logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2021
17m 28s

The business of seed banks

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Increasingly scientists are using genetic material from wild plants to make agricultural crops more resilient to climate change. To find out how, Rebecca Kesby heads to the Millennium Seed Bank for the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, in the south of England. There she meets Dr Chris Cockel, one of their project coordinators. We also hear from Asmund Asdal of the Global Seed Vault, which is located in a mountain on the archipelago of Svalbaard, between mainland Norway and the North Pole. We speak to Dr Shivali Sharma, who is developing climate resistant varieties of pigeon pea, a staple crop in many parts of rural India. And Mohamed Lassad Ben Saleh, farmer in Tunisia, tells us how breeding crops that combine properties of indigenous wild varieties has improved the quality and yield of his crops.

Producers: Clare Williamson and Benjie Guy

(Picture: a hand holding seeds. Credit: Getty Images.)

Up next
Yesterday
Business Daily meets: Max Levchin
The fintech entrepreneur tells us about co-founding PayPal, and how an embarrassing personal moment when trying to buy a car, led him to start the buy now, pay later company Affirm.Produced and presented by Leanna Byrne(Image: PayPal Co-Founder & Affirm CEO Max Levchin in 2019. C ... Show More
17m 34s
Jul 9
The impact of 'thirsty' data centres
We're in the US state of Georgia, where huge data centres need water to keep cool. But how is this need for cloud storage and AI capability affecting local residents and the environment?Presenter: Michelle Fleury Producer: Nathalie Jimenez(Image: Georgia resident Beverly Morris l ... Show More
17m 50s
Jul 8
Does university still get you a well-paid job?
Graduates are facing one of the toughest jobs markets in decades. We hear from students in India, the US and UK about whether they feel a university or college degree is worth it as we discuss the cost of attending university around the world and what your job prospects might be ... Show More
17m 27s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2022
Who owns seeds?
Today’s seed industry is dominated by a handful of companies. Approximately 60% of the market is controlled by just four companies. Many of the seeds planted by farmers are controlled by international property rights or patents, that limit how they can be used. Court cases have c ... Show More
28m 52s
Aug 2023
A regenerative future; nature friendly farming in action
More than half of the world’s agricultural land is degraded and, according to the World Economic Forum, ‘within 50 years, there may not be enough soil left to feed the world’.But this doesn’t have to be the end of the story.  In this episode of the Nature-Based Solutions takeover ... Show More
41m 33s
Jan 2024
Doing the bees’ work with Thai Sade of BloomX
Thai Sade is the co-founder and CEO of BloomX, a company that has developed crop-pollinating technology to replicate natural pollinators like bees and other insects. So much of what we eat depends on bees, which have been used for centuries to pollinate crops. But today, the worl ... Show More
32m 9s
Aug 2022
Women growing grain
Most of us rely on farmers to produce our food and rising costs for farmers are leading to spiralling food prices. It's in part down to huge increases in the cost of fuel and fertiliser, shortages of labour and the pressures of a changing climate. Kim Chakanetsa talks to two wome ... Show More
27m 26s
Nov 2023
17/11/2023
Farmers who continually have bovine TB outbreaks on their farms should ‘find another business’. That was what Labour Welsh Senedd member Joyce Watson suggested on the floor of the Senedd earlier this week. Ms Watson was responding to a statement from the Welsh Rural Affairs Minis ... Show More
13m 42s
Sep 2023
Surviving or Thriving? Farms
Rising costs are having an impact on almost everyone, but that impact is very different for different sections of the economy. Rising food production costs are pushing up everyone’s grocery bills, and squeezing farmers’ profit margins. How are farms adapting to survive difficult ... Show More
28m 38s
Jan 2019
The Future of Food - Seta Tutundjian
Seta Tutundjian is the Director of Programs at the International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA), a non-profit joint venture between the UAE Govt and the Islamic Development Bank. She had spent 15 years working with USAID in Jordan, strengthening institutions and working ... Show More
23m 11s
Aug 2022
06/08/22 Farming Today This Week: Farm tenants, Veg growers, Seasonal worker folk song
The British Growers’ Association, which represents the horticulture and fresh produce industries, is warning of a potential crisis in the sector because of rising costs, water shortages and difficulties finding workers. They’ve just carried out research into carrot and broccoli p ... Show More
24m 51s
Jul 2022
Can we feed the world without using chemical fertilisers?
The development of agriculture some 12,000 years ago changed the way humans live. As technologies have developed we’ve become more and more efficient at producing large amounts of food and feeding an ever growing population, often with the help of synthetically produced nitrogen ... Show More
27m 16s
Apr 2023
The growth of GM food
Genetically-modified food has long been a subject of debate. It was first introduced to market in the United States in the mid 90s. Since then, some governments have approved the cultivation and sale of GM food, whilst others have had bans in place. In this programme, we look at ... Show More
31m 48s