The former Director of the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility’s Canberra node at CSIRO, Professor Bob Furbank, has given an excellent interview on ABC Radio, discussing plant research and the global challenge to feed 9 billion people by mid-century.
Now Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Translational Photosynthesis at
Australian National University in Canberra, Bob talks about his experiences in early photosynthesis research and his part in the C4 Rice Consortium.
The C4 Rice Consortium coordinates efforts from labs all over the world trying to isolate the genes responsible in C4 plants and apply them in C3 plants. If successful, yields in wheat and rice are expected to be 50% higher than present. An impressive result seen as vital for future food security. The consortium is led by Jane Langdale at the University of Oxford and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Listen to the interview or read the full transcript here.
