focusing prevention efforts during spring migration seasons for wild birds.

Outbreaks of the virus have widened in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, undefeated by summer heat or winter cold snaps, since a strain arrived in the United States in early 2022 that was genetically similar to cases in Europe and Asia.

The results of Europe’s first ever field trial of a gene edited variety of wheat have shown a major reduction of the potential carcinogen acrylamide when the flour is baked.

The new wheat strain was gene-edited to lower the formation of asparagine in the wheat grains. When cooked, this amino acid is converted to acrylamide – a potential carcinogen that food processors are keen to control.

Levels of asparagine (acrylamide’s precursor) in the GE wheat were up to 50% lower than the control variety Cadenza.

The UK's new cabinet minister for science says that she will have a "relentless focus" on using research to make people's lives better.

Michelle Donelan told BBC News that a department focusing solely on science, technology and innovation would be "transformative".

This will be the first time that there has been a cabinet minister focused on science since 1994.

A new database of 19 insect genomes encompassing some of the most damaging pests worldwide has been made available in a bid to better target crop protection.

It includes some of the most common pest threats faced by UK farmers including wireworm, cabbage stem flea beetle and pollen beetle, as well as other globally important species.

It is hoped that the new database will help speed up the development of novel pest control approaches that can overcome resistance and create more nature friendly solutions to crop protection. The four-year Pest Genome Initiative was developed by Rothamsted Research along with the agriscience companies Syngenta and Bayer.

Scottish farmers are being blocked from growing healthier, cheaper food by SNP Ministers, West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine Conservative MP Andrew Bowie has warned. The UK Government’s Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill will allow food producers to use precision breeding techniques with the aims of growing hardier crops, lowering carbon emissions, and benefiting public health.

Gene editing (GE) makes natural precision breeding of species faster and cheaper, and is unrelated to genetic modification which introduces DNA. GE has been backed by Scottish farming chiefs and world-leading research institutes such as James Hutton and Roslin.

However, SNP, Green and Labour MSPs refused consent for the provisions of the bill to be enacted in Scotland.

Research from Lancaster University – published last week by trade association, Solar Energy UK – has offered evidence that solar farms can enhance biodiversity on farmland.

Solar farms surveyed by ecologists showed an increase in the abundance of wildlife, especially pollinators like bees and butterflies that maintain biodiversity and ecosystem stability.

Pollinator habitats, such as wildflower meadows, can be established within solar farms and could increase the abundance of bumblebees by up to four times, said the report.