Major report highlights future opportunities in Agriculture

An industry report has today (Monday 17 February) been published by the Food and Drink Sector Council (FDSC) highlighting how a massive step change in productivity growth is the key to unlocking a successful future for UK agriculture. 

Prepared by industry experts on the council’s Agricultural Productivity Working Group (APWG), it highlights the steps that industry and government can take to overcome the productivity challenge that has long faced the British farming industry. 

The APWG is chaired by Peter Kendall. Tom Hind is also a member of the group. A number of AHDB staff have been closely involved in shaping the recommendations. The report identifies five key areas for the industry to address to improve: 

• The need for UK agriculture to become more data driven
• Development of the Evidence for Farming Initiative (EFI) to address fragmentation in knowledge exchange
• Alignment of innovation funding and strategy to the needs of the industry
• Addressing low uptake of agricultural skills and training
• The need for infrastructure and policy to enable productivity gains