By unlocking the export potential China offers the pig industry, not to mention the red meat sector as a whole, we could gain entry into a marketplace which comprises a fifth of the world’s population.Former WWF man to take helm at new research institute
THE first chairman of the new scientific research institute, which will be created by bringing together the Macaulay Land Use Research Institute, Aberdeen, and the Invergowrie-based Scottish Crop Research Institute in April 2011, will be former chairman of WWF Scotland, Ray Perman.
A trustee of WWF UK, Mr Perman was a board member of Scottish Enterprise until December 2009 and chairman of Social Investment Scotland.
The decision, in principle, for the SCRI and the Macaulay to unite and form a new institute, which would be the first in Europe to carry out research into food, land use and climate change, was announced last October.
The Macaulay, which has an income of more than £16 million, has expertise in land use and sustainable development. In addition to its core research programmes, it provides research and consultancy services to a wide range of organisations, including industrial sectors as diverse as oil and gas, and food.
The SCRI has an income of nearly £19 million. Its scientists work on potato and soft fruit breeding, pests and disease control, food quality, plant-land interactions and genetics.
Related images
Farmers Guardian newsletters
Get the best of Farmers Guardian delivered straight to your inbox. Click here to sign-up today
-
General news and breaking news alerts
Minimum weekly delivery -
Livestock, arable, dairy and young farmers
news and features
Monthly delivery