Speakers at the recent South West AgriTech Showcase said that innovation and optimisation will be key to meeting food production demands.
Baroness Minette Batters provided the keynote speech, saying: “We need a plan, we need to be ambitious, and we need to be absolutely focused on the optimisation of agriculture.
“We need to deliver for food and nature. The private sector is investing in agri-tech, and we are seeing things starting to scale up. But it’s not happening on the ground with food production.”
She added that targets would be needed, as these drive everything. “…we have environmental targets on taking land out of production, for clean air and water – but we still don’t have targets for food.”
Three things will be hugely influential, Baroness Batters said. These are a land use framework, a farming road map and a food strategy. “If all of those can come to life and be made to work, they can deliver. There is a real need to come together and focus on what they are going to look like.”
To help address this, the event brought together a range of agri-tech businesses which aim to optimise food production, from controlled environment agriculture (CEA) to using artificial intelligence for detecting cow lameness.
“The event showcased how innovative technologies can help improve crop yields, resilience, sustainability and overall productivity,” explained Joanna Rufus, chair of South West AgriTech.
“The workshop session held by Satellite Applications Catapult prompted valuable discussion around challenges for those developing agri-tech. This looked at building better relationships between developers and end users, as well as what challenges end users face, the barriers to adoption, and what support could be given to accelerate uptake.
“It’s clear in the third year of the event that the appetite for agri-tech is still growing, and we hope this continues for the future.”