A NEW project that focuses on gene-edited cereals is now underway. 

A Platform to Rate Organisms Bred for Improved Traits and Yield, or PROBITY for short, is a project that trials the production and processing of precision-bred crops to help understand their value when it comes to sustainable food and farming. 

The project, which is led by the British On-Farm Innovation Network (BOFIN), is a three-year £2.2m multi-partner project, funded by Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, which is delivered by Innovate UK.

Tom Allen-Stevens, Oxfordshire farmer and founder of BOFIN said: “This is an incredibly important project for farming and food production in this country.

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“We need to produce more, nutritious food with fewer resources and with less impact on the environment. Scientists have been developing new crop varieties that could help us rise to that challenge. This project will bring those varieties from the laboratory to farmers’ fields where we can fully assess their potential, explore barriers to their adoption and pave the way for future innovation.”

According to BOFIN, precision-bred crops can be created through gene editing, which speeds up the process of breeding more productive, nutritional and sustainable crop varieties.  The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Act 2023 allowed for the release and marketing of certain gene-edited plants. This currently makes England the only country in Europe where this novel material can be grown in farmers’ fields.

The seed harvested from plots at the John Innes Centre near Norwich will be multiplied up during 2025, to enable farmers in England to grow trials of the crop the following year.

Two further cereal varieties are being grown in glasshouses at Rothamsted Research, and once harvested this autumn, will also be multiplied up to be trialled on farms.

The three varieties will be grown on commercial farms and subjected to testing and scrutiny by farmers, scientists and food manufacturers to establish their potential. 

The three cereal varieties in the project are:

  • A wheat with superior baking, toasting and processing properties

Professor Nigel Halford, technical lead of PROBITY and scientist who developed this wheat line, said: “It’s tremendously important that we grow these varieties on farms so that farmers and food manufacturers can see the benefits and want to use them, and that consumers can be reassured that they’re no different in practical terms from other varieties of wheat.”

  • A barley making high lipid, high energy forage aimed at lowering livestock methane emissions

This barley was developed by Professor Peter Eastmond at Rothamsted Research. He said: “This project is hugely significant as it’s the first time in my career that it’s been possible to grow these varieties on real farms. The work leading to this point has all been funded by the taxpayer so it is extremely important to take it to the next stage and see if this trait could stand up from a commercial point of view.”

  • A wheat with a bigger bolder grain size promising a step change in productivity

Professor Cristobal Uauy, scientist at John Innes Centre who developed this wheat variety, said: “This project provides a unique opportunity to work with farmers and test precision-bred crops directly in their fields. We are extremely excited as this brings us one step closer to delivering wheat varieties with traits which will help us towards regenerative agriculture, a greener farming system and enhanced nutrition and quality.”