Harper Adams University

Crop landrace conservation, status, challenges and motivations in Great Britain

Societal Impact Statement Recent agricultural intensification has led to the widespread replacement of genetically diverse crop landraces with high‐yielding but genetically uniform modern cultivars, reducing the adaptive resilience of farming systems. In the United Kingdom, where...

An inventory, threat and conservation assessment of UK wheat landrace diversity

Abstract In the early 20th century, agricultural production was mostly focused on traditional, low-input systems where seed was actively selected by farmers and then frequently saved on-farm for sowing in subsequent seasons. More recently, the replacement of diverse landraces (LR...

Exploring citizen science as a tool for engaging zoo visitors with animal welfare

Abstract Global biodiversity losses are at an all-time high and conservation science is a priority discipline. Citizen science (providing opportunities for the public to play an active role in research projects) has been identified as a powerful tool for tackling conservation iss...

From Research to Deployment in Autonomous Agricultural Machinery: A Review of Path-Planning Technologies Against a Deployability Assessment Framework

Global labour shortages in the agricultural sector, combined with diminishing arable land and a growing population, are driving investment in autonomous agricultural machinery. Autonomous systems that can navigate crop environments and perform planting, treatment, and harvesting...

Disentangling global supply chains: A systematic map of research on the biodiversity and social impacts of European blue food consumption

Abstract Background : Seafood is a vital global resource, yet the rapid growth of aquaculture – which now supplies over half the world’s blue food – has introduced significant ecological and social challenges. As a major importer and consumer, Europe is central to these global su...

Reconstructing women's entrepreneurial identity among rural small agrifood entrepreneurs: Agency, rural embeddedness, and stakeholder influence

This paper explores how women entrepreneurs in the Republic of Benin, West Africa, reshape their entrepreneurial identities through agency and interactions with supportive stakeholders. Drawing on fifteen semi-structured interviews with women running small agrifood businesses and...

Dispersal responses of cereal aphids to wheat cultivar and planting configuration

Abstract Cultivar mixtures are advocated as an agroecological strategy for suppressing cereal aphid vectors and reducing barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) transmission, yet their effects on within‐crop dispersal remain largely untested, particularly across vector species and virus...

Reconsidering the importance of M etopolophium dirhodum ( W alker) ( H emiptera: A phididae) as a crop pest

Abstract Barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) causes major yield losses in temperate cereals. In many regions, management of BYDV has focused on Rhopalosiphum padi as the primary vector of BYDV‐PAV and Sitobion avenae as the primary vector of BYDV‐MAV. By contrast, the significance o...