• Membership
    • Join Agri-TechE
    • Login/Register
Menu
  • Membership
    • Join Agri-TechE
    • Login/Register
  • Home
  • About
    • About Agri-TechE
    • Stakeholder Group
    • Introductions to the agri-tech cluster
    • Agri-TechE Newsletters
      • Sign up to the newsletter
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Missions, conferences and events in 2021
    • Controlled Environment Agriculture
    • REAP Conference
    • Agri-Tech Week
    • Our Publications
  • Articles
    • Agri-tech News
    • Member News
    • Belinda’s Blog
    • Innovator Spotlight
    • Leaders in the Field
    • Agri-Tech Archives
  • Community
    • Research Digest
    • Opportunity Zone
    • Young Innovators’ Forum
    • Funding Latest
    • International
  • Members
    • Directory
    • Member Testimonials
    • Become a member
    • Increasing your profile
  • Contact Us
Menu
  • Home
  • About
    • About Agri-TechE
    • Stakeholder Group
    • Introductions to the agri-tech cluster
    • Agri-TechE Newsletters
      • Sign up to the newsletter
  • Events
    • Upcoming Events
    • Missions, conferences and events in 2021
    • Controlled Environment Agriculture
    • REAP Conference
    • Agri-Tech Week
    • Our Publications
  • Articles
    • Agri-tech News
    • Member News
    • Belinda’s Blog
    • Innovator Spotlight
    • Leaders in the Field
    • Agri-Tech Archives
  • Community
    • Research Digest
    • Opportunity Zone
    • Young Innovators’ Forum
    • Funding Latest
    • International
  • Members
    • Directory
    • Member Testimonials
    • Become a member
    • Increasing your profile
  • Contact Us

Search

More results…

Generic filters
Exact matches only

  • Belinda's Blog
  • agri-tech research, research, Royal Norfolk Show, UK Research and Innovation, UKRI

How would you invest in the future of agriculture?

  • July 27, 2017
  • 4:16 pm

How would you invest in the future of agriculture?

Soil health came out top choice as a research priority in our straw poll of visitors to the Innovation Hub.

Amid the creation of the new UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) body to oversee investment into research, the appointment of a new Secretary of State for DEFRA, and the discussions around the new Agriculture Bill, we asked visitors at last month’s Royal Norfolk Show where they would spend money to improve UK agriculture.

Water everywhere but the show goes on

At the end of Day 1 of the Show, soil health was the most popular choice, but by the end of Day 2, water usage had edged ahead (possibly influenced by an unprecedented 60-75 mm of rainfall between Tuesday afternoon and Weds evening, Source: Weatherquest Ltd). Preventing yield loss was third, followed by genomics and then seed technologies.

When visitors to the Innovation Hub were asked for any other suggestions, topics rated worthy of funding ranged from reducing waste, controlling run-off, making better use of big data and more research into environmentally-sensitive farming.

Admittedly our findings are a somewhat unscientific snapshot of the views of our Hub visitors, but they highlight the serious questions being asked within Government and other industry stakeholders, as well as across the research community around future priorities for funding.

How do you choose between soils and water?

How would you invest in the future of agriculture?In March this year, DEFRA published a document describing its Areas of Research Interest in response to the Review by Sir Paul Nurse, where Government departments have been urged to communicate their long term research challenges. It is the job of the Board of UKRI to help shape the UK’s science agenda to help navigate through all these suggestions, in discussions with the various Departments.

DEFRA’s list of research priorities includes many of the ideas generated by our visitors in the Innovation Hub – and more. A frequent comment by visitors asked to choose between soils and water, and increasing productivity and seed technologies, for example, was that they tend to be inter-linked and to prioritise just one is difficult, if not inappropriate.

Think multi-disciplinary

That was, of course, the point. By asking people to select just one area of focus, we tried to demonstrate that no single research topic can sit alone in the overall advancement of agricultural R&D. That led onto the conversation about the need to bring together a range of different expertise and the importance of relevant Government departments coming together to tackle huge multi-disciplinary challenges facing the industry.

The ambition to bring everything together across departments was clearly stated by Michael Gove at the Show – let’s watch this space.

Share

Share on facebook
Share on google
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin
Related Posts
  • Does regulation drive or inhibit innovation?
  • How does best practice become common practice?
  • The Economics of Biodiversity – Nature, productivity and growth
  • Transforming UK food systems for health and environment
  • How do we design the future we really want?
Archives

Agri-TechE on Twitter

Tweets by AgriTechEast

Agri-TechE on Facebook

Agri-TechE

MORE INFORMATION

  • News archive
  • Privacy
  • Events
  • Newsletter sign-up
  • View latest newsletter
Menu
  • News archive
  • Privacy
  • Events
  • Newsletter sign-up
  • View latest newsletter
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube
Linkedin
Instagram

© Agri-TechE 2020

Site design by Out of House

This site uses cookies: Find out more.