The expertise and capabilities of the UK Agri-Tech Centre will play a key role in addressing some of the major challenges of our time, the organisation’s chief executive told delegates at A3 Scotland.
The conference, held in Inverness on September 18-19, featured the UK Agri-Tech Centre’s chief executive Phil Bicknell, who chaired a panel session focused on the agri-tech sector. He stated that the organisation is uniquely positioned to help the sector address the major challenges it faces.
He said:
“I am looking forward to the inroads we can make in terms of the big issues in the industry, such as food security, net zero, sustainability, resilient supply chains, as well as the wider climate change agenda.”
Mr Bicknell echoed one of the defining themes of the conference, with many speakers calling for the gap between academic research and on-farm application to be bridged.
He added:
“Having a mindset of what the problems are that we want to fix is really important. Creating agri-tech solutions that meet the needs of the farming industry is key.”
The biannual event was spearheaded by SRUC, alongside Highlands and Islands Enterprise, and brought together key global players from across the sector.
Dennis Overton, speaking in his capacity as chair of the West Highland-based natural capital business, Ardtornish, said evolving technological capabilities and connectivity were driving the ‘fourth industrial revolution’, and he called for more to be done to disseminate farm-based data throughout the supply chain. He went on to praise the impact the UK Agri-Tech Centre was having.
He said:
“Agri-tech is an enabler of so many different things and the UK Agri-Tech Centre is a great example of something being more than the sum of its parts.”
To have international delegations from Argentina and China at the event has been incredibly positive as we have sought to showcase the access and opportunities that exist here in Scotland, whether it is in our agricultural, agri-tech or aquaculture sectors.”
Martin Sutcliffe, Innovation Lead for Aquaculture at the UK Agri-Tech Centre and a fellow member of the organising committee, said the focus on his sector at the event had been refreshing.
He said:
“It was so encouraging to see aquaculture framed alongside food production, which is often not the case. Seeing it positioned that way and having its wider role acknowledged was great.”
