A new website for Stockbridge Technology Centre (STC) has now gone live, following its launch at last week’s Horticultural Development Company/STC Spring Conference.

The site, www.stockbridgeonline.co.uk, will carry general technical news with some politics, as well as detailed information on specific crops. Being science-biased, it will also cover EU/UK government regulations, along with market information, weather and advertising.

Graham Ward, a director of STC, said: “We have tried to create a website which is interactive with the science and innovation sectors of our industry. It will need a lot of participation to make it useful. We at STC are only facilitators. Our industry is too vast and has lots of niche crops, so any one person or organisation cannot hold all the expertise. We hope this site will become a collaboration of knowledge sharing.”

The site was created by Mark Smith-Hughes and his colleagues at Status Design and Emma Fisk at STC will be the site’s non-technical friendly face.

STC’s Dr Martin McPherson said: “We are all trying to live with an increasing regulatory burden. The 91/414 and other crop protection measures mean we need a quick way of spreading knowledge. However, more important is feedback from the growers of niche crops, so that we are informed of their specific problems at an early stage. Stockbridge online is designed to create this opportunity”.

Sarah Pettitt, chair of the National Farmers’ Union horticulture and potato board, welcomed the new website. She said: “Putting practical and useful information in one place will save me hours of searching the net. This site will help my research, so I can have more time to communicate with the politicians whom the NFU needs to influence to allow our industry to fairly compete in a global marketplace.”