As one Defra agency appears to be finally learning the painful lessons of IT rollouts gone wrong, another seems to have walked into the same trap. Tory plan to boost farm productivity
THE Conservative Party has announced ambitious plans to boost UK agricultural productivity with a renewed focus on research and development.
In a presentation to students at the Harper Adams University College yesterday (Monday, March 9) Lord Taylor of Holbeach, Shadow Defra Minister, said the Tories would work closely with the private sector to improve plant and animal yields while impacting less on the environment.
He also announced the intention to create a national network of demonstration farms to filter academic innovations down to farmers.
Lord Taylor said UK agriculture was in a critical position after productivity had almost ground to a halt in recent years, adding a renewed focus on research and development was imperative to reverse the trend.
“Whereas in the 1980s the annual trend yield increase for cereals in Europe was about 4 per cent it is now less than 1 per cent,” said Lord Taylor.
“But with nine billion mouths to feed by 2050, we cannot afford to stand still,” he added.
The Tory strategy to boost production falls into five broad categories:
- Encouraging private sector investment
- Reinvigorating applied farm research
- Translating research into practical on-farm benefits
- Equipping farmers and growers with the right skills
- Driving progress across the world
Given the economic crisis Lord Taylor admitted a Conservative Government would not be able to write bigger cheques, and instead stressed the need to broaden the source of funding.
“There is an enormous range of businesses across the food supply chain and we must encourage those with the capacity to invest more in research and development,” he said.
He added the Tories would make collaborative projects with the public sector ‘more straightforward’ and would ensure intellectual property arrangements would ‘encourage businesses to participate’.
The Conservatives said they would be particularly supportive of plant breeding projects to reduce farmers’ need for nitrogen fertilizer.
“Given that nitrogen fertiliser production consumes 1.2 per cent of the world’s total energy on an annual basis, extending the capacity for fixing nitrogen to maize, rice and wheat would bear down heavily on the costs and environmental footprint of world agriculture,” said Lord Taylor.
Key to the strategy will be a free flow of information from academic research down to farm level.
The Tories want to create a network of demonstration farms ‘to trial and showcase new techniques and technologies to farmers, growers and advisors’.
Lord Taylor also talked about the need to ‘shift the balance of farm inspection effort away from pure enforcement and towards advice to farmers to improve resource efficiency and production’.
He added that funding would be made available for farmers to come together and form Group Training Associations, to ensure the workforce had the skills to use the technologies available.
- Nick Herbert, Shadow Defra Secretary, officially opened Harper Adams’ new postgraduate research centre yesterday (Monday, March 9). It is just another sign of your commitment to the future,” said Mr Herbert.
