United Kingdom
May 23, 2013
Dr Richard Summers, cereal breeding and research lead at RAGT Seeds, has been
elected chairman of the British Society of Plant Breeders (BSPB) for a period of
three years. He takes over from Nigel Moore, director of business administration at
KWS, who has chaired BSPB since 2010.
Speaking at BSPB’s Annual General Meeting earlier this week, Dr Summers thanked
Nigel Moore on behalf of BSPB members for his contribution as chairman,
particularly in raising the profile of the plant breeding industry, forging effective
working partnerships with other sectors of the industry, and strengthening UK plant
breeders’ engagement and influence at a European level.
“Plant breeders have a pivotal role to play in addressing the challenges of global
food security, climate change and sustainable development,” said Dr Summers. “The
signals now coming out of government, of the need to reinvigorate a fractured UK
agricultural R&D pipeline, to reverse the chronic declines in applied and translational
research, and to restore the position of modern agriculture as a productive, hi-tech
sector of the economy, are extremely positive for our sector.
“Under Nigel’s chairmanship, BSPB has been instrumental in highlighting the need to
translate the UK’s world-class plant science expertise into adapted germplasm, traits
and breeding tools relevant to the needs of commercial plant breeders. Given the
urgent demands on agriculture to produce more from less, there is increased
recognition that our industry provides the only route to market for crop genetic
innovation, through improved, high-performing varieties.
“The ongoing challenge for BSPB is to ensure the renewed significance attached to
agricultural science and innovation translates into tangible opportunities to establish
the UK as a major international centre of excellence for commercial plant breeding,
supported by a strong framework of IP protection and proportionate, cost-effective
regulation,” he said.
DR RICHARD SUMMERS - CEREAL BREEDING AND RESEARCH COORDINATOR, RAGT
Richard leads cereal breeding and research at RAGT. He is responsible for 4 winter
wheat breeding programmes (in UK, France, Germany and the Czech Republic),
durum wheat, triticale, barley and associated research groups in genotyping,
analytics, pathology and breeding support. Additionally he has responsibility for
cereal trialling in non-core geographies in Europe and elsewhere in the world.
After a PhD in genetics at Sheffield University, Richard began his career at the Plant
Breeding Institute (PBI) in 1984, working on disease resistance in wheat. After the
sale of PBI to Unilever he worked as a winter wheat breeder in the UK and France
until 1999 (producing over 35 commercially listed varieties with the breeding team).
Under Monsanto ownership, 1998-2004, Richard had technical responsibility for the
company’s wheat breeding activities in Europe and South Africa. After the sale of the
European wheat breeding programmes to RAGT in 2004, Richard took on his
present role.
In addition to his BSPB role, Richard is a NIAB board member and a member of the
John Innes Centre Science Impact Advisory Board.
Topics
Species
