AFCP Student Forum 2026

On Wednesday 18th March 2026, the AFCP Student Forum was held, kindly hosted by Rothamsted Research.

This biennial event comprises platform and poster presentations from AFCP charity member funded students on their post-graduate research projects. There is a wide variety of UK agricultural topics covered, from livestock to horticulture.

The programme also included an introduction by Prof. Freddie Theodoulou, Rothamsted Research, a talk by Lord Curry of Kirkharle, AFCP Patron, and a panel session ‘Future of Skills’ including Katherine Brown, Sense About Science; Sharon Kirby, Bishop Burton College Group; and Katia Zacharaki, InnoPhyto Consulting. Additionally, the opportunity to tour the fascinating Rothamsted Sample Archive with Dr Andy Gregory.

We are delighted to share many of the presentations and posters from the day and the programme below.

AFCP Trustee, Jim Orson shares his thoughts from the day in the following below.

Changing Biological Sciences forever

In the 25 April 1953 edition of the journal Nature there was the turgidly entitled paper ‘Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids’. It was to change biological sciences for ever because in it Crick and Watson first described the structure of DNA with ‘novel features which are of considerable biological interest’. They also tantalisingly postulated that there was a ‘possible copying mechanism’ because of its structure.

They had no such inhibitions when a few weeks earlier they had burst into the Eagle pub, the local to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and declared to the lunch time regulars that they had discovered ‘the secret of life’.

It was a quaint but possibly a more attractive way of announcing such a ground-breaking discovery.  Nowadays, the university PR department (which probably did not exist then) would have carefully managed a high-profile event and announcement.

The authors of the paper along with Maurice Wilkins of King’s College London, were awarded a Nobel prize in 1962 for the identification of the structure of DNA. To their shame, none of them mentioned in their acceptance speeches the absolutely key role played by Rosalind Franklin of King’s College London. She died in 1958 and Nobel prizes are not awarded posthumously.

Range of subjects

Roll on over 70 years and I was in the Rothamsted Conference Centre, listening to 13 presentations by PhD students in which the majority used modern genomics as the basis of their research. Unlike Crick and Watson, none of them had turgid titles for their projects, some of which were very imaginative. Obviously, I am not privy to what they claimed about their findings in a more social setting!

All the presentations were on projects funded solely or partly by agricultural charity members of the AFCP. In addition, there were 32 posters written by charity funded post-graduate students, including those 13 speakers who were close to completing their studies. These charities include: Chadacre Agricultural Trust; Clan Trust; Douglas Bomford Trust (DBT); Perry Foundation; Seale-Hayne Educational Trust; The Morley Agricultrual Foundation (TMAF); and The Felix Thornley Cobbold Agricultural Trust.

The talks and posters were on an eclectic range of subjects. However, there were only four posters on animal projects, all of which involved survey/desk studies. This possibly reflects a lack of project proposals and also possibly the cost of animal management studies. There was nothing on weed control and only two posters that had an entomological content.

Balance of Research Projects?

It is interesting to speculate whether this balance of research projects reflects the needs of the industry or the interests of the charities. Virtually all the projects are the result of charities responding to research proposals from research-based organisations rather than responding to identified research needs. Perhaps the charities should attempt to spot the research needs of practical agriculture by asking farmers, agronomists and advisers where they consider there are gaps in knowledge. 

The overriding majority of crop projects did not involve field trials. Perhaps it is not surprising because of the cost of field trials, that there are only two years of field trials possible within a three-year PhD award and also, because of the risky nature of field trials. Some charities are agreeing to fund four-year PhD awards which will enable three years of field trials. This is an issue that needs careful consideration by the charities because many of them express the desire to fund PhDs whose findings can be immediately adopted into practice by farmers.

Career Development

There was also an intriguing debate during the event about how PhD students can develop their careers. It was agreed that the key personal traits for career development were having good communication skills, adaptability and the willingness to network. There was certainly no lack in the communication skills of the students who spoke.

Did you know?

Finally, there is always ‘did you know?’ information that one picks up during an informative day such as at the AFCP Student Forum. Did you know that barley and wheat awns, where present, are packed with stomata and are responsible for more water loss than the rest of the ear? Me neither! Also, Roman gladiators had a carbohydrate rich diet, involving lots of barley. This was the origin of their nickname, Hordearii or barley men. A day involving 32 research posters, 13 platform presentations and a discussion panel on career development takes a colossal amount of organising.

Huge thanks to Ken Pallett and Kathryn Green who were responsible for putting the event together and ensuring that everything worked so smoothly on the day.  Also, the hosting of the event by Rothamsted Research is gratefully acknowledged.  The next AFCP Students Forum will be in the spring of 2028.

