Olivier Sparagano's EU Cost Action grant (COREMI) has been awarded 105,998.95 euros for the and final year of the 4 year project. This project is running between May and December 2018. 

The project aims to consolidate the existing expertise and knowledge on poultry red mites and to generate a synergic/holistic approach to improve health, welfare and productivity of the laying hens through more effective prevention and control of poultry red mites.

You can find out more about the project here. 

This year Garden Organic is celebrating its 60th Anniversary. As part of the celebrations at Garden Organic’s Annual General Meeting on 18th May, Margi Lennartsson and Francis Rayns presented their work to review the Members’ Experiment Scheme, a programme of citizen science that has been ongoing since the organisation was founded in 1958. Over 550 experiments have been conducted and the aim of the review was to collate the information and to reflect on the importance of the programme for the organisation itself, for the participants, for organic gardening practice and for the organic movement as a whole. 

itself, for the participants, for organic gardening practice and for the organic movement as a whole. 

A copy of the programme can be viewed here. 

Jonathan Eden attended the India-UK Water Centre (IUKWC) workshop “Integrating precipitation forecasts and climate predictions with basin-scale hydrological modelling in the Himalayas” at the Wildlife Institute of India in Dehradun, Uttarakhand. IUKWC provides a collaborative platform for researchers from both countries to share knowledge, data and methods to address challenges in water security. Jonathan spoke about the value of high-resolution climate information in communicating risk across mountainous regions.

In a fab farmer collaboration Donna Udall and Antoine Lasselin-Marty are working with the Soil Association and farmer, Richard Copely, to understand the effect of feeding biochar (or charcoal) to beef cows on ammonia emissions from manure.  Ammonia is an air pollutant that can have negative consequences for the environment and human health.  Agriculture can be a major contributor to this problem.  One of the aims of this research is to discover whether or not biochar can reduce ammonia release,  minimising air pollution, but also, critically, retaining this nitrogen-containing compound in the manure where it may act as an improved fertiliser.   If initial results prove to be promising we will launch a crowdfunding campaign to fund further research.  Watch this space!!

It has been a good spring for the Blooms for Bees project, with citizen scientists continuing to submit surveys of bumblebees visiting garden plants. This information is helping us build a national picture of bumblebee foraging and improve recommendations for gardeners. On 26th July, they will be holding a small event at CAWR's Ryton base to present the findings and celebrate the achievements of the project over the last two years; more information about the event and booking details will be available soon. To see what else Blooms for Bees has been doing this spring, take a look at the latest newsletter.

Professor Sue Charlesworth (PI), Dr Steve Coupe and Dr Liz Trenchard visited Cape Town and Franschhoek as part of the project: Determining the performance of large biofiltration cells in treating contaminated runoff from a slum settlement and its reuse for urban food production. 

They examined the whole site including the urban gardens irrigated by the effluent from the large biofiltration tanks. The team also examined the SuDS solutions, which were installed in 2016, at the Langrug informal settlement which houses 6,000 in approximately 2,500 shacks.

You can find out more about this project and their visit here. 

Donna Udall and Francis Rayns made a visit to the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (Afbi) in Northern Ireland. They were shown around two sites, in Hillsborough and Belfast, by Rodrigo Olave and discussed work to measure gaseous losses from agriculture, the management of agricultural waste (for example using anaerobic digestion and separation of the liquid fraction of cattle slurry) and on-farm renewable energy generation.

The RECOMS project kick off meeting took place on 26-28th March, 2018 in Coventry, where all 7 beneficiaries from 6 countries gathered to launch the project on resourceful and resilient communities and lay the basis of cooperation for the upcoming 4 years. During the kick-off meeting, besides planning thoroughly the whole project, they discussed details about their upcoming training, recruitment strategy and communication tools. The team also launched their new website and social media channels.

To find out more about the RECOMS project please visit their website, Facebook page or Twitter page.

Barbara Smith and Francis Rayns travelled to Athens to attend the second General Assembly of the EU funded TRUE project (Transition Paths to sustainable legume based systems in Europe). Within this CAWR is leading two Case Studies: Heritage varieties for enhanced human and beneficial insect nutrition and Using legumes as a source of fertility in organic protected cropping systems.

You can find out more about the project by visiting the website.

Many people around the world depend on migratory fish for subsistence and livelihoods. Iconic species like the salmon, trout and eel support whole local economies and are culturally important as the subjects of myths and legends. But maintaining healthy, open waterways for the free movement of migratory fish is often given lower priority than, for example, hydroelectricity generation or boat navigation. CAWR therefore worked with partners Severn Rivers Trust, University of Worcester and The Institute of Fisheries Management to organise and event to celebrate migratory fish and raise awareness of the need to keep waterways open for them. The event, held in Worcester on 21 April as part of the global World Fish Migration Day initiative, drew in 100s of local schoolchildren, parents and other local people. Among other activities was a parade through Worcester City Centre, live music and theatre, and a series of stalls communicating the science behind fish migration. At CAWR’s stand, children and their parents were offered the chance to build Lego structures that helped pretend fish to get over dams.

Computer simulations then showed how well the structure would work for real fish in a real river, based on

hundreds of observations gathered from all over the world by CAWR Research Fellow, Dr Martin Wilkes, and his PhD student, Morwenna Mckenzie.

CAWR and their partners are looking into ways to combine efforts more in the future, for example through helping to monitor new engineering structures designed to restore free passage of fish in the River Severn.

Find out more about the KEEPFISH project here.

Ever wondered what our researchers get up to?

Donna Udall is our featured researcher in the spotlight this month!

Find out how Donna's work relates to current world affairs by clicking here. 

Michel Pimbert participated in a Seminar of the Right Livelihood Foundation (the so called alternative Nobel Prize) in Tenerife. He gave a guest lecture and facilitated a session on Agroecology and Ways of Knowing at the IV ITLA World Congress on Terraced Landscapes,  in Garachico, Tenerife 27th to 30th April, 2018. CAWR’s Honorary Research Fellows Maruja Salas and Timmi Tilmann were co-organisers of the event. During this event, Timmi and Maruja facilitated training in participatory action research methods for group of students and landscape architects who will use these methods in co-inquiries on terraced landscapes across the Canary islands.

methods for group of students and landscape architects who will use these methods in co-inquiries on terraced landscapes across the Canary islands.

Photo credit: Timmi Tilmann