For more than 50 years, we have contributed to enhancing natural capital and ensuring that global food systems are more resilient for the future.
“One thing I’m really proud of is that the outcome of my PhD has resulted in a collaborative partnership that’s supporting over 7,000 small-holder farmers in Northern Madagascar. My PhD was sponsored by Unilever, and I worked directly with them to maximise the business impact my PhD could have. As a result, I joined them full-time after finishing my studies.”
Dr Siobhan Gardiner,
Climate Change and Environment Lead, Deloitte, Global Sustainable Technology Senior Manager, Unilever (2017-2019), (Environment and Agrifood PhD 2017)
UK No. 1
The new Agri-Informatics building was awarded best education building in the Local Building Authority (LABC) central region 2020 awards.
Our World Soil Survey Archive and Catalogue, (WOSSAC) covers 329 territories worldwide.
Just over two-thirds of our Environment and Agrifood learners come from outside the UK, representing 47 nationalities.
(Figures from August 2022)
Research in action
Boosting rice production in Africa
Our researchers are leading a UK Government funded project to overcome a soil health problem affecting rice production in large parts of Africa.
Rice is a major staple food across sub-Saharan Africa and demand is rapidly increasing due to urbanisation and changes in consumer preferences.
Iron toxicity is a soil disorder that can reduce rice yields by up to 90%.
The research will examine the traits that allow indigenous African rice varieties to tolerate the toxicity. It will map areas where new rice varieties, and improved crop management to tackle iron toxicity, will be most beneficial.
Investing in innovative facilities
Just a few of the facilities available to students and clients to conduct their research at scale are:
- LandIS, the Land Information System, is a substantial environmental information system operated by Cranfield, and recognised by Defra as being the definitive source of national soils information. It contains soil and soil-related information for England and Wales including spatial mapping of soils at a variety of scales, as well as corresponding soil property and agro-climatological data.
- Cranfield Urban Observatory: the entire Cranfield campus is a living laboratory – a testbed for transformative technologies to deliver enhanced social, economic and environmental outcomes in urban infrastructures. Our own airport, solar farm, water treatment facility and road testing environment are just some of the capabilities linking the campus-wide network of sensors measuring the air, water, soil and wildlife.
- Environment Centre: two new £3 million buildings for agri-informatics, atmospheric research and land-use observation systems. This is complemented by FAAM, which is the UK National Environment Research Council’s facility for operating the BAE-146 atmospheric research aircraft, the largest of its type in Europe, and which operates from the Cranfield campus.
- Research to reduce food loss and waste: extensive postharvest laboratories with sophisticated controlled atmosphere equipment and instruments for testing quality of fresh produce linked to research on molecular breeding for improved fruit quality and prevention of food spoilage by fungi.
- Unique, world-leading facilities for soil research: these include the Wolfson laboratory for measuring soil carbon balances and fluxes under field conditions, and a pilot-scale plant phenotyping and soil health facility in a nine metre-high glasshouse for reproducing different soil conditions and investigating their effects on crop growth.
Pilot-scale plant phenotyping and soil health facility