Trinity AgTech and the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) have announced a new collaboration to help UK farming meet its full potential. The agreement comes as the industry is set to undergo the biggest change in recent memory.
The two organisations will focus on environmental sustainability and profitability calculations. This will aid farmers who will soon be required to demonstrate these metrics accurately for future public payment schemes and who also want to take advantage of natural capital markets.
Through the collaboration, Trinity AgTech and the AHDB will benefit from skill sharing, technological and scientific expertise, and national inventory data to enable ever-more precise and accurate calculations through advanced software to determine UK environmental evidence. The partnership will also focus on maximising opportunities for knowledge exchange work through the Farm Excellence Platform.
Trinity AgTech will also support the development of AHDB’s Environmental Benchmarking Calculation Engine (EBCE) with Trinity AgTech providing scientific and technological development and testing of the tool.
The EBCE complements the work already achieved by Trinity AgTech after launching their digital assistant, Sandy, in June. Both platforms will help support the efforts of the current and future generations of farmers in meeting the challenges and opportunities regarding net-zero, biodiversity, water protection and profitability.
Trinity AgTech founder and executive chairman, Dr Hosein Khajeh-Hosseiny, said: “There are several valuable advances for the industry that can be made by working collaboratively, and we’re thrilled to be part of AHDB’s new reinvigorated and restructured narrative. It’s an important step towards supporting farmers in achieving the maximum growth of their natural capital and the associated financial gains.
“Sandy’s already scientifically the most precise and easy to use digital assistant for farmers, and it continues to learn from all stakeholders. It’s our hope that through this partnership no stone is left unturned to deliver scientific and technological excellence to support farmers through this evolution.”
Harley Stoddart, AHDB’s senior agri-environment scientist, will be joining Trinity AgTech’s Scientific Board as its 33rd member and said: “I am looking forward to working with Trinity AgTech and believe the collaboration with AHDB will greatly benefit the industry. Our partnership will work to further enhance the science behind the tools and services farmers need to measure and report their sustainability performance. This will empower them to make more informed decisions to meet the challenges and opportunities of delivering reduced emissions, improving biodiversity and increasing profitability.”
Dr Jon Hillier, Trinity AgTech’s managing director of science, is also a senior lecturer at Edinburgh University’s Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security and has worked with AHDB for many years. He said: “The complementary offerings of the two organisations express a genuine and powerful departure from the old way of addressing industry challenges.
“Faced with changes to subsidies and an ever-conscious consumer, farmers are yearning for an integrated, standardised and trusted approach. This partnership of AHDB with Trinity AgTech and its cutting-edge digital platform will provide new opportunities for farmers to meet their goals which may have previously been difficult to obtain.”
Professor Simon Potts, chair of Trinity AgTech’s Scientific Board, said: “This partnership will support farmers to take a holistic approach when benchmarking their environmental credentials. Looking at the relationship between land use, biodiversity and ecosystem services – alongside their profitability – will support them to make better farm management choices, and achieve significantly better financial outcomes as farming enters a new era.”