In 2007, Dr Dave George earned his PhD from Newcastle University, focusing on trap cropping and companion planting to manage pest insects in brassica crops. Following that, he pursued a career in academic research, serving as a lead researcher/Research Fellow. In this role, he concentrated on projects aimed at discovering biopesticides and biological controls for veterinary pest management at Newcastle University.
Dr Dave George, Reader in Precision Agronomy at Newcastle University said:
“We need to continue bringing together and increasing communication between academia and the wider sector.
I grew up in Norfolk, a rural area where farmers were supported to set aside land to benefit biodiversity. My interest in entomology started quite early, and over my career I’ve gained expertise in applied ecology, biocontrol of pests, and precision agriculture with habitat in mind – culminating in my current interest in ‘sustainable intensification’ approaches to food production systems.
At Newcastle University, we are proud to host some of the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s precision machinery, which enables us to trial and test regenerative farming techniques, precision application and strip-tillage approaches. This machinery has been hugely beneficial for our research and project proposals, as we can demonstrate how it can help farmers improve crop and soil health.
There is some really exciting fundamental science that we can integrate into a whole systems approach to benefit a wide range of farming systems and soil types. By testing and demonstrating, we can accelerate the development of practical solutions for farmers and end-users alike, overcoming the ‘valley of death’ and bringing solutions to the marketplace.
The UK Agri-Tech Centre is good at identifying key challenges within the sector. It brings together a consortia of researchers, farmers, agronomists, industry representatives and SMEs that can apply for funding with high-quality bids to demonstrate innovation and progress through technology readiness levels.
Agriculture is not just food production. We are moving to a future where the preservation of natural capital is just as important as producing nutritious food from our farming systems. With a background in applied ecology and as an entomologist, I’m particularly excited to see the development of Sustainable Farming Initiatives (SFIs). However, farmers will need to diversify their methods of production and there are challenges that we need to tackle.
Inter-cropping, companion cropping, and trap cropping are all great examples of potential diversification in a farmer’s toolbox, which I explored in my early research. This isn’t necessarily anything new and we’ve used these methods before in agriculture, but farmers lacked the incentive to use them. However, recently I’ve seen an uptick in interest, and these methods are being backed by policy to support farmers engaging in these methods.
There are really exciting things happening at the moment. At the School of Computing, we’re exploring the use of AI and machine learning to gather on-field information, including real-time sensing of soils. This wealth of information is where it gets exciting. By layering this data into our whole systems approach we can create data-rich landscapes that can inform and optimise the balance between nutrition and natural capital outputs. In addition, there have been significant advances in the application of molecular biology to farming, which can be leveraged for early-stage detection of crop disease or biodiversity monitoring.
Farmers are innovative and often ahead of the curve, which means that for solutions to be universally effective, we need networks that can demonstrate solutions across different geographic and climatic contexts. Alongside the UK Agri-Tech Centre, we need to continue bringing together academia and the wider sector to increase communication and collaboration.“
These views are of Dr Dave George, not of the UK Agri-Tech Centre