Vissiting professors: Malcolm Hohn Hawkesford

Is there anything we still do not know about growing plants?

We are very good at growing crops but there is always room for improvement. This is absolutely necessary to ensure food security. We need to strive to increase yield but in an efficient and sustainable way. We need to use water and fertilizers efficiently and minimise inputs of chemicals such as pesticides. In some areas of the world we need to improve the way we grow crops under stressful conditions such as low water availability or extremes of temperature.

Nitrogen fertilizers saved humanity from starvation. You specialize, among others, in plant nutrition. How fertilization have changed the nature of crop cultivation?

Fertilizers have enabled us to grow large quantities of healthy nutritious food. This has improved productivity and profitability for farmers and thus contributed to world food security. However success depends upon appropriate application of fertilizers and farmers need detailed knowledge of requirements for maximum efficiency. With properly applied fertilisers, we can now rely on production of high yielding and nutritious crops.

How modern technologies such as the use of drones or field scanner improves our knowledge in plant biology?

Breeding the best varieties required detailed knowledge of many varieties and crosses between them. Sometimes crop field trials can consist of tens of thousands of lines. Manual monitoring is slow and error prone and is usually restricted to a few key growth stages. Automation can allow rapid evaluation of many lines in high detail and such knowledge will benefit the production of new varieties. Drones are increasing being utilised in agriculture and crop breeding. They can cover large areas of trials and make comparisons between lines much easier. Drones can also enable rapid evaluations of spatial variation within a field, revealing features not apparent on the ground. New developments such as ground-based robot systems like the Scanalyzer enable completely autonomous crop evaluation, allowing unprecedented spatial and temporal detail of plant growth to be recorded.

What is the benefit of crop monitoring?

Monitoring crop performance can help in optimising yields, minimising inputs, identifying pests and pathogens and in forecasting yields. Knowing about spatial variation can help farmers make best use of their fields, maximise productivity and profit and minimise wasteful or environmentally damaging inputs. Technologies which facilitate crop monitoring are important tools for farmers and breeders for the future.

In the coming years, climate change is predicted to have a significant impact on crop productivity globally. In addition, there is a growing world population.  Is return to the roots, to old and ecological methods of cultivation possible in your opinion, if we are to ensure food security?

Climate change is already a challenge for food production and will become more so in the future. At the same time, demands for food will increase and conservation of resources will become ever more important. All types of crop production will need to be considered and used as efficiently as possible to enable food security with a changing climate. This will include a continued need for efficient high volume intensive food production as well as lower volume production systems in some environments or for specialist markets. The twin demands of food security and sustainable food production will need to be balanced. Feeding the world population will require a flexible food production approach.