Farmers and growers are being held back from taking up research results quickly enough because of the lack of a properly funded and co-ordinated ‘extension service’, according to a new report launched in the House of Lords at the end of November.
The report, from a working group led by Lord Curry, looks at why the UK is lagging behind other nations in agricultural productivity and innovation and makes recommendations for policies that would help the sector take up R&D more effectively.
It points out that the UK no longer has either a public or privately-funded body responsible for the application of agricultural R&D and that the current agri-tech centres work best in areas that involve farmers and growers buying new equipment, inputs or services – there is no ‘clear champion’ when it comes to adopting changes in growing practices.
The report says tackling food security, net zero and biodiversity through agricultural R&D should be among the ‘public goods’ government makes public funding available for. It recommends the government prioritises funding for agricultural extension and knowledge delivery, including through a network of demonstration farms and ‘what works’ centres.
Lord Curry’s group points to the Netherlands and USA for examples of approaches that work well. Wageningen University in the Netherlands is widely recognised as the ‘front door’ for both research and the advice growers need to translate it into practice; in the USA a system of state-funded universities and regional research stations and extension services are co-ordinated by the US Department of Agriculture.
The UK had a national publicly-funded extension service, with its own network of experimental stations and advisers, from 1946 until the privatisation of ADAS in 1997. The service drew heavily on the results from a network of crop research institutes funded and co-ordinated through an agricultural research council. These included the Glasshouse Crops Research Institute which closed to merge with the National Vegetable Research Station at Wellesbourne 1995 – Wellesbourne is now part of the University of Warwick.
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