The new Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) which comes into being today provides a real opportunity for a fresh start in responding to the challenges facing farmers and growers, according to the National Farmers’ Union.
The new AHDB replaces the five existing statutory levy boards, with one statutory board with six sector companies representing potatoes, horticulture, cereals and oilseeds, beef and lamb, pigs and milk.
NFU president Peter Kendall challenged the new board to make a real difference for its farmer and grower levy payers.
“The new AHDB has the opportunity to make a fresh start in responding to the many demands and challenges that lie ahead for farmers and growers in a rapidly changing global market, and it must deliver on that,” he said.
“We have been calling for the board to make sure that the new structure enables continued focus on the needs of the individual sectors, but also drives much better opportunities for synergy and efficiency savings where there is a mutual benefit for levy payers in different sectors.”
Kendall continued: “Each levy body will, of course, have its money ring-fenced, and so the future for each sector will be determined by its own levy body. However, over time, we hope the six sector companies will join up their thinking on issues such as research and development, technological transfer, market intelligence and even on promotion. Such collaborative thinking must not, of course, ever compromise the rights of sectors to manage their own affairs.
“Overall, this is a massive opportunity for the levy bodies to refocus, and provide a really modern and effective service offer to levy payers across the sectors,” he added.
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