UK farming's 'hidden contributions' to society will be celebrated in a ground-breaking piece of research at the Oxford Farming Conference.

The work will look beyond the usual measures, such as GDP, and consider the "full range of economic, environmental and social sources of value farmers contribute to wider society", in the words of OFC chairman, Mike Gooding.

He added: "To date these hidden values have never been accurately quantified. We commissioned this work to move the debate forward, to bring confidence to the industry about just how much it delivers through activities like flood defences, public access to green spaces and clean water, and to better understand what society gets from their connection with farming and the countryside."

The study will be presented at the conference (January 2-4, 2013) and will support the event's overall theme - Confident Farmers - Delivering for Society.  

Organisers are promising a 'series of probing speakers who will challenge delegates to think differently', from the environmental campaigner Mark Lynas to dairy housing pioneer, Yehuda Sprecher and the First Milk chairman Bill Mustoe.

Scientific advances will also be under the microscope, with experts including Maurice Maloney from Rothamsted Research, Nuffield scholar, Jake Freestone and David Gardner, CEO of RASE. Genetics and precision farming are likely to be the leading topics there.

The Oxford Union Debate will see farmer, politician and entrepreneur Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones enter verbal combat with John Cameron, Europe's largest sheep farmer.

They will debate the motion "This house believes economies of scale in agriculture are overstated - size is not important." They will be joined by two finalists from The Young Advocates for Agriculture.