Farmers win MP's support in research plea

Farmers have enlisted the support of Staffordshire MP David Kidney in a bid to get more money injected into scientific research.

They are trying to persuade the Government to increase spending in research and development in agricultural science through a new campaign to highlight its importance to the industry.

The National Farmers' Union has launched its Why Science Matters campaign in London with the aid of the Stafford MP, who also represents Penkridge, as it believes now is the time to put production and food security at the top of the political agenda for agricultural research. Farmers and scientists from across Staffordshire, Worcestershire, Warwickshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire are backing the campaign and will be showing science in action on their farms in the weeks ahead.

More than 70 MPs, industry stakeholders and opinion formers attended the launch in the House of Commons on Tuesday and Mr Kidney met NFU president Peter Kendall.

Mr Kidney chaired a breakfast briefing and said afterwards he supported the campaign, which he described as being "timely" given this year's rocketing food prices.

"In this century, we face major challenges in producing more food for more people using less land and without causing further harm to the world's environment," he said.

"We simply must support good science, research and development if we are going to achieve these outcomes."

In the West Midlands the NFU regional office has teamed up with farmers and growers for the campaign as well as scientists at the University of Warwick and at Harper Adams University College in Shropshire.

Mr Kendall called for the Government to shift its policy and priorities to recognise the need of productive and efficient agriculture as an important goal for scientific research and development, and not focus on environmental mitigation as its sole objective.

He said: "We need to embrace science, research and technology more than ever before to help increase production while preserving our environment and dealing with the impacts of climate change."

A report has been published which shows in recent years that there has been a 45 per cent drop in funding for research and development in agriculture.

This has paved the way for redundancies in the science sector, leading to second class facilities for researchers working in highly sensitive areas such as animal disease.

This current underinvestment has resulted in a stagnation of national productivity, currently only one per cent per year.

David Collier, West Midlands NFU director, said: "The Government has a crucial role to play at both a regional, national and global level.

"We are calling for a halt to swingeing cuts of recent years."