REAP Conference 2024

Dr. Elliott Grant is the Former CEO at Mineral, a company applying the latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and perception to make agriculture more sustainable. Elliott has over 17 years of innovation and company building in agriculture and food supply chains. He is a Board member of SunWorld International, and serves on the Board of the International Fresh Produce Association.  He was the CEO of ShopWell, a pioneering personalized nutrition company, the founding CEO of HarvestMark, the world leader in food traceability, and the Vice Chairman of the PMA. Elliott earned a PhD in Engineering from Cambridge University and has authored more than 40 patents (and invented the PTI VoiceCode which he open sourced and is now an industry standard).

With almost 20 years AgTech industry experience, Phil currently serves as the Director of Open Innovation & Outreach for Crop Science R&D at Bayer, based in St. Louis, MO. He plays a central role in building external innovation ecosystems, fostering strategic relationships around the globe, and developing novel programs to accelerate innovation throughout Bayer’s R&D pipeline.
A constant champion for both external and precompetitive partnering as a driving force for innovation and change, Phil has held multiple leadership roles at Bayer focused on delivering collaborative approaches to enable R&D and enhancing the company’s position as a thought leader in open innovation and a partner of choice in agriculture. In recognition of his contributions, Phil was
appointed a Bayer Science Fellow in 2016.

Before joining Bayer, Phil trained as a Plant Cell Biologist, receiving his Ph.D. from the John Innes Centre in Norwich, U.K., and held post-doctoral positions at The University of Leeds and The University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, as well as a British Council Fellowship at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Mark is passionate about Agricultural mechanization, both from an historical perspective as well as cutting-edge innovations.

An interest in application technology together with a mantra that accuracy is essential, lead Mark into the crop spraying industry, engaging in a series of roles over more than 30 years, including Sprayer Operator, Service Technician, Design Engineer, Product Manager & Marketing Manager. Over more than 20 Years with John Deere, Mark has also held roles responsible for Precision Agriculture & Tractor sales & marketing. Mark also chairs the Agricultural Engineers Association Chemical Application Committee, helping represent the interests of machinery manufacturers.

Mark’s professional interests centre around novel application technologies & precision application techniques. Outside of working hours, Mark enjoys working with a small collection of vintage tractors.

James is passionate about sustainable food and farming. He has 16 years’ experience developing agricultural R&D through open innovation and business partnerships, supporting the production of food that is nutritious, sustainable, and fair.

At Unilever James works with growers and suppliers to mitigate and adapt to climate change whilst becoming more resilient and profitable. Supporting brands and growers around the world James has worked on a diverse range of crops including tea in India, vanilla in Madagascar, wheat in Germany as well as development of Unilever’s first regenerative agriculture project in the UK with Colman’s mustard and mint growers.

James began his career in the lab and has a PhD in molecular biology. Before joining Unilever James worked at AHDB, leading development of agricultural R&D including the transfer of RB209 from Defra and subsequent updates.

With a degree in agriculture from Aberdeen University, Calum’s career spans technical and farm business management consultancy as well as agricultural banking across the UK. Calum is currently Head of Agriculture and Food at Innovate UK, the UK ‘s Innovation agency. In this role he has led substantial publicly funded programmes for applied research across the AgriFood sector. He currently sits on several strategic groups including Defra’s external R&D panel, the Agricultural Productivity Task Force, the Agri-TechE Stakeholder Panel, and the LEAF Network Advisory Board. In 2024 Calum was invited to become a Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Society of England.

John Barrett is the Business Manager of Sentry Norfolk, Mid Kent and Suffolk; and Director of Sentry Ltd. He has managed the Ditchingham Farms Estate in Norfolk since 2001, overseeing growth of the business to over 3,600 acres. He is an active member of the Agri-TechE cluster and chairs the Stakeholder Group

Belinda is driven by the belief that innovation is a vital driver for agricultural productivity, environmental sustainability and economic growth. Starting her career in research, she has worked mainly at the interface between industry, innovation and government, and became determined to bring farmers, researchers and technology developers closer together to improve the efficiency of communication and mutual understanding, and to accelerate the adoption of new innovations on farms. For the last decade she has led the creation and expansion of the award-winning membership network which is Agri-TechE . In 2021 she received the Sir Timothy Colman Prize for “outstanding leadership in the agri-tech sector” and was awarded an OBE in the 2024 Kings’ Birthday Honours List for services to agri-technologies and farming.

Rothamsted Enterprises supports small businesses to start and scale in the world of Agtech. The Rothamsted campus provides access to expertise, scientific kit, office and lab space as well as opportunities to meet other innovative businesses. In her role as CEO, Nicole is responsible for driving forward the growth and development of the business portfolio on campus and provide the campus community with opportunities to deliver impactful science for society.

Mike is responsibility for crop and livestock genetics, breeding and research at AHDB and the development of a holistic approach to farming system development and food production. This brief includes responsibility for the Recommended List of crop varieties, RB209 the Nutrient Management Guide, bovine and ovine genetic development, and animal health and welfare.

His professional career in agriculture includes the management of commercial farming operations, research and development, agricultural accountancy and finance, marketing and public relations. Experienced in the livestock sector and food processing, he has worked with some of the World’s leading food brands.

In addition to his AHDB responsibilities Mike chairs RAFT Solutions, a veterinary research and training business that researches and develops new technologies in the animal health sector focused on animal breeding and fertility, and environmental impact. He chairs Smartbell, a Cambridge based start-up sensor and data management business helping to improve health and welfare in cattle. Smatbell has recently concluded a seed funding investment round as it continues to grow.

