Network to ease high-tech transition on farms

Plans are being drawn up for a new service which will aim to give farmers better technical support for adopting the latest technology.

A summit which will bring together regional agricultural societies from across the country is due to be held in February by the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE) to discuss how the new national service will operate.

As an independent network, it would also be used to promote best agricultural practice across the country. The service would consist of centres of excellence in different areas such as soils, dairy, cereals or renewable, in order to help farmers raise the bar through the early adoption of new technology and techniques.

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Project co-ordinator, David Gardner, chief executive officer at RASE, said: “The initiative would address some gaps in providing knowledge to farmers, which has seen the UK fall behind other nations.

“One of the key weaknesses of UK research and development is that it is horribly fragmented. We used to have centres of excellence but now research is scattered across a wide group. None have got enough to make a story out of their research and there is no-one pulling it all together.”

Agricultural societies are perfectly placed to deliver the new service, he said, as they have a strong, wide-reaching network of both showgrounds and people, and are trusted by farmers.

In November, Environment Minister Lord de Mauley met leading figures from the worlds of science, farming and food at the Science Museum, London, to debate how the Government’s £160m investment in a new Agricultural-Technologies strategy should be used to respond to the growing challenges of world food security. If this challenge was to be met, urgent action is needed to develop technologies, he warned.