In October 2008 the National Farmers Union launched a campaign and accompanying report entitled Why Science Matters for Farming. It sets out the role that scientific research has played and continues to play in improving food productivity and sustainability, with case studies, and highlights why science matters for farming in coming years.
In October 2008 the National Farmers Union launched a campaign and accompanying report entitled Why Science Matters for Farming. It sets out the role that scientific research has played and continues to play in improving food productivity and sustainability, with case studies, and highlights why science matters for farming in coming years. It says however, that ‘, in recent decades investment,of intellectual as well as financial capital, has fallen off, as successive Governments have taken the view that the level and efficiency of UK food production was no longer a prime national concern.
The report argues that: ‘it is time for a genuine policy shift in agricultural science funding away from a sole focus on the environment, and towards recognising that production efficiency is a justified and essential endpoint for scientific research.
The significant decline in funding for UK agricultural R&D in recent decades must be reversed as a matter of urgency. Funding priorities should include proper resources given to applied science and translation to practice on the ground, where there is currently a serious fracture in the pipeline.’
Post a new comment »