I was pleased to learn of farmers’ success with British lentil production (Finger on pulse: harvest time for UK’s lentil crops, 31 August). This augurs well for improved food chain traceability, UK food supply resilience and, of course, other advantages from legumes such as nitrogen fixation.
However, I was surprised by the comment that producers were told it was impossible to grow lentils in the UK. Projects here at the University of Reading in the 1990s confirmed that while both spring- and autumn-sown lentils could be grown (and combined) successfully, the latter provided a more reliable high-quality lentil suitable for human consumption.
That work was disseminated to the industry. Indeed, the NFU pulse group were very helpful with industry links and our approaches (and a considerable amount of lentil seed) were provided (gratis) to the industry at the time.
There is a more general point to be made here: a considerable amount of information and expertise is made available by UK universities to business and society. An example is provided by PhD theses. For instance, a search on ethos.bl.uk with the word “lentil” provides the relevant PhD thesis on autumn-sown UK lentil production from the University of Reading dated 2000 at the top of the list.
At the University of Reading, there is also a dedicated knowledge transfer office to be found online at www.reading.ac.uk/ktc and a simple direct email address: frontdoor@reading.ac.uk. Other UK universities have similar easy contact points.
Prof Richard Ellis
School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading
• Re the UK’s first lentil harvest, no doubt the harvesters will be issued with sandals rather than wellington boots.
Michael Cunningham
Wolverhampton
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