Tobacco plants have been modified with a protein found in algae to improve their photosynthesis and increase growth, while using less water, in a new advance that could point the way to higher-yielding crops in a drought-afflicted future.

The technique focuses on photosynthesis, the complex process by which plants are able to use sunlight and carbon dioxide to produce nutrients that fuel their growth. Enhancing photosynthesis would produce huge benefits to agricultural productivity, but the complexities of the process have stymied many past attempts to harness it.

In research published in the journal Nature Plants, scientists used genetic manipulation processes to increase an enzyme that already exists within the tobacco plant, introduce a new enzyme from cyanobacteria, and to introduce a protein from algae.

The agricultural supply industry has set out a 30-year plan to help make its part of the food chain more sustainable and meet carbon neutrality targets.

Included in the roadmap from the Agricultural Industries Confederation are targets for a 60 per cent increase in input efficiency by 2050, a 40 per cent increase in the recovery of resources used in the making of inputs and the meeting of zero carbon emission goals by using more green energy and decarbonising production.

There is also a commitment for the sector to invest £1.5 billion innovation and research and development over coming years.

A research project in the USA exploring the feasibility of vertically farmed wheat has found yields of 39 tonnes per hectare could be achieved within just 70 days when grown under optimum artificial conditions.

The crops were grown at Princeton University, New Jersey, in collaboration with the University of Florida and NASA using two crop models to simulate the growth of wheat in an indoor hydroponic system, taking into account CO2, light intensity, nutrients and temperature.

A cross-party group of MPs is demanding urgent action from the UK government to tackle food insecurity amid the coronavirus pandemic, Brexit and climate change.

MPs from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) select committee have warned that a second wave of coronavirus and possible disruption to the food supply chain caused by a “disorderly Brexit” is likely to increase the number of people at risk of food shortages and hunger.

After the use of food banks in the UK almost doubled during the lockdown, with a significant spike in demand from families with children, the MPs have called on the government to urgently appoint a minister for food security.

British scientists are developing a method to speed the creation of vaccines for devastating pig diseases, such as African swine fever. Researchers are aiming to establish a reliable, large-scale system to develop and test vaccines for viral infections.

Stem cell technology will be used to develop a source of white blood cells, identical to those affected by disease in pigs, which can be used to develop vaccines containing live virus.

The team, involving scientists from the Roslin Institute and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), are particularly investigating control strategies against African swine fever virus.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Science and Technology in Agriculture has welcomed a commitment from Defra Minister Lord Gardiner of Kimble that the Government will launch a public consultation in the Autumn on post-Brexit regulation of precision breeding techniques such as gene editing.

Responding to an amendment led by the APPG during yesterday’s Committee Stage debate on the Agriculture Bill, Lord Gardiner acknowledged the very strong case for taking simple gene editing techniques out of the scope of GM regulation, and he thanked Lord Cameron of Dillington, a vice-chair of the APPG and current chair of the advisory board of the Government’s Global Food Security programme, for raising the issue.

Announcing the consultation, Lord Gardiner reiterated the Government’s longstanding objection to the ‘unscientific’ European Court ruling of July 2018 classifying gene editing techniques as GM, highlighting the urgent need for a more scientific approach to regulation to reap the economic and environmental benefits of these technologies, and re-confirming the Government’s view that gene edited products whose DNA changes could have occurred naturally or through traditional breeding techniques should not be regulated as GMOs.

The government has announced an autumn consultation on the future regulation of precision breeding techniques in the UK.

The consultation will look at post-Brexit regulation of precision breeding techniques, such as gene editing.

Defra Minister Lord Gardiner of Kimble said there was a strong case for taking these techniques out of the scope of GM regulation.

An independent review of UK food policy is calling for "a gold standard level of scrutiny" to ensure new trade deals do not undermine the environment. Verification schemes should address concerns such as imports of beef reared on land recently cleared of rainforest. And the government should press on with plans to pay English farmers to improve the countryside.

The report aims to ensure a food system that is healthy, affordable, sustainable, resilient, and productive. It was commissioned by the government in 2019.

Author of the first report of the National Food Strategy, food entrepreneur Henry Dimbleby, said the UK had a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to decide what kind of trading nation it wanted to be when the transition period ends.

Support is growing for an amendment to the Agriculture Bill to encourage new plant-breeding techniques in the UK. The British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) is urging members of the House of Lords to support the amendment which could give Britain’s scientists and breeders access to the latest gene-editing techniques. This would mark a step change in prospects for crop improvement, says BSPB, resulting in more sustainable, productive and climate-resilient agriculture.

Amendment 275, tabled by Lord Cameron of Dillington and supported by Baroness Hayman, Lord Krebs and Lord Rooker, will be debated by Peers during Committee Stage currently taking place in Parliament. The amendment paves the way for the Government to consult on and, if appropriate, make a simple change to the Environmental Protection Act which would reverse EU rules classifying gene-edited products as GMOs.

Innovative agri-tech projects, including fruit picking robots and autonomous crop systems, are set to benefit from a £24 million government fund.

The nine projects benefiting will apply big data, artificial intelligence and robotics to UK farming, with the aim of creating a more efficient system of food production.