Biotech Updates

New Crops for the Future Research Centre Planned in Malaysia

July 8, 2011

The Government of Malaysia will be hosting the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus' Crops for the Future Research Centre (CFFRC). The center will evaluate from among the 18,000 indigenous and underutilized crop species in the region for their potential uses as human food, pharmaceuticals or biomaterials in the climates of the future.

In the face of increasing population, impending climatic change, and global reliance on three or four food staples, Professor Saved Azam-Ali, the first Chief Executive Officer of CFFRC said that "As bio-scientists we urgently need to find and improve more plants to increase the bread basket, to complement the crops we already have and to be resilient to our changing climates."

With a grant of $40 million from the Malaysian government, a team of staff and researchers including experts in biotechnology, breeding and seed systems, ecophysiology, agronomy and post production, processing, markets and trade, will be housed in the center.

For more on this news, view http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/news/pressreleases/2011/june/newcropsforthefutureresearchcentre.aspx