Raw materials

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Our Crops for the Future programme - led by Professor Sayed Azam-Ali at our Seminyeh campus in Malaysia - aims to increase the knowledge base for under-used crops, especially sustained market access, nutritional security and health and climate change.

Our work has resulted in a strong collaboration between partners with expertise in key sectors such as crop breeding, crop protection, agronomy, farm management and the malting and brewing industry.

Another key area is SAFEMalt (Strategies Against Fusarium Effective in Malting Barley) - a collaborative project between the University, Harper Adams University and a consortium of UK business stakeholders.

Research findings will provide vital information for management of Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) in UK barley, helping to minimise quality issues in the malting and brewing industry chain.

This project will also provide practical field guidelines to growers - a toolkit for the integrated management of UK malting barley cultivars for the control of FHB.

Environmental and cost-effective benefits will be delivered to growers and industry via optimised inputs and changes in practice through improved understanding of the principal factors that influence barley crop safety, quality and yield.

Fusarium Head Blight is a disease of worldwide importance affecting barley grain. The fungi that cause the disease are able to produce mycotoxins that are harmful to humans and animals.

So not only do we have an issue of safety, we also believe that the grain responds to the fungal disease by producing certain molecules which may impact on the brewing process once the grain goes for malting. This damaging disease is causing economic losses to exceed £30 million per year.