AS WEATHER patterns become less predictable and population pressures on food supply grow, a group of world-leading crop scientists have called for a global crop network to systematically tackle threats to global food security.

The latest edition of the international journal 'Science' outlines the recommendation for a 'Global Crop Improvement Network' that would take a worldwide approach to crop research, improving mankind's ability to understand crop performance in different environments and speed up the adoption of new technologies.

The Network would work with existing national crop research systems and could be supported through public-private partnerships, using a model based on the successful International Wheat Improvement Network established in the 1960s.

SRUC principal and chief executive Professor Wayne Powell, who is a co-author of the GCIN model, explained: “Through the international research collaboration and data-sharing that underpins IWIN and the recommended GCIN, we have a huge opportunity to tackle in new ways the big global challenges of food and nutrition security while delivering new knowledge efficiently and providing value for money for those investing in research.

“For Scotland and the UK to make its rightful contribution to such important global initiatives, we must become better at sharing resources through a commitment to open science. SRUC and the other Scottish research institutes are major producers and curators of long term experimental and observational data, meaning we are ideally positioned to generate new knowledge of benefit to tackling national and global food production issues.”