Agricultural production is stalling and the current farming model may be unsustainable but there is potential to make a radical improvement. Agri-Tech East’s members have identified a number of levers where productivity, sustainability and profitability can be increased and presented this in a report “From Grass Roots to Blue Skies: a vision for agri-tech” at the House of Lords.
Dr Belinda Clarke, Director of Agri-Tech East, says: “Over the last 30 years technology has allowed us to do more with fewer people but there have been few incentives to increase output.
“Now there is a huge opportunity to look at production and land management from a different perspective and introduce new business models and technologies that will improve productivity in a sustainable way.
“We are concentrating on what works well, perhaps in other industry sectors or geographies, and seeing how it can be applied by some of the UK’s most skilled farmers.
“Good science is vital to understand the big questions. Innovation is needed to solve today’s challenges and this can come from unexpected places.”
Read the report: “From Grass Roots to Blue Skies: a vision for agri-tech”.
Source: Seed Quest
