Roger Lane-Nott, the Director General of both the Agricultural Engineers Association [AEA] and the Milking Equipment Association [MEA] has explained that both the AEA and MEA are very disappointed with the Government's 'UK Strategy for Agricultural Technologies' which was launched last week. The fact that Farm Equipment was given, a couple of small paragraphs was verging on insulting to an industry that has a turnover of nearly £4bn in UK and is a fundamental part of agricultural production. There was no sign of any commitment to improving either Farm Equipment strategic pre-competitive R & D or applied research and Milking Equipment was ignored altogether.


The apparent Government obsession with biotechnology and biological research is understandable but there are other key contributing areas in the production of food. Phrases like " the aim is to unlock a new phase of global leadership in agricultural innovation" are wide of the mark and certainly so without Farm Equipment being included.

While the funding going to Norwich Research Park (the John Innes Centre and The Sainsbury Laboratory) and others will be welcomed, there seems to be no place in this strategy for the Farm or Milking Equipment sectors. Indeed the Leadership Council which is supposed to 'conduct the orchestra' to deliver the strategy does not have anyone from the Farm Equipment sector on it and this is despite Ministers being told of this at the Ministerial workshop held earlier in the year.

 
So while there are clearly some good parts of this strategy for some, there is still a long way to go before engineering for agriculture is properly recognised in the UK as a critical component in the challenge to deliver sustainable and affordable food. The AEA and MEA welcomes that the Government is considering establishing a Centre for Agricultural Engineering and we earnestly hope that we will be central in its establishment and operation.  

 
The AEA can only agree with Mark Kibblewhite, President Elect of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers who says, "This is a step in the right direction but the urgent strategic technological challenge is to translate existing and emergent science into practical tools and processes for farmers. This is primarily a task for engineers and technologists. The balance of the strategy appears too weighted to supporting new science rather than its technological translation and this is disappointing. It should be doing even more to increase the opportunities for engineers working outside the agriculture sector to bring their knowledge and skills to engineering for agriculture and bring this strategic sector in to the 'mainstream' of UK engineering, while recognising the distinct and specialist role of the agricultural engineering discipline itself."