Mike is a former Chairman of the Oxford Farming Conference, he has been a judge in the BBC Food and Farming Awards. He is part of the organizing team for food and farming consultations at St. George’s House.

Helen Reeve is a self-confessed cow geek and a lecturer at the Easton College, training and supporting apprentices. Helen came from a long line of farmers and she started out with a handful of Dexter cows, rented land and buildings along the Waveney Valley in Norfolk. Now Helen has about 60 cows, which she is breeding from.

Farming 700ha in Suffolk. Growing Potatoes, Onions for supermarket sales. Maize is grown for an onsite AD plant, sugar beet, and rye are also grown. We also let for carrots and pigs to complete the rotation.

We have land in Countryside Stewardship and are embracing the SFI options where applicable.

The soil types range from blow away sands to sandy loams overlying chalk, 95% of the farm can be irrigated all from boreholes. The soil has a high pH of 8 and over which creates many complications with managing crop nutrition. We have the use of the solid and liquid digestate from the AD plant which we move around the farm through the underground irrigation main, the application of digestate has reduced our reliance on artificial fertilizers by over 50%. Crops have leaf samples taken through the growing season and foliar nutrition is applied to cover any nutrient shortfalls.

The use of digestate, the growing of cover crops over winter and sheep grazing has improved the soil structure, increased the soil biology and consequently the crop yields and quality has improved.

Richard Ling is an innovative farmer and sustainability advocate at Rookery Farm in Diss, Norfolk. Rookery Farm is one of the AHDB Monitor Farms, and Richard found his on-farm trials invaluable. With a forward-thinking approach to agriculture, Richard transforms traditional farming methods to meet the challenges of modern food production and environmental stewardship. He advocates for tech solutions that integrate soil data, yield maps, and crop monitoring tools, aimed at making farming more efficient and sustainable.

Jimmy Goodley has introduced a zero-tillage system on his family farm and has established Goodley Farm Services to support others to make the transition to regenerative agriculture.

Goodley Farm Services, based in the Stiffkey Valley, North Norfolk, offers a regenerative contract farming service to fellow farmers.

The farm grows wheat, oil seed rape, peas, and forage rye and uses cover crops to ensure that nothing is left brown over the winter. The cover crops also provide an indication of underlying soil issues, such as compaction or nutritional deficiency. The soil ranges from heavy clay to blow away sand.

For the past seven years Tom has been running their family arable farm in Cambridgeshire, transitioning to regenerative practices over the past five years. They recently started hosting a market garden and offering on-farm school visits. They are looking to start processing and selling some of their arable products locally. He is also a medical doctor, with a Masters in Public Health, and has been practicing medicine in hospitals, primary care and public health settings since 2001, both in the UK and abroad. He has first-hand experience of working with patients and families struggling with diet-related chronic disease, and the barriers they face to overcome these or avoid them in the first place. He is fortunate to understand the language of both agriculture and health. He wants to make a significant contribution to bridging the gap between agriculture and health in the UK.

Dr Marcelo Precoppe is a Reader in Agricultural Engineering at Harper Adams University. His expertise centres around Simulation-Based Participatory Technology Development. He utilizes Participatory Design and Multiphysics Simulations to co-develop effective and simple solutions that can be easily adopted by farmers and rural enterprises. His work has resulted in significant developments in rural areas of Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Louise McNicol is a researcher at SRUC’s Beef and Sheep Research Centre. Her research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions modelling and mitigation, as well as utilising precision livestock farming technologies to improve the sustainability of ruminant production systems. Louise recently completed her PhD at Bangor University, which explored strategies to reach net zero on beef and sheep farms in Wales. At REAP 2024, Louise will share her work on “GreenShed” which utilises cattle waste products to power a methane capturing system and grow indoor crops.

Robert is the lead UAV pilot and Senior Data Scientist within Niab’s Artificial Intelligence and Data Science group lead by Ji Zhou. He is an expert in the use of remote sensing tool, including drones, to assess a variety of crops under field conditions. The Data Sciences group is combining phenotyping, genotyping and environmental data, to developing open-source hardware and software to address yield, quality, and disease related challenges for UK’s key agricultural and horticultural crops such as wheat, Brassica, strawberry, and orchard fruits.

Marcello is Associate Professor of Agri-Robotics at the University of Lincoln, the UK, and Affiliate Professor at Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Italy. He is/has been PI of several national/international projects (BBSRC, IUK, SBRI, AgriTech Global, NatGeo, etc.) focussing on modelling, designing, deploying and empowering soft and bio-inspired robots. He has been also involved in several European and Italian projects related to soft and underwater robotics. He published more than 30 papers on ISI journals and several conference and book contributions, and is the author of 3 patents. He is an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Member since 2007, a National Geographic Explorer since 2017, and a FHEA since 2021.

I am a scientific researcher working in a government-funded academic lab; The Earlham Institute (Norwich Research park). I use the latest technologies which provides us with a deeper understanding of regulatory genetic networks. I apply these technologies to plant tissues, with a particular interest in wheat. In my talk I will explain how we are using sequencing and spatial imaging techniques on whole wheat spikes as they transition from stems into the floral system where the grain is set.

Adrian Clark is an expert in image analysis with experience in spanning areas from the very small (electron microscopy) to the very large (remote sensing and astronomy).  There is a very close relationship between image analysis and machine learning, where so-called “deep learning” has transformed many applications.  However, deep learning is not always the best answer: this session will explore when it is and isn’t a good choice, with examples from recent projects on soil health measurement and determining the species of trees near railway lines.