AGRICULTURE
Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to improve knowledge transfer in the agricultural sector; and if she will make a statement.
George Eustace, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for farming, food and marine environment: The Government is investing £90million in Centres for Agricultural Innovation under the Agri-Tech Strategy. One key requirement for the Centres will be that they facilitate knowledge exchange between scientists, farmers, growers and others in the food supply chain. We intend soon to announce a final decision on the first centre which will apply “big data” to farming and develop means of measuring sustainability.
The Rural Development Programme’s Countryside Productivity scheme will provide £141million of support for improvements in farming and forestry productivity; encourage the creation of new farming and forestry enterprises; and facilitate technology transfer within the farming and forestry sectors.
Part of this support will be through farmer-led operational groups under the European Innovation Partnership for Agricultural Productivity and Sustainability. These groups will bring together farmers, advisors, researchers and others to solve issues of common concern and build bridges between research and practice. Grant funding of between £5,000 and £150,000 per project will be available towards the cost of taking an innovative idea from initial research to the market place. A key element is the emphasis on dissemination of results and knowledge transfer.
We will announce details of further support for training and knowledge transfer under the Programme later this year.
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