RASE & Innovation for Agriculture Presentation – AUC Retreat 2023

The Agricultural Universities Council (AUC-UK) is a collaboration of the UK universities with agricultural schools or departments. AUC-UK works together to coordinate our teaching and research, to make the biggest contribution we can to a resilient and sustainable future for agriculture, land management and food systems.

Food, farming and land use need to undergo rapid and sustained change if the world is to address climate, biodiversity and health crises. This transformation requires changes in policy, yet will also rely on the actions of farmers and land managers on the ground. Their knowledge, skills and motivations, and those of their advisors, are crucial to success. This retreat provided an opportunity for educators who lead agriculture degree courses to share resources and inject fresh content into their courses. This retreat was funded by the Aurora Trust and The Mark Leonard Trust.

There has been plenty of good analysis of why agri-food innovation is slow to make progress and often great science is not adopted. Rather than ‘more research’ we need better targeted research. We also need to spend existing money more efficiently and that is the focus of the actions outlined. My plan is informed by over 45 years of being fully immersed in our agricultural community and working at the interface of practical farming, research and government. Rather than another analysis of what is wrong it deliberately aims to focus on actions that I believe will move a great industry full of committed people forward to create a resilient industry that efficiently feeds the growing population and enhances the environment.   This content was originally published on LinkedIn at Action plan to deliver impact from UK agricultural R&D. Please add any comment to that post.