SCRI – Scotland’s world-renowned centre for crop research based at Invergowrie, Dundee - will be the star of the small screen this week when BBC Scotland’s Landward shows three programmes showcasing the institute’s work.

Presenter and celebrity chef Nick Nairn and the Landward team spent two days filming in and around SCRI earlier this year. They visited both the Invergowrie headquarters and laboratories and the organisation’s Balruddery Farm in Angus where pioneering work on sustainable farming methods are being trialled.

Photograph: Nick Nairn interviewing Dr Derek Stewart about barleybread

Each of the three programmes focuses on one area of SCRI’s research: potatoes, soft fruit and barley. Nick met and interviewed a wide range of staff to help show the breadth of the work done at SCRI and the important contribution it makes to the contents of shoppers’ baskets and the Scottish and UK economies.

Some of the topics covered include the development of healthy ‘barleybread’, the globally important seed-bank known as the Commonwealth Potato Collection, SCRI’s research on crop pests and diseases and the amazing health benefits of berries.

Many members of SCRI staff feature in the programmes from farm staff to nutritionists and commercial staff and specialists in pests and diseases. The work of SCRI’s commercial subsidiary, Mylnefield Research Services, also features in the series of films.

The programmes will be shown on consecutive Fridays on BBC2 Scotland starting this Friday, 8 October at 8 pm.

More information from:

Phil Taylor, Head of Communications, SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA Office: 01382 560044 Mobile: 07810 860 701

or

Lorraine Wakefield, Information and Online Service Officer, SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee, DD2 5DA. Tel: 01382 560047 (direct line) or 01382 562731 (switchboard)