The University of Hertfordshire has just won a contract to improve the quality of online information on the Assured Produce Scheme.

The University’s Agriculture & Environment Research Unit (AERU) has been awarded a contract by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to make information relating to the Assured Produce Scheme available online.

The Assured Produce Scheme is an industry-wide initiative (and part of the Red Tractor Assured Food Standards) that addresses all the important issues concerning the production of ‘fresh produce’. It promotes safe and environmentally responsible production of fruit, salads and vegetables through the use of integrated crop management (ICM).

In this three-year project, the AERU team will use its ADLib online library (Agricultural Document Library - www.adlib.ac.uk), which they launched last year, to collate all of the relevant documents about this scheme and make them available to farmers at one site.

Dr Andrew Green, Senior Research Fellow at AERU commented: “Keeping up with developments has always been a big problem for farmers. We are increasingly using our online library to promote Government initiatives and to keep them informed. The Assured Produce Scheme is an opportunity to develop this further.”