Uni team 'teaching' food crops to cope with stress

SCIENTISTS in the North East are working on a revolutionary method of “teaching” food plants how to cope with stress

- TONY HENDERSON

The Northumbria University team is to receive almost half a million pounds from the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) to fund the development of a 'smart bacterium' that can reprogramme how crops respond to environmental stresses in real-time.

With the world population expected to reach 10 billion by 2050 and falling crop yields, the project tackles a challenge in modern agriculture which is that crops often respond too cautiously to stressful conditions such as moderate drought and low nitrate levels in the soil before fertiliser application, which severely impacts their growth.