Three projects are to share £9.13m of government funding for research and development on schemes to boost agricultural productivity, sustainability and climate resilience.
The funding will support projects developing robotic crop harvesting for horticulture, an autonomous system to change cows’ bedding to improve their health, welfare and productivity, and a more environmentally-friendly approach to potato cultivation.
The three projects are being supported through the Large R&D Partnership competition, which is part of the government’s £270 million Farming Innovation Programme, and a second round of the competition is currently open for applications.
This is all part of the government’s commitment to spend around £600 million on grants to provide support for farmers to invest in productivity, animal health and welfare, innovation, research and development over three years. It will be funded from the £2.4 billion annual farming budget, which is being maintained at its current level for the rest of this current Parliament.
Alongside the ongoing roll-out of the Environmental Land Management schemes, the grants will help to deliver long-term sustainable food production and support farmers to halt and reverse the decline of nature as set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan.
Farming Minister Mark Spencer said: “It’s important that we fund projects like these – and those still to come in future rounds – as we support farmers to deliver sustainable food production and protect the environment.
“Innovation, research and development will help keep the sector at the cutting edge of technology as we look into the future.”
