Our campus at Invergowrie is now host to our new Crop Storage and Postharvest Solutions (CSPS) facility, A partnership between The James Hutton Institute, ADAS, Crop Health & Protection (CHAP) and Natural Resources Institute (NRI) at the University of Greenwich, with capital investment secured by CHAP, from Innovate UK, and additional funding at the Hutton from the Scottish Government. One of the key elements of the work of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre, the CSPS is looking at how we store fresh produce until it is needed. We know that where and when we grow our crops impacts on how well they store and their ultimate quality, nutritional value, appearance and processability. However, climate change is making farming and therefore crop storage increasingly difficult and crop losses due to insufficient or poor storage can see anything from 5-20% of the initial crop production being lost, especially in developing countries. Our science is focusing on how temperature change affects speed of change, and also the affects of humidity and gas composition. Through this we are putting the crops into a nearsleep state, thereby maintaining the crop’s innate properties and controlling and disease present. Initial research priorities include development of pre- and post-harvest monitoring and modelling for prediction of storage potential; supply chain tracking monitoring with a focus on energy, research on opportunities for automation and labour saving and developing and potato sprout suppressant technologies plus testing novel, sustainable packaging materials. For more information, contact Professor Derek Stewart, Director of the Advanced Plant Growth Centre: derek. stewart@hutton.ac.uk. Watch the first potatoes going into the new CSPS facility: The Dundee Renewable Energy Society (DRES) launched a community share offer in early December to raise funds to construct and operate a solar meadow in the Bullionfield, owned by the Hutton in Invergowrie. The solar meadow will consist of 2.59 MW Solar PV panels and anticipates selling 94% of the electricity generated to the Hutton. DRES needs to raise £3 million to deliver this initiative and the first phase of this share offering ended 20 December. The second phase will be open to 30 April 2024, to give local people in particular, longer to engage. Speaking of the initiative, Alasdair Cox, Director of Operations said, “This is an exciting development for the Hutton and we are delighted to be working in partnership with DRES. It builds on our ambitious climate action plan where we are trying to increase our use of renewable energy. This scheme will deliver almost 20% of our energy requirements for the Invergowrie site.” For more information please go to: www.dres.coop. New crop storage facility at Invergowrie Solar meadow in Invergowrie to support Hutton route to net zero February 2022 19 December 3
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