Presentations – Session 1

Presentations – Session 2

Posters

Aaron Ainsworth
Slipping into the Future: Development of Aqueous Solutions of Pectin and Carrageenan as Green Lubricants
University of Birmingham

Harry Aston
Improving crop yields through mycovirus-mediated systemic resistance
University of Hertfordshire

Lois Bent
Bovine Digital Dermatitis: A Reverse Vaccinology Approach
University of Liverpool

Fareed Bhatti
Understanding True Eyespot of Cereals: Past, Present and Future
Rothamsted Research & University of Nottingham

Elena Bidash
Developing virus-based tool to expedite legume breeding
University of Cambridge

Anisa Blower
Exploration of NIAB’s synthetic wheat as a new source of genetic resistance for effective control of Septoria tritici blotch disease
NIAB & University of Nottingham

Miranda Bracy
Beyond pyrethroids: sustainable strategies for the prevention, prediction and management of BYDV
Harper Adams University

Abi Brock
Nutrient use efficiency in cereal crops: the role of the plant hormone brassinosteroids
University of Cambridge

Tyler Christian
Bioacoustics as a indicator of Avian Biodiversity in UK Farmland
University of Plymouth

Hazel Craven
Constructing the ‘Good Farmer’: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study of Farmer Identity in Contemporary UK Agriculture
University of East Anglia

Scott Ewing
Engineering Reduced Developmental Plasticity in Arabidopsis and the Effect of Energy-Efficient Light Treatments on Crop Growth
University of Glasgow

Samuel Fafiolu
Capturing Drought-Heat Interactions in Wheat Using Continuous Micro-Environment Sensing
University of Plymouth

Madison Farmer
Precision in the Uplands: Automated Classification of Sheep Behaviour Using Tri-Axial Accelerometers
University of Plymouth

Georgie Fletcher
The Optimised Landscape
University of Lincoln

Daisy Garratt
Developing Strategies for the Control of Ergot On-Farm
NIAB & University of Cambridge

Thomas Greenham
Interactions between cow and machine: investigating the relationships between machine milking, teat anatomy and pathology
University of Nottingham

Cornelia Gwatidzo
Microarthropods as complementary biological indicators of soil health in upland pasture systems
University of Plymouth

Piotr Kasznicki
Non-foliar photosynthesis and water use in wheat ears
University of Essex

Seda Keles
An Adaptable, Sustainable Glasshouse Technology for Atmospheric Water Generation and Food Production with Integrated Low-Energy Cooling and Membrane-based Liquid Desiccant Regeneration
University of Oxford

Herbert Kumwenda
The effect of traffic and tillage systems on greenhouse gas emissions from a unique long-term field laboratory
Harper Adams University

Joseph Leaper
Ecologically Intensifying UK Vineyards to Enhance Their Sustainability
University of Worcester

Callum Lennox
Towards a Standard Method for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Spot Spraying Systems
University of Lincoln

Matthew MacLeod
Plant genetic regulation of microbial colonisation in barley
University of Cambridge

Patrick McClean
Investigating fungal spore dispersal in UK arable crop systems under current and future environmental conditions
Rothamsted Research & University of Hertfordshire

Zoe MacFarlane
Molecular Adaptations to Climate Change: The Role of RVE2 in Plant Stress Responses
University of Glasgow

Louisa Moor
Barcoding Soil Faunal DNA to Widen Agricultural Soil Health Monitoring in Norfolk (Proof-of-Concept experiment)
University of East Anglia

Wing Ng
Using combined techniques of near-infrared spectroscopy & aerial imagery analysis in predicting soil organic carbon properties across farmland types
Hartpury University

Christianah Oseni
Optimising Transient Carbohydrate Partitioning in Wheat to Improve Climate Resilience
Harper Adams University

Laura Sapelli
Understanding Pyrenopeziza brassicae populations for effective control of light leaf spot in winter oilseed rape
University of Hertfordshire

Nupur Tailor
Genetic Variation and Genome-Wide Association Analysis of β-Glucan (Mixed Linkage) in a Diverse Spring Naked Barley Panel
Harper Adams University

Edwin Toreveyi
Hot Leaves, Hidden Disorders, Tracking Potato Drought Stress
Harper Adams University

Sito-Obong Udofia
Effect of vegetation cover and height on soil and plant properties across managed and unmanaged agricultural land in a temperate climate
Hartpury University

Claire Wheeler
Clostridioides difficile in UK pigs and the risks to the food chain
University of Hertfordshire