UK-led research could boost crops in food-insecure regions

Two major new research projects have been launched to harness the latest advances in crop science and expertise to unlock the potential of underutilised crops to combat food insecurity and climate change.

Scientists from the University of Nottingham are part of two UK-CGIAR Centre-funded projects. The first, led by Nottingham, focuses on studying root-soil interactions in pigeon pea. The second project, in which Nottingham is a key partner, aims to establish genomic and breeding resources and technologies for Bambara groundnut.

Both crops are drought-tolerant crops with the ability to thrive in poor soils, making them valuable for improving food security in climate-vulnerable regions.

Pigeon pea, a grain legume also known as toor dal, is an important crop for smallholder farmers in regions such as South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The legume plays a key role in supporting food security, enhancing soil fertility, and sustaining the household incomes of smallholder farmers.

Its drought tolerance, nutritional qualities, and soil improvement potential make it an ideal crop for sustainable agriculture in many climate-challenged regions. However, the crop is sensitive to high temperature events, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change. These rising temperatures could reduce pigeon pea yields, worsening food and nutrition insecurity and further exposing vulnerable populations to hunger and poverty.

The UK research teams – including scientists from the University of Nottingham and the University of Warwick – will study how temperature affects root growth directly in soil, using the latest scanning technology at the Hounsfield Facility at the University of Nottingham.

The studies will be complemented by field research led by international partners who will examine changes in root architecture and anatomy, rhizosphere signalling and their interplay in microbial recruitment, nodule formation, nitrogen fixation, and overall plant performance.

The findings will inform strategies improving pigeon pea production through collaboration through existing networks of national institutes, farmers, breeders, grain and seed value chain stakeholders, and policymakers.

Dr Rahul Bhosale, associate professor at the University of Nottingham and lead researcher on the pigeon pea project, said: “Resolving this scientific challenge could have far-reaching implications. In the long term, this work could contribute significantly to safeguarding food security, reducing poverty, and promoting sustainable agricultural practices, particularly for vulnerable populations in low-and middle-income countries.”

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea) is another underutilised crop with huge potential to address global food and nutrition security challenges. It also thrives in poor soils, supports soil health through nitrogen fixation, and provides a highly nutritious food source – especially valuable in areas affected by poverty, malnutrition, and water scarcity.

The Bambara groundnut project, led by Cambridge’s Crop Science Centre and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and in collaboration with the University of Nottingham, aims to develop the genomic resources and tools to accelerate the development of new improved varieties.

The work will advance both genetic tools and the conventional and precision-breeding capabilities necessary to accelerate the release of improved varieties of the Bambara groundnut. This will help promote wider adoption of the crop by farmers in Africa and potentially other geographical areas like India.

The main international partner for the pigeon pea project is ICRISAT, supported by CIMMYT and a network of National Agricultural Research and Extension (NARES) partners. The Bambara Groundnut project is in partnership with IITA supported by ICRISAT and NARES.

The UK-CGIAR Centre is funded by UK International Development from the UK government and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)