In line with the latest COVID-19 guidance from the UK and Scottish governments, most of James Hutton Institute staff members are working remotely. Nevertheless, rest assured we're still available – the big challenges of our time, including the climate emergency and food security issues, are still urgent and COVID-19 will add to the urgency to develop a more resilient world.

By email, social media or phone, we’re happy to help.

Potato is a key food and cash crop contributing both to food security and the local economy in Kenya, Malawi and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa. However, crops in the region are frequently affected by low yields and plant pest and diseases, with a significative impact on communities’ livelihoods.

To mark World Water Day, the James Hutton Institute has taken part in an aquaNOW Audience on the topic of 'Water and the Climate Crisis'. aquaNOW Audiences are interactive panel discussions, produced by OOSKAnews, engaging international water experts and Scottish expertise in global water-related challenges and solutions, filmed before a live audience and streamed online to a global viewership.

“Soil is life. We breathe the air, we drink the water and we eat the crops, we live on the soil. Soil stores twice as much carbon globally as the vegetation above ground and is a universe of microbial life working with plants to balance the carbon, nitrogen and oxygen levels in the air. It is fundamental and vital that soil health is appropriately funded and supported if we are to tackle the global challenges that our planet faces.”

Countries around the world must induce ‘social tipping’ dynamics by introducing far-reaching social and technological changes if they are to successfully decarbonise and prevent the devastating consequences of climate change, an international research consortium including the James Hutton Institute argues.

An international research team featuring scientists from the James Hutton Institute is exploring the potential of biochar - a carbon-rich type of charcoal - to address air pollution, climate change, food security and farmers’ incomes in India.

The annual Hutton Postgraduate Student Event, which showcases the excellent science being undertaken by postgraduate students at the James Hutton Institute, took place at the Birnam Arts and Conference Centre, Birnam, on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th March 2020.

An international consortium including the James Hutton Institute which tracks the European spatial distribution of Phytophthora infestans, the plant pathogen responsible for potato late blight, has updated the distribution of the pathogen by adding new data that visualises the distribution and diversity of dominant clones in the 2019 crop.

The definition of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘community’, as described in the draft Right to Buy Land to Further Sustainable Development (Eligible Land, Specified Types of Area and Restrictions on Transfers, Assignations and Dealing) (Scotland) Regulations 2020, were discussed during a session of the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee of the Scottish Parliament, to which experts of the James Hutton Institute and other stakeholders gave evidence.

Professor Lesley Torrance, Director of Science at the James Hutton Institute, has been made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), a body which contributes to the social, cultural and economic wellbeing of Scotland through the advancement of learning and useful knowledge.