01 March 2025

What will the Future of Cereals look like?

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, James Lawless TD announced €23.6 million to support 23 research projects focused on tackling challenges in AI, healthcare, agriculture, energy, and transport.

Teagasc was one of the 9 successful research organisations to receive funding. A project called Future Cereals, led by Teagasc researchers Dr Susanne Barth and Dr Fiona Thorne, received approval of €828,603 in funding.

The Research Ireland ‘Frontiers for the Future Programme’ funds innovative, collaborative research with the potential to deliver economic and societal impact.

Dr Susanne Barth, project lead and researcher at the Teagasc, Crops Research Centre, in Oak Park, Carlow said; “The sustained improvement in agricultural productivity is central to the global socioeconomic development, environmental protection, crop’s resilience to climate change and land sparing underpinning biodiversity conservation. The Future Cereals research project will look to address the challenges. “

Dr Barth said; “Meta-analysis studies demonstrated that plant breeding has been and will be the major driver of enhanced agricultural land productivity in Europe.

New plant breeding technologies (NPBTs) such as genome editing (GE) and cisgenesis have the potential to contribute substantially to European food security.”

She said; “Barley is the biggest cereal crop in Irish agriculture both for the malting industry and as animal feed. The Future Cereals project will enforce barley breeding by generation of novel genetic variation using GE and cisgenesis. The selected traits for improvement are nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and resistance to the Barley Yellow Dwarf Viruses (BYDVs). In tandem we will conduct a socio-economic study to estimate the benefits of New Breeding Techniques for Irish crops and also query the consumer acceptance.”

The two project investigators Susanne Barth and Fiona Thorne and a network of collaborators welcomed the funding to provide the opportunity to do this important research work.