UK agri-tech firms were playing a crucial role in the transformation of farming and were an important driver of economic growth, the World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit was told.
With a range of speakers over two days in London (September 31 and October 1), the UK Agri-Tech Centre had a major presence at the event.
The UK Agri-Tech Centre chief executive Phil Bicknell hosted a roundtable looking at agri-tech growth and how the sector could tackle emerging challenges.
With a range of participants around the table, from international agri-tech experts to UK-based SMEs, Mr Bicknell emphasised the important role the UK Agri-Tech Centre had to play in bridging the gap between academic research and on-farm adoption.
This built on positive comments by Government Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs, Daniel Zeichner, who, during a keynote address to the conference, praised the role agri-tech organisations were playing in driving innovation and growth in the wider agriculture sector.
Mr Bicknell said:
“The World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit is an event that brings together Government and industry and has been great to meet colleagues from Innovate UK, Defra and the Department for Business and Trade.
It was important to speak directly to Daniel Zeichner and reinforce the role the UK Agri-Tech Centre is playing in terms of tackling the big issues of food systems resilience and wider agricultural productivity, which ultimately feed into the food security challenge.
Speaking to businesses at the event it was clear that clarity over the regulatory environment is key moving forward. That clarity is so important because it grows business confidence, which ultimately drives investor confidence in the sector.”
And he added that the ambitions of the sector were far reaching.
“We are trying to make sure that more money comes into the sector from private investors. There has been a reliance on grant funding but there is scope to look at how we get more private sector money into this area.” Mr Bicknell said
