Horticultural cash fillip

A centre of excellence for horticultural research has been created at Warwick University, with backing from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Simon Bright, former head of technology for agriculture business giant Syngenta and an expert in the use of biotechnology and genomics in crops, has been appointed director. Defra is investing £36.2 million over eight years in research and development and a further £1.3 million over five years to maintain a vegetable gene bank at the centre.