Project puts drought-tolerant crops in the spotlight
Wednesday, December 19, 2012 - 06:20
in Earth & Climate
Water is the most important component of a plant's growth, but researchers have discovered that some plants can survive with less. Researchers in Europe are now working on developing crops that can tolerate droughts, specifically for bioenergy and bioproducts. The WATBIO ('Development of improved perennial non-food biomass and bioproduct crops for water stressed environments') project is funded under the 'Food, agriculture and fisheries, and biotechnology' Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 9 million.