Arable

An amendment has been tabled to the Agriculture Bill which would allow the UK to break away from restrictive EU rules on gene editing.

Spring barley crop progress is very variable across the country, however, no-one is disagreeing that total production will be up significantly and this will be combined with tricky marketing conditions.

A North West agricultural college is set to close after an independent review found the campus financially unviable, sparking an outcry among its 888 students and many rural communities across the region. 

New checks on food products entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK will present a ‘significant challenge’ for business, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) has said.

In conjunction with Bayer we will be keeping track of winter wheat crop development this season as emergence is likely to be variable following the challenging conditions.

Turbulence caused by Brexit and the coronavirus is not going away, but there are some positive lessons which can be learned from both, says Sue Pritchard, chief executive of the Food and Farming Countryside Commission.

Ensuring the UK’s food supply is secure must be a key aim in all of our future trade talks, as well as post-Brexit farm policy, says Conservative peer Anne McIntosh.

The Government’s failure to protect our standards in the Agriculture Bill was very disappointing, but UK farmers shouldn’t be too demoralised because they have high quality products to sell, says Andrew Robinson, head of agriculture at Armstrong Watson.

The mask has fallen. UK farmers have been betrayed by this Government, which promised to protect our food production standards in trade deals, says Leicestershire arable and beef farmer Joe Stanley.

After listening carefully to the arguments on both sides, Conservative High Peak MP Robert Largan decided he couldn’t vote for or against the Agriculture Bill amendment to ban low standard imports. Here, he explains why.