Drought is a major limitation on crop production and food security in many countries. The Drought Mitigation Group at Harper Adams University is researching and developing different methods for reducing drought damage to crop yield.
The Group focuses on crop management and phenotyping techniques for both rainfed and irrigated farming systems and current projects include work on: film antitranspirants and crop enhancement products in wheat and sorghum, phenotyping screens for drought tolerance in brassicas and other vegetables and in willow, sensors for precision irrigation in potatoes.
Current and recent collaborations have been with:
- Universities
- Aberystwyth University (IBERS), UK
- University of Warwick, UK
- University of West of England, UK
- University of Florida, USA
- KU Leuven, Belgium
- University of the West Indies, Trinidad
- Research institutes
- Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, UK
- Rothamsted Research, UK
- Jülich Centre, Germany
- Companies
- Plant Impact
- Syngenta
- PDM Produce
Research
- PhD Theses and peer-reviewed papers on drought-related research
- Research notes on drought-related research
Honours Research Projects
A number of undergraduate students are undertaking research in the area of drought mitigation, including:
-
Title and aim of research project: To investigate drought effects/tolerance within UK early potato varieties.
Bronwen Jones, BSc (Hons) Agriculture -
Title and aim of research project: To investigate the drought tolerance of early, intermediate and late diploid and hexaploid Perennial ryegrasses.
Rhys Roberts, BSc (Hons) Agriculture -
Title and aim of research project: Investigating the response of UK spring wheat varieties and Emmer and Einkorn landraces of wheat to early drought.
Ellis Gordon, BSc (Hons) Agriculture with Crop Management -
Title and aim of research project: Investigation of the extent to which superabsorbent polymers can prevent or reduce drought effects in spring wheat.
Olly Lyons, BSc (Hons) Agriculture
Contact
The Group welcomes contact from potential collaborators and prospective PhD students. For further information on the Drought Mitigation Group please contact Professor Peter Kettlewell.
Staff with interests in drought mitigation include:
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