REAP Conference 2022

Andrew is a first-generation farmer from Essex who, following 22 years at Elveden Farms, in 2022 co-founded TEAM AG (UK), to provide practical and strategic support to bring about change and validation of sustainable practices in the food production supply chain.

Andrew has a thirst for knowledge and supporting the wider industry. He has hosted several industry initiatives during his time at Elveden. These have included the introduction of Elveden as a LEAF demonstration Farm, An Agri Epi Satellite Farm, McDonalds European Flagship Farmer, Host of AHDB Potatoes Spot Farm East and an active member and supporter of Agri TechE.

Andrew has recently taken on the role of Farm and Estate Manager at Salle Farms in Norfolk. There they grow a wide range of crops with a strong focus on soil health and sustainability whilst maintaining profitability. He had previously worked in the Brecks managing a number of Farms growing largely irrigated crops which included high value vegetables. Andrew worked for few years abroad in Egypt, Sudan and Serbia before returning to the UK. He is keen to continue on the work done at Salle with academics looking at ways to minimise the farms impact on the environment and to gain greater value from inputs applied. This will be through the adoption of precision application techniques as well as tailored cover cropping.

Anna is arguably best known for her work as journalist and presenter on the BBC Radio 4 Farming Today programme, presenting complex issues to all listeners (about 1 million each morning) – even if they know nothing about farming at all.

She has covered many major stories in that time including BSE (Mad Cow Disease), Foot and Mouth, and Brexit.

Anna works with a small team to produce Farming Today, travelling around the country interviewing politicians, scientists and farmers. She is based in Norfolk.

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 (let’s talk crop diseases, and starch production in peas and potatoes), she then developed experience 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 understanding between them, and to accelerate the adoption of new innovations on farms.

Over the last 8 years she has led the development and creation of the award-winning membership network which is Agri-TechE. With members from across the UK and internationally, Agri-TechE is one of the largest and longest-established agri-tech innovation ecosystems in Europe.

Elizabeth is the Head of Worldwide Business Development for the Agriculture vertical at AWS. She guides strategy for the industry and partners with agriculture customers on transformative initiatives that align digital innovation with their business vision.

Prior to AWS, Elizabeth led Market Development at Indigo Agriculture and Business Development at Farmers Business Network. Her role as a private equity investor with GE Capital and Ziff Brothers Investments involved structuring investments in the energy and agriculture sectors, including the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol industry.

Elizabeth began her career at the Environmental Defense Fund, developing partnerships with market leading corporations, such as McDonald’s and FedEx, to improve environmental and financial performance.

Elizabeth holds a BS in Environmental Science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MBA and MS in Environmental Science from the University of Michigan, and studied international policy and economics at the University of Oxford, UK.

Ian established JoJo’s Vineyard in 2019 and has been developing a ‘Digital Vineyard’, which integrates precision viticulture techniques with the real-world vineyard using RTK level tools and techniques.

Ian has been a precision farming adviser for several years. While based in the UK, he spends significant time across the world, including Australia, South Africa, Canada and Brazil, advising farmers on managing data in precision farming operations. He also managed the AHDB’s Be Precise initiative in the UK, and was awarded an Innovate UK & Defra award for Viticulture 4.0 – The digital vineyard in September 2022.

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.

Marcelo is an experienced researcher in the areas of soil health and climate-smart agriculture and has led a number of research projects developing agricultural digital twins and agri-environmental sensor networks for decision support.

His research combines novel sensors, digital soil mapping, precision agriculture, and Earth Observation to develop mitigation and adaptation strategies in agricultural systems, contributing to Net Zero targets, food security and environmental sustainability.

Marcelo is an Oxford Farming Conference Emerging Leader, and a fellow of the British Society of Soil Science.

Matthew is Head of Planetary Intelligence at new start-up Scientific Technologies. Matthew brings a unique combination of world-leading scientific expertise in ecology, biology and earth system modelling together with extensive commercial technology development experience and commercial business development experience.

He was previously senior scientist in Microsoft’s renowned Computational Science Laboratory before becoming Director of Business Development at Microsoft., and latterly, Chief Product Officer at Agrimetrics. He also spent three years leading conservation projects at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Matthew has a PhD in Mathematical Ecology from Heriot-Watt University.

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.

Peter manages an 840,000 broiler (meat chicken) unit over two sites with 1,500 acres of arable land. He is passionate about sustainability and innovation in the agricultural sector, always striving for new efficiencies in the day-to-day and long-term farming practices.

Uphouse Farm runs a 2.2MWh biomass plant, burning the farm’s own chicken manure to produce sustainable heat for the chicken sheds, supplemented with 600KWh of solar panels.

Peter has a family farm in Norfolk and is an alumnus of the Worshipful Company of Farmers Challenge for Rural Leadership 2022 and a Member of the Institute of Agricultural Management (MIAgrM).

Sarah is an Associate Managing Director of the Soils, Crops and Water business in ADAS. ADAS provides independent applied research along with strategic and policy consultancy, focusing on sustainable food production and the rural environment.

Sarah’s technical expertise focusses on improving performance and reducing pollution of cropping systems for both food and biofuel production through an understanding of crop physiology, plant breeding and agronomy. She has particular interest in crop nutrition, leading recent AHDB funded work to update the Nitrogen recommendations for both winter and spring barley. She is also interested in crop tolerance to pest damage, where physiology can provide a baseline understanding to develop pest thresholds (e.g. pollen beetle in OSR).

Sarah has a broader interest in precision farming technologies including remote sensing and variable rate applications (seed, PGRs, nitrogen). Her involvement in the Yield Enhancement Network, with a focus on Oilseed. The YEN strives promote a “Measure to Manage” approach, where farms are encouraged to gather intelligence about their crops throughout the season, enabling them to understand more about yield limitations.

Tim Mordan is a Deputy Director in Defra’s Agri-Food Chain Directorate. His responsibilities include farming productivity and competitiveness, R&D/innovation/agri-tech, food and farming science, access to labour, AHDB and genetic resources.

This includes the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill that is currently in Parliament. Tim was part of the team that introduced the Food Safety Act, and has worked on various aspects of reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Tina Barsby retired as Director and CEO of NIAB in September 2021, after 15 years of service. Prior to that, for 18 years, she worked for the Limagrain Group. Tina was awarded the OBE in the 2018 New Year’s Honours List for services to agricultural science and biotechnology and awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science by Bangor University in August 2022.

Currently, she is a non-executive Director of Future Biogas, and Scientific and agricultural Advisor to G’s Growers. She also chairs the British Farm Data Council.