James Clarke took a nativity theme when speaking this month at the Dow AgroSciences Christmas lunch. He outlined three areas the agriculture industry needs to address to deliver greater sustainability in agriculture in 2012.
Angels – stewardship for sustainable use and availability of PPPs
All those in the Plant Protection Product (PPP), or pesticide, Industry (users, agronomists, manufacturers and regulators) need to behave like angels to steward existing and new active substances. A diversity of products is essential for resistance management and effective use, to meet water protection requirements and to enhance biodiversity. As the Sustainable Use Directive (SUD) and Approvals Regulation (1107/2009) unfold it will be vital to adapt using innovation, latest technology and best practice, as well as ensuring engagement in these initiatives from everyone in all sectors. Effective incentives will ensure uptake of Integrated Pest Management (IPM), thus meeting the SUD requirements. Stewardship and risk management will need to evolve as future demands increase in complexity.
Funding is king – how can we make it more sustainable?
The agriculture industry needs a longer-term and more strategic vision to funding. Consistency of funding and agreeing longer-term objectives is a vital base to build on. Whilst resourcing of new work has to be in line with the current economic climate, it needs to be at a level capable of sustaining organisations to deliver the needs of the sector in the longer term, including succession planning and innovation. Applied science and Knowledge Transfer (KT) is a gap that few funders now fill, with much of the funding coming from BBSRC. Many organisations such as ADAS are not eligible for BBSRC funds but are well placed to deliver KT. Changes to eligibility and encouragement for inclusion of these organisations could significantly improve uptake and impact to address the food security challenge. ADAS is building sensible collaborations with institutes and I hope that the funding approval process recognises and incentivises such interaction.
Shepherds – watch their flock – sustainable skills
To be sustainable we must ensure that funding allows succession planning and provides reward so that such investments can be made. To be successful, this needs to be a partnership between organisations and funders. Through our Graduate scheme ADAS has recruited 25 new graduates in the past 24 months. We are considering recruitment needs for 2012 now. I am therefore very pleased to report some excellent progress and I hope that we can now work with clients and the industry to introduce new skills to the industry. It must be a partnership between funding from clients to ensure that longer-term development of staff is achieved with investment from us to match skills to future needs.
To deliver greater sustainability in agriculture I hope 2012 brings a longer-term view to funding and allows investment for the future – which is after all what sustainability is.
Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2012
For more information please contact James Clarke on 01954 268219 or email james.clarke@adas.co.uk.
Click Here to find out more about the ADAS Graduate Scheme.
The full text of the speech James gave at Dow AgroSciences Christmas lunch is available to download at the end of this article.