The prospect of government cuts to rural development agencies (RDAs) and vital research work in horticulture is hanging over the fresh produce sector.
Secretary of state for business Vince Cable has indicated that the RDAs will be replaced by Local Enterprise Partnerships - joint local authority-business bodies to promote local economic development. His department has said detailed proposals “will follow in due course”.
But National Farmers’ Union members are concerned that there could be interruption to valuable ongoing work. Some £600 million of the total Rural Development Programme for England budget is scheduled to be delivered by RDAs between 2007 and 2013. “It is essential that disruption to the rural development programme is minimised,” NFU vice-president Gwyn Jones said. “The NFU is concerned that devolving delivery to local enterprise partnerships would exaggerate the costs and time involved in programme delivery.”
An NFU spokesman also claimed that in discussions with DEFRA it had become clear that Vince Cable’s department BIS was unaware of the role of RDAs in rural development and that NFU involvement had helped clarify this.
The research fraternity is also holding its breath to see what cuts and four years of austerity are likely to mean for its programmes.
Dr Bill Parker, director of horticulture at the Horticultural Development Company, told FPJ: “It is not clear yet how the impending public spending cuts announced by the coalition government are likely to impact on horticultural research.”
And there have been further developments at Warwick HRI, with the publication of Prof Tim Jones’s report on the future of applied crop research at the Wellesbourne site once the rest of HRI’s work becomes part of a new Life Science department at the university in October.
Jones recommends a sustainable applied crop research centre, and recruitment for the eight academic posts and a business manager for the new centre is already underway.
A university spokesman said: “The industry has said it needs a specific industry-facing research centre... if the industry and funders want this, then they will have to make it work.”
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