Government and Industry Fund Agricultural Innovation
22 October 2014 
Government and industry are handing out $8.07 million (£5 million) to help businesses and universities across the UK to seek innovative solutions to some of the agricultural challenges such as food security, sustainability and weed control.
This $8 million is part of the second round of funding to be distributed through the $113 million (£70 million) Agri-Tech Catalyst, announced as part of the UK Industrial Strategy for Agricultural Technologies in July 2013, according to a release from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills and other UK agencies.
The Agri-Tech Catalyst is designed to support collaborative research between scientists and businesses to springboard projects from the lab to the market place. Innovations in this round include an autonomous robot weed sprayer for difficult terrain farm land and developing a cereal to create improved bread products for diabetics.
The announcement comes a day after a report commissioned by the National Farmers’ Union (NFU), the Crop Protection Association (CPA) and the Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC) suggested that EU plans to restrict the use of 40 chemicals by 2020 could lead to significant reductions in yields of common crops.
“Investing in agricultural technology today will bring commercial rewards tomorrow, taking the critical steps from lab to market place. It’s all part of the government’s long term economic plan to create more jobs and promote growth through industrial strategy,” said Universities, Science and Cities Minister Greg Clark.
The 13 projects, which fall into two key areas of the agriculture sector – crops and livestock, will receive $6.46 million (£4 million) funding from government and $2.1 million (£1.3) million co-investment from industry. This follows the round 1 investment of $6.46 million (£4 million) in March 2014 and $29 million (£18 million) in July 2014, according to the release.
“Investing in exciting technology in UK food and farming helps us grow this vital industry – from field to fork the food chain contributes $156.7 billion (£97 billion) to our economy and employs 1 in 8 people,” said Lord de Mauley, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for natural environment and science.
Some of these projects include:
- exploring pearl millet variation to produce improved bread products for diabetics
- developing rice resistance to 2 major diseases to support food security in Asia
- autonomous systems for remotely monitoring an invasive fruit pest
- developing a robotic weed sprayer for difficult terrain farm land
- decreasing food waste through the control of fruit flies in Asia and Africa
- exploring the use of genome-screening and other technology to reduce the mastitis disease in sheep
Read the full release from the UK Department for Business, Innovation & Skills.
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