Phil Bicknell, chief executive of the UK Agri-Tech Centre, has welcomed the speech from Defra Secretary Steve Reed at the Oxford Farming Conference.
Mr Reed told delegates that ‘agri-tech and precision breeding are very important for the future of the sector’ and would receive the backing of the Labour Government.
He added: “Our intention is to support these schemes because the future of the industry is dependent on getting them right.”
Mr Bicknell said: “It was great to hear him talk about the importance of agri-tech and precision breeding and the complexity and circularity of agricultural production.
“As an evidence-based and science-led organisation, UK Agri-Tech Centre is ideally placed to play a key role given our range of academic expertise and our capabilities which enable on-farm test and trial.”
Mr Reed also announced the imminent launch of ADOPT (Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies), designed to support on-farm trials of systems that will improve profitability, productivity and sustainability.
“ADOPT is so important because unless you can place innovation in the hands of end users, in this case farmers, and accelerate the pace of adoption then we are missing out on the opportunities which are out there,” said Mr Bicknell.
“There are so many great ideas and potential within the agri-tech sphere that it is vital we narrow the gap between research and innovation and farmers themselves.”
Mr Reed also used the conference to announce that secondary legislation would be introduced to Parliament by the end of March this year to ‘unlock new precision breeding technology’, something which again prompted a positive response from the UK Agri-Tech Centre chief executive.
