Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support research into crop protection for crops of national and international importance.

Defra has invested over £8.2 million between 2018 and 2024 on Genetic Improvement Networks on nationally and internationally important crops including wheat, oilseed rape, pulses and vegetable crops in research identifying genetic traits to improve their productivity, sustainability, resilience and nutritional quality. We are working with breeders to incorporate these traits into elite UK crop varieties. In May the Government announced additional investment in genetic improvement of up to £30 million to unlock the potential of precision breeding technologies.

We have also committed over £104 million to date through the £270 million Farming Innovation Programme for industry-led research and development in agriculture and horticulture in England. This investment is enabling more farmers, growers and agri-food businesses to become involved in agricultural R&D. This will maximise the impact of R&D investment in innovation and improve the take up of novel approaches on farms.

UK Research and Innovation also has a longstanding strategic priority on Sustainable Agriculture and Food (averaging £139 million per year), supporting critical ‘underpinning’ research and capability/skills development in plant science, pest and pathogen biology. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s recently announced Institute Strategic Programme includes ‘Building Robustness in Crops’, ‘Advancing Plant Health’, and ‘Delivering Sustainable Wheat’, which are all seeking to tackle strategic challenges in agriculture over the next five-year period.