New report launched today by the NFU, Innovate UK and CEIA, reveals the challenges that farmers and growers want researchers to prioritise solving.
9th October 2024
The need for innovation in agriculture has never been more urgent. Our industry is grappling with rapid changes in policy and trade, heightened volatility, and climate and nature crises. Research is vital to help tackle these challenges and find ways to address them, and research providers and funders need to understand the industry’s priorities on the ground.
Artificial intelligence, methane, carbon sequestration, regenerative systems, financing, and antimicrobial resistance are just some of the themes that farmers would like researchers to find answers to according to a new report launched today.
The report - which draws on conversations with almost 100 farmers and growers during a series of workshops - shows that, while some priorities such as soil health and disease control have stayed consistent since the last major review in 2013, a whole wave of new themes has now risen to the fore.
Launched by the NFU, Innovate UK, and CEIA, the Centre for Effective Innovation in Agriculture, the report reveals the challenges that farmers and growers want researchers to prioritise solving.
Participants at the workshops, which were organised over the last year by six farming and research organisations, shared 797 challenges and needs. This is the first time farmers and growers have been invited to help set the research agenda at this scale since the NFU and other partners published Feeding the Future report in 2013.
While the focus of the project was on what to research, farmers were also concerned with how research is done, and particularly, how useful it ends up being in practice. The findings also suggested that farmers and growers have an appetite to be more involved in the development, design and delivery of research.
The report also found that farmer and grower research priorities aligned well with the strategic priorities of funders, particularly around sustainable agricultural systems.
Who's involved?
Organisations held workshops with their network members:
Agricultural Industries Confederation (AIC)
Agri-Tech Centres - CHAP, CIEL and Agri-EPI
Innovation for Agriculture
Innovative Farmers
Landworkers Alliance
National Farmers Union (NFU) and National Farmers Union Cymru
Commissioning Group
Agricultural Universities Council (AUC), The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH), DEFRA, AHDB, LEAF, BBSRC, Soil Association, Nature Friendly Farming Network and Rothamsted Research.
Read the report
Download the report below to read the methodology and full results of the project.
The data
Want to see all the detail? Download the workshop data and thematic analysis in this project. You can also view interactive results charts within Flourish.
Funders
We are grateful to our funders for supporting this project.
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