The Met Office has said 2022 will be the warmest year on record for the UK. According to provisional figures, every month was hotter than average, with the exception of December when the UK experienced a notable cold snap.

The year's average temperature will likely beat the previous all-time high of 9.88C, set in 2014. The exact mean temperature is set to be confirmed in the new year but the Met office said the consistent heat this year had been noteworthy.

A study from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) has supported a proposal to relax restrictions on gene editing technology to improve crop yields and boost resistance to diseases.

The IEA report has backed the government’s proposed Precision Breeding Bill, which aims to update the regulatory framework related to precision-bred plants and animals developed through techniques such as gene editing.

Incentivising farmers to restore some land as habitats for nature could deliver UK climate and biodiversity targets at half the taxpayer cost of integrating nature into land managed for food production, according to a new study published today in the journal People and Nature.

The research, led by the universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Glasgow, provides the first evidence for the taxpayer savings offered by focusing food production in certain areas to allow the creation of new woods, wetland and scrub habitats on some of the land currently used for farming.

The study suggests that this "land sparing" approach would cost just 48% of the funds required to achieve the same outcomes for biodiversity and the climate through an approach known as "land sharing", where conservation measures get mixed into farming by adding hedgerows to fields, reducing pesticides, and so on—all of which lowers food yield.

Nations have agreed to protect a third of the planet for nature by 2030 in a landmark deal aimed at safeguarding biodiversity.

There will also be targets for protecting vital ecosystems such as rainforests and wetlands and the rights of indigenous peoples.

The agreement at the COP15 UN biodiversity summit in Montreal, Canada, came early on Monday morning.

The Government has set out a raft of legally binding targets, including a 40 per cent reduction in on-farm nitrogen and phosphorus pollutants and a 16.5 per cent increase in woodland cover, to help boost the natural environment.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has published a list of 13 objectives that have been designed to boost biodiversity while producing cleaner air and water sources.

According to Defra, the targets will help ‘drive forward’ the Government’s commitment to tackle climate change and restore ‘natural capital’ and landscapes.

Defra is providing funding of £12.5m in England to support innovations that will help reduce labour, improve productivity and create more sustainable farming practices.

Defra farming minister Mark Spencer said: “This is an exciting opportunity for farmers and growers to come together with businesses and researchers to invent ingenious solutions to the problems our agriculture and horticulture sectors face.

“Automation and robotics has huge potential to improve productivity and sustainability. By supporting some of the most promising ideas to get off the ground, we are investing in a successful agriculture and horticulture industry for generations to come.”

Israeli researchers say they have developed gene-edited hens that lay eggs from which only female chicks hatch. The breakthrough could prevent the slaughter of billions of male chickens each year, which are culled because they don't lay eggs.

The female chicks, and the eggs they lay when they mature, have no trace of the original genetic alteration. Animal welfare group, Compassion in World Farming, has backed the research.

The UK government must provide immediate clarity on its Environmental Land Management (ELM) programme “to give certainty and confidence” to the farming community, according to members of the House of Lords.

Ongoing government uncertainty in the timetable and rollout of its ELM scheme is causing serious problems for effective land use in England, warns a new report. The uncertainty around the schemes and how they will work in practice is also a “significant barrier” to Defra achieving a high take-up of the new schemes among farmers, landowners and land managers.

These are among the key findings on ELM in the report – Making the most out of England’s land – published on Tuesday 13 December by the cross-party House of Lords Land Use in England Committee.

The International Barley Hub Field Centre at the James Hutton Institute has officially opened to safeguard and improve barley crop production in Scotland. The £62 million International Barley Hub (IBH) marks a major milestone in establishing Scotland as a leader in global food security and crop resilience.

Barley is the most predominant crop grown in Scotland, and supports 40,000 jobs largely due to its key role in the world-renowned Scottish whisky industry. Demand for the crop has grown in recent years, due to £2bn of investment in national distillery infrastructure, growth in the craft beer sector and increased whisky sales.

However, research from the James Hutton Institute has found it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet this demand, due to adverse weather conditions reducing barley yields, changes in pesticide bans and crop management challenges. The IBH will promote scientific discovery and innovation to tackle these issues, as well as piloting new technologies for crop management, such as precision agriculture sensors and drones.

The development and application of agricultural technologies must become a priority for the UK government if the farming sector is to achieve net zero, new research warns.

The government has put forward the ambitious plan of delivering net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while at the same time increasing the quality and quantity of agricultural production. The NFU has pushed for an even more progressive target and is aiming for English and Welsh agriculture to reach net-zero emissions by 2040.

However, a report by Bayer Crop Science and the Agri-EPI Centre warns that unless the government revamps its approach to innovation and the implementation of agri-tech, its net-zero ambitions are at risk of failure.

A new research lab has opened in Cambridge to help UK oat growers reduce greenhouse gas emissions while maximising crop yield. The new facility, launched by PepsiCo and NIAB, will test and analyse thousands of oat samples from regenerative agricultural trials for milling and nutritional requirements.

The laboratory is located at NIAB's HQ in Cambridge, and will be home to state-of-the-art grain quality testing facilities. PepsiCo, which manufactures Quaker products by working with over 300 oat growers, has a partnership with the crop research organisation to improve UK crop production.

Half of the free range turkeys produced for Christmas in the UK have been culled or have died due to bird flu, an industry chief has told MPs.

Richard Griffiths, chief executive of the British Poultry Council, said that 600,000 out of about 1.3m free range birds had been lost.

The government recently ordered all poultry and captive birds in England to be kept indoors to fight avian flu. Mr Griffiths said costs to the industry were "potentially enormous".