Applied horticultural R&D and its translation into practice is crucial for our industry to keep pace with its competitors on levels of efficiency, to attract customers through innovation, and to deal with the day-to-day challenges from pests, diseases, weeds and climate change.
But over the past 25 years, the UK’s capability and facilities for applied horticultural R&D and extension services have been progressively eroded. This has contributed to a fall in total agricultural productivity that now puts the UK behind many of our competitors in Europe and further afield. The problem is now so significant that I believe it is the biggest supply-side constraint on UK production.
We talk about an ‘R&D pipeline’, where the outputs of blue sky strategic research are translated by the applied research into practical solutions and technology that, following effective extension and knowledge transfer, can be turned into cost-saving benefits for our businesses. In horticulture, this pipeline is leaking badly.
Government spends £400 million each year on agri-food research and the majority of this goes on basic strategic research. But for too long success here has been measured by academic excellence rather than commercial potential, and as a result the benefits flowing out of the business end of the pipeline have been woefully inadequate. It is clear that, as it stands, public sector research funding is not delivering a significant enough return on taxpayer investment.
The problem has been widely recognised by DEFRA ministers, the government’s chief scientific adviser and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Science and Technology in Agriculture, and as a result there have been some welcome positive developments.
While the necessary ‘fix’ to the horticultural R&D pipeline is substantial, we are not necessarily talking about more overall funding. It needs to start with transferring some of the public sector funding from basic to applied research. This will re-establish the consistent funding base necessary to encourage investment in R&D capabilities and facilities. This renewed resource will then be better able to translate the basic science into applied R&D. However, to really demonstrate the return on research funding investment, it is also essential that some of the public sector funding is shifted away from basic research into knowledge transfer and extension services.
I believe the improvements that renewed levels of applied technology, innovation and extension will deliver into growers’ businesses are also needed by government to meet many of its food security and wider objectives. So the problem is widely known and the solution would provide clear benefits for UK horticulture, the taxpayer and government. All we need now is the ‘fix’ and the only body capable of redressing the imbalance and refocusing the priorities is government. -
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